South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer met with the media following Saturday’s 28-14 loss to Clemson at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.

Beamer lamented a number of things from the game – including his team’s woes on third and fourth downs, as well as the four turnovers committed by South Carolina – and called it an “extremely disappointing finish to an extremely disappointing season” for the Gamecocks (4-8, 1-7 SEC).

“Congratulations to Clemson,” Beamer said. “They obviously played and coached better than we did, made the plays when they needed to make them. When you’re 2-of-14 — I think, at one point, we were 0-for-10 on third and fourth downs — it’s going to be hard to win. Certainly, not being better there was a factor. When you lose the turnover battle, whatever it was — I think 4-1 — you’re not going to win football games, when you turn the ball over as many times as we did today.

“Proud of our guys and the way they competed and battled. Hurt for that locker room. It’s an emotional locker room, as you can imagine, saying goodbye to the seniors on this team. Want to thank the fans for what they did today to sell out every home game this season. Don’t take that for granted. We got the greatest fans in America, and they showed that again today. So, grateful for them, and really, really sorry to them that we didn’t finish better. Extremely disappointing finish to an extremely disappointing season.”

Beamer called the weekly rigors of SEC play an “absolute war” – and believes the talent level Clemson (7-5, 4-4 ACC) possesses is similar to an SEC roster.

“I would hope that our team would understand that, every week in this league, it is an absolute war,” he said. “And when you play a team like that today, it is an absolute war, because that’s an SEC roster with the talent they have. It’s why they’ve got multiple first-round draft picks on that defense. Cade [Klubnik]‘s a warrior and a great young man and great player. They’ve got great players, and this ain’t high school, where you can just roll the ball out sometimes and be better than the other team. In this league, in the SEC, every week is a war.”

Last year, South Carolina went on the road and beat Clemson, 17-14, to improve to 9-3 and finish the 2024 regular season on a six-game winning streak. The Gamecocks were ranked No. 15 in the College Football Playoff rankings and were very much a part of the playoff conversation, though they were ultimately left out of the playoff field.

Despite the outcome of Saturday’s game against Clemson, South Carolina’s overall results this season and not being bowl eligible, Beamer thinks his program is “freaking close” to “being where we want to be.”

“I do know this, there’s a lot of guys in that locker room that are hurt and don’t want to feel this feeling again — and, also, understand how freaking close we are to being where we want to be,” Beamer said. “We were sitting here at this time last year feeling a whole lot different after this game, in the middle of a six-game winning streak, and thinking we were going to the College Football Playoff. We’re not there right now, but there’s a very motivated group of guys in that locker room that are excited about what’s next. I do know that.”

Beamer added that he’s “extremely invigorated and excited about 2026,” citing the potential of returning players and a strong recruiting class that he views as a “top-10 class” based on average star rating.

Beamer thinks the Gamecocks will bounce back to being firmly in the mix for a College Football Playoff berth this time next year.

“Certainly, I don’t think any of us played our best this season, when you finish with the record we just finished with,” he said. “We had a lot of guys that did some really, really good things this season, and a lot of plays and moments that we need to be better at. And that’s all of us — me, every coach and staff member in here and every player. But, again, we’re gonna get it right.

“Disappointing way to finish a disappointing season, to say the least. But could not be more excited about what’s next as we move forward with, like I said, the signing class we’re signing on Wednesday, the players that are returning and how we’re going to make this team better. Because there’s a lot of teams that are sitting there right now, getting ready to punch their berth to the College Football Playoff, that were feeling like crap last year at this time. You saw the difference from one year to the next. And fully confident that we’re going to be one of those teams next year.”

Beamer says he is “sick as heck” about the feeling of the losing season and is responsible for getting it fixed “so we’re never feeling this feeling again.”

“I hate that we’ve gone through this,” he said. “I hate it for the seniors that don’t come back. But I can one billion percent promise you this — when we have a hell of a season in 2026, and when I’m doing this press conference after the Clemson game next year, and we finished the regular season, that, because of the success that we’re going to have next season — I know we will — we’re going to look back at this season and say, ‘It sucked going through it. But because of what we went through in ’25, it led us to what we just did in ’26.’ A million percent confident in that.”