Shane Beamer expects another slugfest for South Carolina against Kentucky

South Carolina continues conference play as another former SEC East foe and future permanent conference opponent in 2025 comes to town. The Kentucky Wildcats come to Columbia at 2-1, staring a three-game losing streak to the Gamecocks in the face.

Head coach Shane Beamer expects a slugfest when the Gamecocks kick off in front of a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium against the Wildcats.

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Beamer isn’t wrong to expect that, either. In six of the last ten matchups between the Gamecocks and Wildcats, the winning team has scored no more than 24 points. The only outlier of a team scoring more than three touchdowns came during the 2020 matchup under interim head coach Mike Bobo.

“That game last year was 10-6 midway through the third quarter. People forget that,” Beamer said. “I mean, that’s always a slug fest, and going back looking at this game, take COVID out of it, but from 2016 on, the winning team has never scored more than 24 offensive points.”

South Carolina defeated Kentucky 31-6 a season ago in Lexington, KY; however, only 24 points came on offense. A Nick Emmanwori pick-six in the fourth quarter pushed the Gamecock total to 31.

Sports betting sites like FanDuel Sportsbook and DraftKings Sportsbook also expect a low-scoring affair on Saturday night. As of Sept. 24, the over/under for Saturday’s game sits at 46.5 with the Gamecocks as a 6.5-point favorite. The number lines up with the 24-point threshold offenses between these two teams have struggled to cross in the series.

Now, just because winning offenses haven’t done it in recent history, it doesn’t mean Beamer wants to settle for 24 points.

 “I hope we score more than 24 on Saturday night,” Beamer said. “That would be awesome.”

The Gamecocks will have to overcome a difficult start offensively to the 2025 season to reach that, however. South Carolina’s offense under Mike Shula has scored no more than two touchdowns in a game this season. South Carolina must also come prepared mentally and physically, Beamer said.

“We’ve got to get a lot better ourselves, without a doubt. Got off to a great start, really, on Sunday when we came back,” Beamer said. “Love coaching this group. We know we have a lot of work to do, though, it’s not good enough. No one’s happy about being 2-2.”

South Carolina and Kentucky will kick off on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. on SEC Network.

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