South Carolina falls 29-20 to No. 23 Missouri for second straight SEC loss

South Carolina continued conference play in its first road trip of the 2025 season to Columbia, Missouri, to face the Missouri Tigers.

Despite keeping the game close throughout, poor running and another week full of missed tackles led to the 29-20 loss.

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“Just told them in the locker room, when you get outrushed 285 to -9, you’re not gonna win,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “When you’re in the redzone like we were and went backwards, it’s going to be hard to when. When you have 14 penalties, it’s going to be hard to win.”

Defenses controlled the game’s opening quarter as neither team found the endzone before the quarter break. However, each team still had starkly different quarters offensively.

While the Tigers racked up 116 yards of offense in the first quarter, the Gamecocks could only grab a meager 27 yards. South Carolina also recorded negative rushing yards in the opening quarter and averaged less than three yards per play.

When play resumed after the quarter break, the Tigers quickly found the endzone as an eight-yard pass from Beau Pribula to Joshua Manning opened the scoring in Saturday’s contest. However, Missouri kicker Robert Meyer missed the extra point, leaving the score at 6-0.

It didn’t take long for the Gamecocks to answer the Missouri score, something South Carolina’s been looking for all season. A free play turned into a touchdown play as LaNorris Sellers connected with Vanderevius Jacobs for a 49-yard score to give the Gamecocks their first lead.

Penalties and an inability to stop the Tigers on third down plagued the Gamecocks in the opening half. In the first 30 minutes, South Carolina allowed Missouri to convert six times on third down. The Gamecocks also racked up seven penalties for 43 yards throughout the half.

Penalty issues continued to pester South Carolina the remainder of the night, finishing with 14 for 98 yards.

It’s hard to say if the amount of penalties can be chalked up to one bad night, Beamer said.

“It’s hard to say it’s one bad night when we have the amount of presnap penalties that we had,” Beamer said. “And it’s not just the offense. It was the special teams not snapping the ball, kicking the ball out of bounds. When you have 14 penalties on the road, something’s got to change, starting with me.”

As more penalties and a punt late in the half seemed to put all the momentum on the Tigers’ sideline, Gerald Kilgore flipped it back to the Gamecocks as he forced Pribula’s second interception of the season.

The Gamecocks made quick work of capitalizing on the acrobatic grab from Kilgore. South Carolina drove down the field in just four plays as Sellers carved the Tigers’ defense through the air before delivering Brian Rowe Jr his first career touchdown with South Carolina. Missouri was able to sandwich two field goals between the South Carolina touchdown, closing the half at 14-12.

“I told them at halftime, you’re on the road in the SEC, we’ve not played good enough football at the half, but we’re right where we need to be,” Beamer said. ” … And we started the second half the way we needed to, and we didn’t finish. It’s sickening, you look at the second-to-last drive on offense, it was three plays and there’s opportunities there to make plays.”

It’s frustrating to have a chance to win despite the many mistakes, Vandrevius Jacobs said. Despite racking up 128 receiving yards in the loss, the senior was hard on himself for a mistake late.

“Me and the quarterback weren’t on the same page,” Jacobs said of a drop late in the fourth quarter. “It’s really on me, I’ve got to do better, get off my break and just make a play for the quarterback. It was a good throw.”

As South Carolina struggled to run the ball themselves, Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy continued his dominance in the run game, picking up his sixth straight game of 100 or more yards. The nation’s top back picked up the first touchdown of the second half to give Missouri the lead back, 18-17.

Hardy finished Saturday’s game with 138 rushing yards, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.

“It’s really disappointing, I mean, we said it all week, you got to get 11 hats to the ball on this guy,” Beamer said. ” … Give them credit, when you run for 285, you run for 285. But a lot of those are because of missed tackles or losing leverage … all 11 got to get there.”

While Hardy dominated on the ground, the Gamecocks found themselves in the negatives in the run game throughout the night. Entering the game’s final quarter, the Gamecocks totaled -10 rushing yards.

South Carolina finished the game with -9 rushing yards. The Gamecocks’ leading rushers on Saturday were Oscar Adaway III and Matthew Fuller, who each had seven yards.

When you rush that poorly, it’s not a simple fix. Beamer said he’ll have to look at the tape to provide answers to the issues.

Despite four games of issues, Sellers thinks his guys can figure it out.

“Last year, pretty much in the same situation. Started off slow, got it rolling a little later in the year,” Sellers said. “But, I mean, including with me, we can all get better. But I’m sure we can get it rolling (and) figure it out.”

In Beamer’s three trips to Columbia, Missouri, as the Gamecocks head coach, South Carolina has given up an average of 252.6 rushing yards.

Two field goals by William Joyce in the third kept the Gamecocks in front entering the fourth quarter. However, the Tigers pounced, driving down the field to take a 26-20 lead early in the quarter.

South Carolina had multiple opportunities to answer, but couldn’t move the ball. A 40-yard field goal by Meyer with just over 90 seconds to go sealed the Tigers’ win.

When you’re on the road in the SEC, you have to make plays, Beamer said. The team didn’t make enough plays on Saturday night.

“We had the lead going into the fourth quarter. We weren’t able to finish,” Beamer said. ” … Not enough good to win the game.”

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