Who's leading South Carolina's locker room amid tumultuous season?

South Carolina entered the 2025 season ranked No. 11 in the season with a quarterback many considered a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate. Heading into Week 2, the Gamecocks were up to No. 10 in the Associated Press top 25 and the USA Today coaches poll. By Week 3, they entered their first SEC game at 2-0, ranked No. 11.

Then, South Carolina lost in blowout fashion to an then-unranked Vanderbilt. The loss only spiraled the Gamecocks from there. Since dropping its first game of the season, South Carolina has free-fallen out of the top 25 and lost four of its last five games.

Facing scrutiny from the outside, many have needed to step up inside to keep the Gamecock locker room in order.

“I think guys are continuing to develop,” head coach Shane Beamer said on his team’s leadership during his Sunday teleconference. “I mean, we brought back some of our, you know, ‘top leaders’ from last year, and then you see more and more guys developing.”

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Beamer pointed to the team’s pre-fourth-quarter talk at the 50-yard line. He also mentioned defensive back Jalon Kilgore giving a speech the night before the game.

“He spoke on Friday night at our hotel and at the hotel and Saturday, yesterday, on the 50-yard line at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he spoke,” Beamer said.

Quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive back DQ Smith were also asked on Saturday about who’s been the most vocal. Offensively, Sellers pointed to backup quarterback Luke Doty, Cason Henry, and Oscar Adaway III. Defensively, Smith pointed to himself, Shawn Murphy, and Nick Barrett.

However, both starters are leaders themselves on their respective sides of the ball. Smith’s message to the team at this point is not to focus on the past.

“We’re having a tough stretch right now, but we’ll get over it,” Smith said on Saturday. “We’ll get back to work tomorrow. But just, really forgetting about everything in the past and just bringing the young guys, the team back together and realizing, like, we have a lot of talent.”

Sellers knows all it takes to get back on track is a win.

“All it takes is one. Last year, the Oklahoma game was the game for us that sprung us on that run. All it takes is one,” Sellers said.

Though it’s an old analogy, Beamer believes it’s true that your actions speak louder than your words.

“There’s a lot of guys whose actions are people that, hey, they’re setting the example of, we need to follow you,” Beamer said.

However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t proud of his more vocally-led leaders, too.

“Proud of those guys, and it’s important to them, and they hurt, and they want to get it right,” Beamer said. “I see those guys doing those things that they need to do to try and help us get it right.”

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