The Verdict: Going farther in 2025 starts with taking care of business in Atlanta

The last time I wrote to y’all, LaNorris Sellers had just scampered, eluded, and bulldozed his way through the heart of Clemson’s defense. I think that crowd up in Pickens County has already forgotten that we bested them in Death Valley last season. Most of the country has forgotten, too. Clemson is the preseason fourth ranked team in the poll done up by the Associated Press. Carolina is 13^th. A poetically fitting ranking after we were wrongly left on the outside looking in of the 2024 12-team playoff. 

Virginia Tech also found themselves on the outside of last season’s 12-team playoff, but they couldn’t see in even if they were standing on their toes and using a telescope. The 2024 Hokies had a couple of blowout in-conference home wins and a first half against the aforementioned Clemson Tigers and that was it. They lost to Vanderbilt. They lost to Rutgers. They lost to Miami. They lost to Syracuse. They lose to Clemson. They lost to Duke. 

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They lost all those games by ten points or less. In fact, they lost all those games besides the Clemson game (last time I am mentioning them) by a single possession. A couple were in overtime. A couple of them they should have won. 

2025 Virginia Tech may not be the late 90s-2000s Virginia Tech that made Frank Beamer a household name, but y’all, this isn’t 2022 Georgia State. This isn’t 2024 Old Dominion. This is more like 2023 North Carolina. 

The Hokies have a quarterback. They have some ball players littered throughout its roster. They have some guys we wanted on our team. And at the end of the day, they are exactly the type of team that could come into a neutral site game and whip the Gamecocks quick, fast, and in a hurry. 

Last season, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama around noon central time on Saturday October 12^th, something snapped inside the collective heart and soul of this Carolina program. It snapped in a good way. Down 14-0 against the Crimson Tide, Carolina fought and clawed its way back and almost won that football game. The Gamecocks then whipped Oklahoma. We whipped A&M. We whipped Vandy. We went on a six-game run to finish the season. We were the hottest team in the country. We were hungry. We were intense. We were the hunters. 

After a long offseason of LaNorris Sellers and Dylan Stewart and Jalon Kilgore being told how good they are, is that same hunger and intensity still there? Because if it is, we can beat Virginia Tech soundly. Carolina has better players than Virginia Tech. Carolina is a better football team than Virginia Tech. But none of that matters if the mantra “take things farther in 2025” is all talk. 

If Carolina is to take things farther in 2025, then Coach Beamer will have been right that there is not a ceiling on this program. I believe him. That’s why I wanted him to be our head football coach back in 2020. This man believes whole-heartedly he can get this program to heights it has never seen before. He believes with every fiber of his being that Carolina can win a National Title. His players believe he is right. Recruits believe he is right. Forget about the critics, forget about the national media, forget about the rival fanbases. The people that believe in this program are in this program. 

But if Carolina is to take things farther in 2025, we also need to make sure the floor has risen, as well. It’s great to not have a ceiling or a limit on this program, but none of that matters if the floor falls out from under us. In 2024, Carolina turned a corner as a program. This is now a program that can compete every single week in the premier conference in all of college football. This is now a program that can beat four ranked opponents in five weeks. This is now a program that can recruit and attract and coach up some of the best and fastest defenders in the country. This is now a program that can consistently have a big-time, dynamic playmaker at the quarterback position. This is now a program that can make the College Football Playoff. 

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Is this now a program that can come out week one and dominate its opponent? That is yet to be seen. The past three seasons, Carolina has looked sloppy coming out of the gate. It took some special teams’ touchdowns to beat Georgia State in 2022. In 2024, it took a strip sack by Dylan Stewart for the Gamecocks to slip by Old Dominion. Neither of those things happened in 2023 and as a result Carolina was destroyed by the Tar Heels. 

Week one mistakes happen, and at the end of the day against a Power Four opponent all that really matters is a Carolina victory. A win over Virginia Tech, regardless of how sloppy, should be celebrated. We can worry about style points and margin of victory later in the season should those things matter. None of it will matter if we lose. 

But dadgumit, wouldn’t it be awesome to watch the Gamecocks come out and play at a high level? Wouldn’t it be fun to witness Carolina come out of the gates swinging and firing on all cylinders? We have not done that against a FBS opponent during Beamer’s tenure. Maybe the first piece of evidence that this team and program is ready to go farther in 2025 will be a convincing win in Atlanta. 

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