Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football team is 7-3 (and 5-3 in conference play). The Gamecocks have won four games in a row and have finished their SEC slate with a winning record for the first time since 2017.

Carolina’s most recent win—a wild ride that concluded with a Rocket Sanders touchdown and subsequent celebration that registered as an earthquake on seismographs—saw the Gamecocks finally defeat the Missouri Tigers after losing five straight Mayor’s Cup games in a row.

Thanks to the win streak, including three straight ranked wins, the national perception around South Carolina is improving.

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ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura released their updated bowl season projections on Sunday. Like last week, both analysts picked the Reliquest Bowl (formerly called the Outback Bowl) as the Gamecocks’ winter destination. However, the colleagues traded their predicted USC opponents. Previously, Schlabach thought the Gamecocks would play Illinois, while Bonagura foresaw a meeting with the Iowa Hawkeyes. In this week’s update, Schlabach went with Iowa, while Bonagura picked Illinois. South Carolina and Illinois have never played, but the Gamecocks have played Iowa once previously.

CBS analyst Jerry Palm, who was late to acknowledge South Carolina as a bowl team, now projects USC to play against the Louisville Cardinals in the Gator Bowl. Carolina’s most recent trip to the Gator Bowl came in a 2022 loss to Notre Dame. The Gamecocks also fell three times in the Gator Bowl in the 1980s. Despite being old Metro Conference rivals in basketball, South Carolina and Louisville have never met on the gridiron.

Steve Lassan of The Athletic projected the Gamecocks to the Reliquest Bowl. The Tampa-based postseason contest has hosted USC five times previously. In Lassan’s view, the 2024 South Carolina football squad will match up with the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Reliaquest Bowl. Though Carolina is 4-1 in previous Reliaquest/Outback Bowls, the program’s one loss in the game came to Iowa. The loss following the 2008 season was the only time the Gamecocks and Hawkeyes have played.

Brett McMurphy of the Action Network also thinks South Carolina will end up in Tampa playing the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Reliaquest Bowl.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Wofford football game]

Now with seven wins and likely at least one more remaining, South Carolina football fans expect their favorite team to play in a nice bowl. In fact, if a lot of things break the Gamecocks’ way, the College Football Playoff could come calling. The chances are small, but following the team’s recent strong play, those chances are improving.

Next up for South Carolina is an in-state battle against the FCS Wofford Terriers. The Terriers will make the drive down I-26 to Columbia for a 4:00 p.m. kickoff. ESPN+ and SEC Network+ will stream the game as it is not available on traditional television.

The Missouri Tigers some of their best football of the 2024 season in the second half against South Carolina. Ultimately, the 24 points in the final two quarters was not enough to come out on top.

Here’s the full snap counts for Missouri in its third loss of the season, followed by a full season tracker, retrived from Pro Football Focus.

Offense

RT Armand Membou, 70, 100%
C Drake Heismeyer, 70, 100%
QB Brady Cook, 70, 100%
LT Marcus Bryant, 70, 100%
RG Cam’Ron Johnson, 70, 100%
WR Theo Wease Jr., 67, 96%
LG Cayden Green, 63, 90%
WR Luther Burden III, 57, 81%
TE Jordon Harris, 47, 67%
HB Jamal Roberts, 43, 61%
WR Marquis Johnson, 40, 57%
TE Brett Norfleet, 28, 40%
WR Mekhi Miller, 26, 37%
HB Marcus Carroll, 15, 21%
LG Mitchell Walters, 12, 17%
HB Nate Noel, 8, 11%
WR Daniel Blood, 5, 7%
HB Tavorus Jones, 4, 6%
WR Joshua Manning, 3, 4%
LT Tristan Wilson, 1, 1%
TE Tyler Stephens, 1, 1%

• Redshirt freshman Jamal Roberts played noticably more than Marcus Carroll for the second week i na row.

Defense

CB Dreydon Norwood, 68, 100%
DB Daylan Carnell, 67, 99%
FS Joseph Charleston, 67, 99%
DE Johnny Walker Jr., 59, 87%
LB Corey Flagg, 56, 81%
DB Nicholas Deloach Jr., 51, 74%
LB Triston Newson, 50, 72%
DE Zion Young, 45, 65%
DL Kristian Williams, 44, 64%
DL Chris McClellan, 43, 62%
DB Marvin Burks Jr., 33, 48%
CB Toriano Pride Jr., 28, 41%
DB Caleb Flagg, 27, 39%
DT Sterling Webb, 26, 38%
LB Chuck Hicks, 18, 26%
DE Eddie Kelly Jr., 13, 19%
DB Sidney Williams, 11, 16%
DL Jahkai Lang, 10, 14%
DL Jalen Marshall, 9, 13%
NT Marquis Gracial, 9, 13%
DB Tre’Vez Johnson, 9, 13%
DL Jaylen Brown, 6, 9%
LB Nicholas Rodriguez, 5, 7%
DE Williams Nwaneri, 5, 7%

• Nicholas Deloach Jr. continues to hold a more prominent role than Clemosn transfer Toriano Pride Jr.

Offense

LT Marcus Bryant, 685, 100%
RT Armand Membou, 677, 99%
RG Cam’Ron Johnson, 600, 88%
LG Cayden Green, 594, 87%
C Connor Tollison, 582, 85%
QB Brady Cook, 523, 76%
WR Theo Wease Jr., 521, 76%
WR Luther Burden III, 454, 66%
WR Mookie Cooper, 328, 48%
TE Brett Norfleet, 306, 45%
WR Mekhi Miller, 287, 42%
HB Nate Noel, 286, 42%
WR Joshua Manning, 280, 41%
TE Jordon Harris, 274, 40%
G Mitchell Walters, 256, 38%
HB Marcus Carroll, 218, 32%
QB Drew Pyne, 217, 32%
WR Marquis Johnson, 190, 28%
HB Jamal Roberts, 173, 25%
C Drake Heismeyer, 153, 22%
TE Tyler Stephens, 125, 18%
WR Daniel Blood, 114, 17%
T Jayven Richardson, 57, 8%
G Logan Reichert, 56, 8%
G Tristan Wilson, 49, 7%
HB Kewan Lacy, 42, 6%
G Curtis Peagler, 26, 4%
HB Tavorus Jones, 24, 3%
TE Jude James, 21, 3%
WR James Madison II, 13, 2%
WR Courtney Crutchfield, 10, 1%
WR Logan Muckey, 8, 1%
C Talan Chandler, 7, 1%
TE Whit Hafer, 3, 0%
QB JR Blood, 2, 0%