{"id":6811,"date":"2025-01-22T16:52:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/22\/south-carolina-finishes-in-top-25\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T16:52:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:52:18","slug":"south-carolina-finishes-in-top-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/22\/south-carolina-finishes-in-top-25\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina finishes in Top 25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>From University of South Carolina Athletics<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The South Carolina Gamecocks finished the 2024 season as the 19th-ranked college football team in the country, according to both the Associated Press and the Coaches, as the final polls were released today.<\/p>\n<p>The Gamecocks finished the 2024 campaign with a 9-4 record overall and a 5-3 mark in the Southeastern Conference. It was their most successful season to date under fourth-year head coach Shane Beamer.<\/p>\n<p>It marked the second time in the past three seasons that the Gamecocks finished in the nation&rsquo;s top 25 (also No. 23 in 2022) and was their highest final ranking since the 2013 season when they were ranked fourth in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The Gamecocks posted nine regular season wins for just the fifth time in school history in 2024. They recorded a school-record four wins against ranked opponents, including three in consecutive weeks as part of a regular-season ending six-game winning streak that also included a road win at ACC Champion Clemson.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Beamer was recognized as the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Week for the third time in his career following the Gamecocks&rsquo; upset win over Texas A&amp;M. He was named the SEC Coach of the Year by the AP, USA TODAY and College Football Nation. Beamer was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson, the Bobby Dodd and the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Year honors and was a semifinalist for the George Munger Coach of the Year. With a 29-22 record, he owns the most wins by a South Carolina head coach in his first four seasons at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>Individually, Edge rusher Kyle Kennard was the school&rsquo;s first Bronko Nagurski Award winner as the nation&rsquo;s top defensive player and was the SEC&rsquo;s Defensive Player of the Year. Kennard, along with safety and Irmo High School graduate Nick Emmanwori, earned first-team All-America honors, while punter Kai Kroeger was a second-team selection.<\/p>\n<p>Quarterback LaNorris Sellers was selected as the SEC&rsquo;s Freshman of the Year. Sellers, offensive tackle Josiah Thompson and Edge rusher Dylan Stewart earned Freshman All-America honors, giving the Gamecocks six All-Americans as selected by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), the most of any FBS school in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The Gamecocks, who will be led by Sellers, an early Heisman Trophy candidate, figure to be a preseason top 25 team heading into the 2025 season. They will open the 2025 slate in Atlanta&rsquo;s Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Virginia Tech on Sunday, Aug. 31.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From University of South Carolina Athletics The South Carolina Gamecocks finished the 2024 season as the 19th-ranked college football team in the country, according to both the Associated Press and the Coaches, as the final polls were released today. The Gamecocks finished the 2024 campaign with a 9-4 record overall<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/22\/south-carolina-finishes-in-top-25\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52],"tags":[1004,674],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-college-football","tag-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Gamecock-Football-19th_2025_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}