When Shane Beamer was hired, he sat down and met with one specific group on the football team.

Newly-hired, he spoke with the team’s super seniors—a group of older players coming back for one more ride with the team—and told them simply the goal was to try and win now and “it’s not fair to you guys to not.”

Saturday, as the seconds ticked down and the Gamecocks celebrated their first bowl bid in three years—a milestone in year one under Beamer—it was one of those super seniors, Aaron Sterling, helping douse him in Gatorade.

“It was pretty special,” Beamer said, his hat still stained with the aftermath of the green bath. “We use the word love a lot and told each other we love each other and how happy I was for them. It was pretty awesome. It’s what you imagine it being, and that’s what it was.”

For the Gamecocks, Saturday was the culmination of a lot of things.

It was overcoming having three different starting quarterbacks. It was overcoming a run game that has struggled to get off the ground most of the season. it was overcoming their offensive line coach having to miss the game with health issues. It was overcoming a Vegas win total over/under of just 3.5 wins.

But most importantly it was exercising the frustrations of two years where the Gamecocks went a combined 6-16.

“Games like this is the main reason I wanted to come back and experience this and one more go-round. This is probably one of the games I’ll remember talking to guys in my position room. We live for games like this and games you really never know what’s going to happen,” JJ Enagbare said. “This game is a testament to how close we are, how strong we fight.”

Things looked rough for the Gamecocks early on, falling behind 14-0 after the first quarter, but it changed on a dime. South Carolina scored 14 unanswered points to tie the game and outscored Auburn 21-3 over the final 45 minutes to pick up the win.

The Gamecock teams of old—especially last year as they struggled to do much of anything—would not have won a game like Saturday.

But this year’s team, which was built and reinforced through Beamer’s core values of love and gratitude, did and the Gamecocks now have the program’s largest win by margin of victory over Florida this year and back-to-back wins over Auburn for the first time in school history.

“Our team is closer than it was last year,” Trai Jones said. “I mean, this is a step in the right direction. It feels good, man.”

If there’s a scene that describes what Saturday’s win means for the program, look no further than the postgame scene in the locker room where Beamer was caught dancing, surrounded by players he didn’t recruit and celebrating the first earned bowl bid in three seasons.

“We’ve been counted out every game this entire season and just being able to stay in there and fight back when we were down 14-0. The way we stayed in there, fought back and the defense played a tremendous game,” Jason Brown said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Does Saturday’s win over Auburn mean the Gamecocks (6-5, 3-5 SEC) have arrived? No, and a team is only as good as its next performance and how it capitalizes on momentum.

But South Carolina deserves to enjoy this win and go for a potential seventh next week in the resumption of it’s longest-standing rivalry game against Clemson.

“We’re going to really, really, really, really enjoy this one and can’t wait to get back in here in seven days and do it again,” Beamer said.

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