You know all about what happened at SEC Media Days. You saw everything Shane Beamer said, and you saw some takes from the rest of the conference about South Carolina.

But what about the rest of South Carolina’s schedule? In and around the time everything was going on in Atlanta, the four non-conference opponents also engaged in their respective media days around the southeast. Here are some news and notes from the rest of the 2022 slate as fall camps approach.

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Right out of the chute, the Gamecocks will have a very intriguing game against a former South Carolina staffer and briefly the interim head coach, Shawn Elliott and the Georgia State Panthers. Elliott’s team stumbled out of the gate in 2021 to a 1-4 start, but responded by winning seven of its final eight games to record its first eight-win season in program history.

“We play a very tough non-conference schedule again,” Elliott said, also mentioning the Sep. 3 trip to Columbia alongside games against North Carolina, Army and Charlotte. “I think what we have to do is exactly what we did a year ago. We have to keep our heads on straight. We can’t let the highs be too high and the lows be too low. And we ultimately know we’ve got us a good football team.”

Georgia State is also bringing back the majority of its offense, something Elliott was sure to note at Sun Belt Media Days.

“To have four of the five returning starters coming back is pretty good up front,” he started. “To have two great running backs and have those guys returning is fantastic, to have a quarterback with legs on him, I feel really good about it.”

After a pair of conference games against Arkansas and Georgia, South Carolina will dip back into non-conference play with two home games against Charlotte and South Carolina State. First will be the 49ers, who were 5-7 out of Conference USA in 2021.

“I know we have great leadership,” head coach Will Healy said at C-USA media days. “I was going through the roster the other day, and you’ve got about 50 guys that you feel like could be on your leadership council. That’s more than I’ve ever had. The guys are holding each other accountable, and we’ve got some really good athletes running around on the football field.”

Charlotte will also have its starting quarterback returning to the fold this season in Chris Reynolds, who set the program’s single-season passing yards record in 2021 with 2,684 yards.

“I think right now learning from last season you get a little bit ahead of yourselves sometimes,” he said. “We’re going to take it one day at a time, and I think when you can hone in those little details of a practice — whether it’s my steps on a drop, alignment of a receiver, steps for a right guard — if we can dial in those little details and not get too far ahead of ourselves, we’re going to do good things.”

Charlotte will play South Carolina on Sep. 24

Seven days later on Oct. 1 will be South Carolina’s lone game against FCS opposition, South Carolina State out of the MEAC. The Bulldogs were 7-5 last year and 5-0 in MEAC play en route to winning the Celebration Bowl over Jackson State. Similar to Georgia State, 2021 was about finishing strong for this team.

“It was a tough season for the first part, but then after that part we really started to build some momentum,” head coach Oliver Pough said. “I can tell you that it was a gratifying experience, because our kids never gave up on anything. It was a lot of fun to be a part of that because our guys showed so much heart through that whole deal.”

The crowning achievement was the victory over Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl, which also serves as the championship game for HBCU schools. It was South Carolina State’s first postseason victory since 1994, and it made national waves with Deion Sanders’ school on the other sideline.

“Everybody everywhere saw it,” Pough said. “I don’t know of anybody in the state of South Carolina who did not see that game. People who had no idea where South Carolina State was in South Carolina knew after that game. It was enjoyable, it was gratifying and it was especially notarizing as far as letting people know about South Carolina State.”

And of course, the last game of the regular season for the Gamecocks will be a trip to Clemson on Nov. 26. The Tigers took a step back last season with a 10-3 record, failing to win the ACC for the first time since 2014.

The biggest story of the offseason for the Tigers was a pair of coordinator replacements. Longtime defensive coordinator Brent Venables took the head coaching job at Oklahoma, and offensive coordinator Tony Elliott did the same at Virginia. Head coach Dabo Swinney elected to promote from within, hiring defensive assistant Wes Goodwin and quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter to the respective roles.

“It’s not always feasible to promote from within,” he said. “I’ve had to go outside multiple times over my career, but I think it’s best when you can. But it’s got to be the right time, the right fit and all of those boxes checked. This was an easy decision for me.”

The defensive line is expected to be the strength of this team again. Even last year while the offense struggled to score through long patches of inconsistency, the defense kept the team afloat as it still won 10 games for the 10th consecutive campaign.

“We’ve got four defensive ends that could start for anybody in the country,” Swinney said. “And they’re all seniors. You have to have a certain level of selflessness, and you have to have self-awareness, and that’s what this team has.”