Wins over SEC powers LSU and Alabama are hard to come by, no matter who you are. They are especially difficult for South Carolina. The Gamecocks have beaten LSU twice in 22 meetings. They've also tied the Bayou Bengals once. Those two South Carolina wins have come by a total of two points. Carolina's fortunes against Alabama have only been slightly better. The Gamecocks have beaten Alabama on the field three times next to 13 defeats. Officially Alabama is 11-4 against the Gamecocks. They were forced to "forfeit" a 17-6 win in 1993 and "vacate" their 37-14 win in 2005. Those decisions came back when the NCAA has some degree of control.

We went ahead and threw Texas A&M on this list as well. Gamecock fans are well-aware of the struggles against the Aggies. TAMU leads the series 9-1 with four of those nine wins coming in blowout fashion. Between LSU, Alabama, and A&M, Carolina has exactly six wins in 132 years of football with 41 defeats. Here at Gamecock Scoop, we choose to focus on the good times. Here are the top five wins in program history over the Tide, Tigers, and Aggies, hopefully this list gets altered after the season as all three opponents are on the 2024 schedule.

But first, a few words about the only win that didn't make the list, a 7-6 slugfest win over LSU in the school's first ever meeting in 1930. All 13 points were scored in the second quarter. Back Miles Blount scored the only Gamecock touchdown and Swiss Army Knife quarterback Ed "Bru" Boineau kicked the extra point. LSU would answer the Gamecock touchdown but miss their point after try. Boineau is a member of the USC Athletic Hall of Fame, being inducted in 1970. He was three-year letterman and helped Carolina to three consecutive winning seasons going 18-11-2 in his career. 1928-1934 is the only 7-year stretch where Carolina finished above .500 every season until Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks repeated the feat from 2008-2014.

A true Lou Holtz special. South Carolina won this game playing to two quarterbacks that went a combined 4-for-11 for 46 yards with an interception. The Gamecocks ran 65 offensive plays, 54 for them were runs as Carolina amassed 203 yards on the ground. Demetris Summers led Carolina with 61 yards rushing. Syvelle Newton was the only player to find the end zone that evening, scoring twice from inside of eight yards. The Gamecocks took a 13-3 lead with 7:50 remaining in the third quarter. On Alabama's ensuing possession, Edisto native Tremaine Tyler intercepted a pass and returned it 40 yards inside the Alabama 10-yard line. Newton punched in his second score on the next play and the Gamecocks went to Waterboy-level of conservativeness for the remainder of the game. Normally, running 54 times for an average of 3.8 yards-per-carry with 46 yards passing is not a receipt for an SEC road win, let alone a win in Tuscaloosa.

The Tide were on their third and fourth string quarterbacks in this game. Starter Brodie Croyle had been lost for the season two weeks earlier in a blowout win over Western Carolina. Tide Coach Mike Shula, (Shula is a current offensive analyst for the Gamecocks), had the Alabama football program in a rare rebuilding mode. They didn't have near the depth of the Bama teams the world would see under Nick Saban. The signal caller duo of Marc Guillon and Spencer Pennington went a combined 10-for-24 for 79 yards and four interceptions against a talented Gamecock secondary. Future NFL players Fred Bennett (2) and Ko Simpson also had interceptions for the Cocks. This was the Gamecocks first, and only, win in Tuscaloosa. The win would improve Carolina to 4-1 and propel Carolina back into the polls at #25 the following week. South Carolina would go onto to finish 2-4 down the stretch in the final season of Lou Holtz's career. The infamous Clemson brawl would keep Carolina out of the postseason.

The Gamecocks needed everything they had to beat one of the worst LSU teams of the last 40 years on a rainy night in Louisiana. The 94' LSU team would finish 4-7 but their season was not yet lost when Brad Scott and the Gamecocks called on Baton Rouge. The Bayou Bengals entered the game at 1-2 but the two losses were by less than a touchdown to nationally ranked Texas A&M and Auburn. Sandwiched in between those losses was a blowout victory over Miss State. LSU also had two weeks to prepare for the Gamecocks, who entered the contest at 3-1.

The Tigers got on the board first with a opening drive TD score. South Carolina would answer the score early in the second quarter with on a halfback pass that saw Greenville native and future Cincinnati Bengal Brandon Bennett find backup quarterback Blake Williamson in the end zone from three yards out. The Gamecocks would miss the extra point after a botched snap. Scott would continue to chase those points on Carolina's other two touchdown scores, with both 2-point conversions being unsuccessful.

LSU would push their lead to eight on the ensuing drive. South Carolina would answer with a crucial 24-yard Steve Taneyhill to Toby Cates touchdown with 27 second remaining in the half to cut the LSU lead to two at halftime. The Gamecock defense and the elements would hold LSU to only a second half field goal. The Gamecock would take the lead for good when a another future NFL running back Stanley Pritchett would plunge into the LSU end zone from a yard out to put Carolina up 18-17 with 12:52 left in the game. The Gamecock would defense would hold onto the win, the school's only win at Baton Rouge. LSU would fire coach Curley Hallman later in the season.

You can't draw a start up any better than the one the Gamecocks had in their first ever win over Texas A&M. Xavier Leggett took the opening kickoff back 100 yards for a score, losing a cleat in the process. Texas A&M's first possession ended with a 59-yard Darius Rush interception. The Gamecock offense would stall and kick a field goal following the near pick-six. On the next Aggie possession, A&M's center inadvertently snapped the ball into quarterback Haynes King. The ball ricocheted into the arms of Tonka Hemingway. The Gamecocks would capitalize this time on a Christian Beal-Smith touchdown run. It was 17-0 after 5:09 of game time.

From that point on, the remainder of the first half was dominated by the Aggies. They had narrowed the early deficit to 17-14 at the half and received the ball first. Carolina's offensive finally broke through with a scoring driver late in the third quarter after departed tailback MarShawn Lloyd scored from 18-yards out. A Spencer Rattler fumble would set the Aggies up for a short-field touchdown to again cut the lead to three. The Gamecock defense would hold from that point on. Lloyd put the Gamecocks up two scores with his second touchdown with a little over three minutes remaining. Some uncharacteristic poor play on special teams allowed A&M to recover an onside kick and blocked extra point. The gaffes allowed the Aggies to be in position to throw a Hail Mary for the win. Luckily, the Aggie prayers went unanswered, (I wouldn't expect God to do Jimbo many more favors), and the Gamecocks celebrated a first in program history after falling to the Aggies in the first meeting and improved its' record to 5-2.

“A month ago, I was asked if this team quit. That look like this team has quit?" South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said.

South Carolina had never beaten Alabama, (I don't count the game Alabama would later forfeit ), the two programs were grade school t-ball verses the New York Yankees to quote Walter White. These Gamecocks were different though. These Gamecocks were expected to win this game and despite being outplayed, Carolina did just that. The late great Phil Petty was terrific in the win. He went 19-33 for 291 yards and three touchdowns, including the game winner, a 7-yarder to little-used tight end Rod Trafford. This was Petty's finest game of his senior season. A rare occasion in Petty's career when Carolina could not run the football and would turn the game over to the Senior signal-caller. He delivered.

Trafford would go onto say after the game, “We don’t play them every year. We don’t play them every other year. I mean, there could be multiple years that go, how the schedule tips for the SEC West. So you know, anytime you get a chance to play Alabama, and that coveted program, it’s special.” Especially since the Gamecocks went into Tuscaloosa a year earlier with a 4-0 record and 23rd ranking only to lose to a Alabama team that went 3-8 in 2000. The Gamecocks remembered the loss heading into 2001 game, (the first home game since the 9/11 terror attack).

“We certainly had that taste in our mouth,” Petty said. “We had them back at home and we’d never beaten them. So we were looking forward to the opportunity to get it done.”

South Carolina's defense had been stout on the young season, ranking in the top 10 of most defensive categories. Someone picked up on something on the Crimson Tide staff during the week as Alabama came out running the option with a non-option quarterback named Tyler Watts. Alabama scored on five of its first seven drives, pulling out to a 23-10 halftime lead. The defense couldn't stop the option. Watts ended up carrying the ball 22 times for 162 yards and two scores.

South Carolina trailed 36-24 with less than nine minutes left. Petty went to work. A 65-yard drive ended after a 26-yard Derek Watson reception set Watson up for a short TD run to make it a one-score game. Carolina's defense held and Petty and the Gamecocks wouldn't be denied on their last possession.

There isn't a lot we can write about this game that you don't already know. It's one of the most romanticized football games in the South Carolina history, the day #1 fell in Columbia. Marcus Lattimore's 109 total yards and three touchdowns, Alshon Jeffrey's 127 receiving yards and two scores, Stephen Garcia's near perfect day, Bama being held to 36 yards rushing on 29 carries with two future NFL running backs. All still fresh in the minds of Gamecock fans. Here's one you might not have heard. The story of reserve walk-on linebacker Calvin Lee.

The urban legend/story goes that Lee, a Chapin native and Alabama transfer, was nowhere to be seen by his teammates the week leading up to this game. Lee was thought to have known Alabama's defensive signals and audibles and spent the week with the offensive coaching staff. The story goes that Spurrier and the staff had a pretty good idea of what Saban was doing and what coverages he was playing. We will probably never know if this true or if it mattered, but the Gamecocks scored touchdowns on their first three possession and were up 21-3 before the Tide knew what hit them.