No. 3 Texas A&M erases 27-point halftime hole to stay unbeaten via South Carolina collapse – The Athletic

Early this week, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko told anyone who would listen that the Aggies had to ignore South Carolina’s 3-6 record and respect the Gamecocks. This same coach and quarterback took a sledgehammer to the Aggies in Columbia, S.C., a year ago, routing Texas A&M by 24 points.

“If we want to have any level of success on Saturday, we will do a much better job of understanding what the challenge actually is this year,” Elko said on Monday of the Gamecocks.

For 30 minutes, it looked like Elko’s warnings had fallen on deaf ears. But the No. 3 Aggies woke up in the second half and erased a 27-point deficit en route to a miraculous 31-30 win over South Carolina to remain unbeaten. It was the largest comeback in Texas A&M history. According to ESPN, SEC teams had been 0-286 in games in which they trailed by 27 points since 2004.

“That’s a first for me in my career,” Elko said after the game. “I don’t even really know what just happened, to be honest with you. A whole lot of heart left on the field and a whole lot of support from a great group of fans.”

Texas A&M (10-0) remains firmly in position to make its first SEC Championship Game appearance since joining the league in 2012 and may have essentially locked up a College Football Playoff berth with two games to go in the regular season. This is the first time the Aggies have won 10 games in a season since 2012, and it’s only the program’s third double-digit win season in the last 30 years.

“I think getting to 10 wins is gonna set us up to continue playing football and continue chasing the big prizes,” Elko said Saturday.

What does this mean for the SEC/CFP race?

Georgia and Alabama could have both clinched berths in the SEC title game later on Sunday if Texas A&M had taken its first loss in SEC play. At halftime, that looked almost certain. But instead, Texas A&M stayed on course for its first conference title game appearance since 1998, when it upset Kansas State to win the Big 12.

And though it’s easy to toss a team on the scrap heap when it absorbs an ugly loss, the Aggies’ 9-0 start gave them a sizable buffer to make the 12-team Playoff field. They entered the day with a greater than 99 percent chance to make the field and maintained that Saturday, according to models from Austin Mock of The Athletic.

Now, after the greatest comeback in school history, that number won’t take a hit and the Aggies aren’t letting any rivals punch tickets to Atlanta midway through November. — David Ubben

Shane Beamer’s nightmare season continues

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer fired offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley a month ago. Two weeks ago, he dismissed offensive coordinator Mike Shula.

For a half on Saturday, the Gamecocks finally looked like a different team. They’d scored 30 points once this season against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent and entered the weekend ranked 127th in yards per play and 121st in scoring; then they had 30 by halftime. Beamer walked into the tunnel at the break hyping up the South Carolina fans who made the trek to Aggieland.

LET’S GO!!! pic.twitter.com/VcutWDvRiV

— South Carolina Football (@GamecockFB) November 15, 2025

The Gamecocks didn’t score again. They gave up 28 points in the first 20 minutes of the half and couldn’t muster even a field goal attempt on a final drive. Instead, quarterback LaNorris Sellers was sacked on consecutive plays to turn second-and-1 into fourth-and-16.

​​”I don’t know why we’re going through this,,” Beamer said after the game. “I don’t know why we’re having this heartbreak we’re having.”

It extended what has been a nightmare season for the Gamecocks. Last year, they won the final six games of the regular season — including three wins over top-25 teams — to win nine games for just the second time since 2013.

The core of that roster returned, but Saturday was the first time all season the Gamecocks looked like the preseason top-15 team they were forecasted to be. But they only made good on that potential for a half.

“It makes me want to puke,” Beamer said. “Because our record around here going into the fourth quarter was pretty darn stellar.”

Beamer, the son of legendary Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, has been surrounded all season by speculation he might return to his alma mater after exceeding expectations in three of his four seasons at South Carolina. But this season, his team led in the fourth quarter of a loss against Missouri, didn’t score a touchdown in the final three quarters of a loss to LSU, led by eight in the fourth quarter of a 29-22 loss to Alabama and now suffered the indignity of the most frustrating loss of Beamer’s tenure. The Gamecocks also led 24-10 at LSU last year and lost with ESPN’s “College GameDay” in Columbia.

In 2022, Beamer knocked off top-10 Tennessee and Clemson teams to reach 8-4. Last year’s rally featured a pair of top-15 wins, too. This year, there is no such magic for Beamer, who fell to 5-2 against ranked teams in November.

Now, their bowl hopes are done with in-state opponents Coastal Carolina and Clemson still ahead on the schedule.

And a dark season’s brightest moment was overshadowed by the biggest nightmare in a season full of them. – Ubben 

Inside Texas A&M’s miracle recovery

If you were to concoct a recipe for losing a football game, the Aggies followed every step in Saturday’s first half.

They turned the football over three times in the first two quarters and were close to turning it over on three other occasions via errant throws by quarterback Marcel Reed. South Carolina turned those three turnovers into 17 points.

Texas A&M struggled to run the ball (first-half rushing yards: minus-9) and couldn’t block South Carolina’s defensive front, which racked up four tackles for loss and two sacks in the first half. A&M’s leading rusher at halftime was Rueben Owens, with 7 yards.

Aggie receivers dropped multiple passes, including a would-be touchdown to KC Concepcion and a would-be third down conversion by Mario Craver. Texas A&M went 0-for-6 on third down in the first half and missed two field goal attempts.

“Clearly, we weren’t in the mental space we needed to be in to start that game,” Elko said. “That’s on me, I’m the head football coach. We weren’t doing the things on either side of the ball that we needed to do to be successful.

“This game always finds a way to humble you if you don’t do it the way it’s supposed to be done, and clearly we didn’t do it the way it was supposed to be done to start that game.”

Elko said the offense picked up the tempo in the second half, which helped Reed settle in. “I just told him to relax,” Elko said. “Us going tempo to start the second half took some of the thinking out of his brain and got him loose and free and playing. That certainly helped him get into a better rhythm.”

Reed’s legs kept A&M’s first third-quarter drive alive, converting a fourth-and-12 with a 16-yard scramble. Two plays later, he hit Izaiah Williams on a wheel route for 27-yard touchdown to give the Aggies life.

Reed found Ashton Bethel-Roman for a 39-yard score on the next drive, then hit tight end Nate Boerkircher for a 14-yard touchdown to trim the deficit to just six points heading into the fourth quarter.

Another one pic.twitter.com/K289za5FhU

— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) November 15, 2025

A&M’s go-ahead drive was its most impressive. After South Carolina downed a punt at the 1, the Aggies marched 99 yards in 10 plays, capped by an EJ Smith 4-yard touchdown run that capped the scoring.

All the while, A&M’s defense bowed up and shut the Gamecocks down. They stopped a South Carolina fourth-and-1 attempt for no gain on the Gamecocks’ first offensive drive of the second half, then forced South Carolina to punt three consecutive times, including two three-and-outs, to give the offense a chance.

Elko said the Aggies work on comeback situations in practice, but not with as big a deficit as they faced on Saturday.

“We call it ‘six-minute offense,’” Elko said. “It’s that thought of being down two scores or three scores with seven or eight minutes to go in the game where … you can still run your offense but you gotta be able to pick your tempo up. … (But) I’ve never had to do that to start a second half before.” — Sam Khan Jr.