By james art 
COLUMBIA, S.C. (KBTX) – A member of South Carolina’s sports field staff looked annoyed while working on the field clearing process at Williams-Bryce Stadium on Saturday.
Beyond the scattered bottles and papers fluttering across the playing surface, the bigger problem was on the periphery. As South Carolina’s student section flooded over the field barrier, celebrating the Gamecock’s 44-20 victory over No. 10 Texas A&M, the perfectly manicured hedgerows beyond the end zones suffered complete destruction. Leaves trailed across the trampled and scraped field, exposing the sharp wooden edges of the now unfinished plants.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” said the field team member. “I have a match in two weeks.”
The Texas A&M football team finds itself in a similar situation after suffering its first loss in SEC play, dropping the Aggies from the sole conference leader to a group of four other one-loss teams. Before the Aggies return to the field against New Mexico State in two weekends, head coach Mike Elko and his staff must polish off the jagged edges that were exposed by the Gamecocks.
“Sometimes the hardest thing you have to do is learn in winning because it gets covered up and masked and so I think some of the things that have been behind the scenes and we’ve been playing and winning are certainly came out tonight in a really bad way,” head coach Mike Elko said.
Penalties have plagued the Aggies all season, and yet unforced errors haven’t cost A&M a game to this point. On Saturday, A&M was out of luck.
Seven flags against the Aggies gave South Carolina 68 yards. Two were particularly expensive.
The Aggies looked poised to take a 20-17 halftime lead after taking control of the game for the first time on a 2-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Marcell Reed to wideout Jabre Barber. With a minute left on the clock, the Gamecocks were pinned in their own territory. However, Shemar Turner was called for a roughing the pass on second-and-11, giving South Carolina 15 yards and a first down. Later in the drive, cornerback Will Lee III ran a wideout before the Aggies forced a Sellers punt that negated the recovery and pushed Gamecox into field goal range.
A 44-yard field goal by South Carolina kicker Alex Herrera tied the game at 20 as the teams returned to the locker rooms.
The Aggies would score no more in the contest.
“We have to be smarter,” Reid said. “The coach tells us all the time that penalties can cost us the game and that is in our plan to win. So we have to be smart, play smart football, play our brand of football and stay away from some of those things.”
On Thursday before the game, Reed was officially handed the keys to the Aggie offense. After sophomore Conner Weigman fumbled in the first half of LSU’s win, it was Reed’s legs that saved the Aggies. Saturday proved that Reid’s effectiveness comes in tandem with running back Le’Veon Moss.
Five minutes into the game, Reid threw a pass to Moss, who raced up the sideline for nine yards and a first down. However, late in the game, Moss took a penalty kick to the knee that immediately sent him to the turf in pain. The Aggie feature spent the rest of the first quarter in the practice tent with a parade of coaches and players coming in and out of the tent to visit with Moss. By the end of the first quarter, a cart was lined up on the Aggie sideline to take Moss to the locker room, where he would change into street clothes and return to the Aggie bench for the second half.
Elko was vague on the extent of Moss’ injuries after the game.
“I don’t think it looks very good right now, but I don’t think it looks maybe as bad as it might look on the field, so hopefully it’s not one of those awful ones,” Elko said. “But I think he’s going to be out for a while.”
With Moss’ powerful running style absent from the Aggies’ backfield, South Carolina’s defensive front came in against Reed on the read-option play, forcing backup running back Amari Daniels to try to beat the Gamecocks up the middle of the field.
In the third quarter, on fourth-and-1 at the Aggie 31, Reed put the ball in Daniels’ hands only to watch him drive to the line of scrimmage for the Aggies’ second turnover of the game. The Gamecock’s ensuing drive would end with another Herrera field goal, extending the deficit to 10 points.
“When you have somebody who can open it up the middle and then me who can spread it out a little bit, it makes it difficult for the defense to try to play both,” Reed said. “So it was hard to lose him.”
Finally, A&M’s defense was held to 286 yards rushing by a Gamecock offense that averaged 101 yards per game and ranked 64th in the nation. It was the most rushing yards the Aggies have given up since their 2022 loss to Florida.
The 240-pound Sellers worked his way through the draft for a career-high 106 rushing yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. Running back Raheem Sanders took advantage of A&M’s poor approach for a season-high 144 yards and a touchdown of his own.
A&M’s aggressive pass rush got to Sellers multiple times in the backfield and still couldn’t record a sack as Sellers muscled his way out of stops to extend the play.
Behind his performance, South Carolina scored 24 straight points in the second half to rout the Aggies.
“It’s been a bid all season,” defenseman Taurian York said. “Honestly, we weren’t playing at our best, but it showed today. We were on our way. Hate to say one guy beat us, but that’s how it feels today.
The last time the stands at Williams-Brice Stadium spilled onto the field was after a dominating 63-38 win over then-No. 5 Tennessee in 2022. The Hedges suffered a similar fate after that ranking win. The difference, the ranger noted, was that it ended the home shale in Columbia, making it easier to dig up and replace the bushes for the next season.
With three games left in the season, including a high-stakes rematch with Texas to close the season, the Aggies must make some changes to ensure their postseason dreams remain within reach.
“We have to get better. We have to fix them and never play like that again,” Elko said.
KBTX Sports Director Tyler Shaw contributed to this report.
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