By james art 
The SEC no longer has an undefeated team to boast about.
The South Carolina Gamecocks no longer have to worry about not having a signature win, and the Texas A&M Aggies are no longer in control.
In fact, they fell short from kickoff at Williams-Bryce Stadium.
Entering Week 10, Mike Elko and company were living the dream. They got punched in the mouth — as described at AT&T Stadium after a come-from-behind win over the Arkansas Razorbacks — in Week 1 against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but that only made them better.
In Week 2, they took care of business. Week 3, they go on the road and pick up their first conference win of the year. Week 4-9? Same story. The Aggies were undefeated in SEC play, in control of their own destiny and suddenly had targets on their backs.
LSU, the first team to face them in such a state, missed the mark. But South Carolina did.
Oh did South Carolina do it. By 24 points actually.
Aggies are new to this. Yet, they are all too familiar with it at the same time. In the last 10 games before Saturday’s matchup, they had beaten South Carolina nine times and lost just once. Usually these games were scoreless – just another win in a 7-for-8 season.
This time it meant a lot more.
Not only did the Aggies fall one loss away from likely elimination from the College Football Playoff, but they also lost control of their season. Instead of sitting for three weeks and watching the carnage that has become SEC Saturday, they are in it.
It came in the form of a scoreless second half that turned into a blowout: One interception and a fumble lost, and another loss in Texas A&M’s record.
How did it get there?
Penalties, for example. On the night, the Aggies were called for nearly 70 yards until the Gamecocks picked up their first offense until the third quarter.
“We have to be smarter,” explained Marcel Reed simply. “Coach tells us all the time that penalties can cost you the game.”
They certainly played a part, but they didn’t tell the whole story.
Raheim Sanders and LaNorris Sellers combined to put the Gamecocks at nearly 300 yards rushing for the contest — more than 100 yards higher than the Aggies’ weekly average. And when desperation mode kicked in late in the second half, possession attempts turned into takedown attempts.
“I felt like one guy beat us,” Aggies linebacker Taurean York said of the defensive miscues. “We didn’t struggle with our technique.”
It gets uglier. For a team between two quarterbacks — Marcell Reed got the nod Saturday after being the difference maker against LSU — a natural reaction to one underperforming would be to bench the other since he’s been absent all season.
After Reid was benched in favor of the original starter against Missouri, Wiegman proved why. Then, when Weigman struggled to generate offense against LSU, Reed came to the rescue.
This time, Reed had no answer. Yet he was the only one to get playing time.
“He’s the starter now,” Elko said, providing the first real update on the quarterback position since Weigman was named the starter in training camp. “(Now), we’ll see where we go.”
As much as Reed struggled, he stayed under center even as the Aggies got a taste of their own medicine when their offense crumbled in a hostile environment with the line game.
They would be like LSU in a week. And also joined them among the list of SEC teams already beaten.
Perhaps the biggest week-to-week difference, however, came in the form of the crowd.
Shane Beamer, speaking to a television reporter after his team’s signature win of the season, couldn’t help but notice the spectacle.
“USC” chants had started playing on Williams-Brice’s field and at times drowned out his responses. He talks about his team’s victory. How did they last? Takes advantage of turnovers.
As the camera began to expand, the crowd of Gamecocks fans expanded with it.
Beamer, the mastermind behind the victory, was surrounded by a crowd that wanted nothing more than to be there with him. For the Aggies, who were already preparing for what they knew would be a long trip back to College Station, it was all too familiar.
“We still have a lot of ball left. York said, sharing what Elko preached to the team after the loss.
Texas A&M’s season isn’t over yet. It’s still tied for first place in the conference, as Elko optimistically put it, but now faces the task of getting past the Texas Longhorns if it wants a shot at the SEC title and an automatic playoff berth.
About as quickly as the South Carolina crowd rushed the field, the Aggies’ margin of error shrank. After a storybook seven weeks, “the moment” caught up with them. They’re no longer atop the SEC ladder, no longer in control, and no longer unbeatable — even though it seems like they never were.
Meanwhile, the Gamecocks got their moment in the spotlight; premier of the week, defeating the only unblemished team in the conference.
However, if this victory meant that a lot, maybe that’s a good sign for the Aggies. Maybe they were the team to beat in the SEC. Or maybe they were exposed.
And maybe it was meant to be.
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