South Carolina's bandwagon filled to standing-room-only capacity for a few hours Saturday, while Brian Kelly's bandwagon emptied faster than a bottle of hooch at an LSU tailgate.
That No. 17 LSU rallied for a 36-33 white-knuckle road victory allowed Kelly to save face, but imperfections persist within his program.
LSU's run game stumbled into the stadium late. Its offensive line, a supposed strength, had its hands full with South Carolina's disruptive defensive front. Miscues came early and often.
LSU plays like a team disinterested in tackling or fundamentals. Short-yardage play-calling and execution remain a pitfall.
LSU should consider itself fortunate it didn't face LaNorris Sellers in the second half. South Carolina's freshman quarterback helped propel the Gamecocks to a 24-16 halftime lead, but an ankle injury sidelined Sellers for the final two quarters.
The Gamecocks languished without him.
South Carolina trumped LSU's self-inflected wounds. The Cockaboose crashed thanks to 13 penalties, including a needless personal foul in the fourth quarter that negated what would have been a pick-six for a two-possession lead.
LSU avoided disaster, but the performance didn't inspire confidence that a playoff berth awaits at the end of Kelly's third season.
A game riddled with 22 total penalties and five turnovers ended with South Carolina missing a 49-yard field goal.
It's not yet panic time about Kelly's tenure, but why does the season's first month remain a recipe for hypertension? He's now 5-4 at LSU in September games against Bowl Subdivision opponents.
It says something about Kelly that his squads improved throughout the past two seasons, but those teams had Jayden Daniels. He patched a lot of holes. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier isn't the problem, but he's not a superhuman like Daniels.
The reinforcements Kelly assembles in a ballyhooed 2025 recruiting class won't arrive in time to save this season. He must learn to cook with these imperfect ingredients. At least he's got freshman running back Caden Durham, who provided LSU with a late-arriving ground game.
Even as the Tigers (2-1) outplayed South Carolina (2-1) in the second half, they insisted on making this escape perilous.
They failed to convert on a fourth down, 12 inches from the goal line. They allowed Rocket Sanders to run 66 yards, untouched, for a touchdown, somehow losing run containment despite backup quarterback Robby Ashford not being a passing threat.
In a play that encapsulated the warts of LSU's first three weeks, Nussmeier was unprepared for a snap that ricocheted off his facemask for a fumble that South Carolina recovered and turned into a field goal.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, South Carolina blocked a punt, LSU botched an extra point, and the Tigers utterly squandered two red-zone opportunities.
As LSU's blunders piled up, Beamer grinned like Cheshire Cat, while Kelly grew red in the face.
Beamer oozes unabashed bravado, and, true to form, he strutted after his team's thrashing of Kentucky a week ago. Then, he made a bold proclamation.
"The bandwagon is getting full," Beamer said this week.
The supporters piled in throughout a first half during which the Gamecocks established a 17-0 lead. Sellers ran so fast on a 75-yard touchdown run, he could've been clocked for speeding in a school zone.
Beamer, though, offered a prescient warning at halftime.
"We’re trying to screw this thing up," he told ABC before heading to the locker room.
So were Kelly's Tigers, but South Carolina lacked much sustained punch without Sellers.
Kelly lifted his fists and smiled for perhaps the first time all day when Alex Herrera's field-goal attempt inched wide of the uprights while time expired.
Sweet relief.
The Tigers gave Kelly a season's worth of angst throughout three stressful hours, but at least they avoided a loss that not only would've emptied the bandwagon, but also wrecked the season.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
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