COLUMBIA, S.C. (KBTX) – A South Carolina athletic field staff member looked exasperated as he worked through the field cleaning process at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.

Beyond the messy bottles and papers floating on the playing surface, there was the bigger problem in the surrounding area. As South Carolina’s student section broke through the infield barrier celebrating the Gamecock’s 44-20 win over No. 10 Texas A&M, the perfectly manicured fences beyond the end zones fell into utter devastation. The leaves on the field were trampled and eroded, revealing the sharp wooden edges of the now incomplete plants.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” the field crew member said. “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, relegating the Aggies from the conference’s sole leader to a pool of four one-loss teams. Before the Aggies return to action in two weekends against New Mexico State, head coach Mike Elko and his staff need to smooth out the rough edges the Gamecocks exposed.

“Sometimes the hardest thing to do is learn in victory because it gets covered up and masked and so, I think some of the things that were going on behind the scenes that we played and won definitely came out tonight in a really bad way,” head coach Mike Elko said.

Penalties have plagued the Aggies throughout the season, but unforced errors have yet to cost A&M a game to this point. A&M got lucky on Saturday.

Seven flags against the Aggies gave South Carolina 68 yards. Two of these were particularly expensive.

The Aggies appeared poised to take a 20-17 halftime lead after taking control of the game for the first time with a 2-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Marcel Reed to Jabre Barber. With a minute left on the clock, the Gamecocks were stuck in their own zone. But defensive tackle Shemar Turner took a hard pass penalty on second-and-11, giving South Carolina 15 yards and a first down. Later on the tempo drive, cornerback Will Lee III made a snap that negated the fumble and pushed the Gamecocks into field goal range before the Aggies forced a steal by Sellers.

A 44-yard field goal by South Carolina kicker Alex Herrera tied the game at 20 as the teams returned to their locker rooms.

The Aggies did not score again in the contest.

“We have to be smarter,” Reed said. “The coach always tells us that penalties can cost us the game and that is in our plan to win. “So we have to be smart, we have to play smart football, we have to play our own brand of football and we have to stay away from certain things.”

On the Thursday before the game, Reed was officially handed the keys to the Aggie offense. After sophomore Conner Weigman faltered in the first half of a win over LSU, it was Reed’s legs that saved the Aggies. On Saturday, Reed’s effectiveness proved to be evident alongside running back Le’Veon Moss.

Five minutes into the game, Reed threw a straight pass to Moss, who raced nine yards down the sideline and gained a first down. But a punishing blow to Moss’s knee at the end of the game sent him immediately onto the field in pain. The Aggie team spent the rest of the first quarter in the practice tent, with coaches and players coming in and out of the tent to visit Moss. At the end of the first quarter, a car had been ordered to the Aggie sideline to take Moss to the locker room; there he would change into street clothes and return to the Aggie bench in the second half.

Elko was vague after the game about the extent of Moss’ injuries.

“I don’t think he looks really good right now, but I don’t think he looks as bad as he could on the field, so hopefully he’s not one of those terrible ones,” Elko said. “But I think he will be out of action for a while.”

With Moss’ strong running style absent from the Aggie backfield, South Carolina’s defensive front focused on Reed on the read-option play, forcing reserve running back Amari Daniels to try to beat the Gamecocks down the middle of the field.

In the third quarter, on fourth-and-1 at the Aggie 31, Reed dropped the ball into Daniels’ arms and watched as he swarmed at the line of scrimmage for the Aggies’ second turnover of the game. The ensuing Gamecock drive would result in another Herrera field goal, increasing the deficit to 10 points.

“When you have someone in the middle who can open and then me who can open a little bit, it makes it harder for the defense to try and play both,” Reed said. “So losing him was tough.”

Finally, A&M’s run defense faltered in a 286-yard rushing performance by the Gamecock offense, which averaged 101 yards per game and ranked 64th in the country. It was the most rushing pitch the Aggies have given up since a 2022 loss to Florida.

The 240-pound Sellers worked his way through would-be tacklers for a career-high 106 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. Running back Raheim Sanders took advantage of A&M’s poor tackling for a season-high 144 yards and a touchdown of his own.

A&M’s aggressive passing offense got to Sellers in the backfield multiple times and was unable to record a sack as Sellers flexed his muscles out of stops to extend plays.

Behind its performance, South Carolina scored 24 consecutive points in the second half to defeat the Aggies.

“This was an offer that escalated throughout the season,” linebacker Taurean York said. “To be honest, we haven’t reached the top yet, but we showed it today. We were on our way. You hate to say a guy beat us, but that’s how I felt today.”

The stands of Williams-Brice Stadium last spilled onto the field in 2022 after a dominant 63-38 victory over No. 5-ranked Tennessee. After this qualifying win, fences suffered a similar fate. The difference, the groundsman noted, was that the infield problem at Columbia was over, which made it easier to dig and replace hedgerows for the following season.

With three games remaining in the season, including the renewal of a high-stakes rivalry game with Texas at the end of the season, the Aggies have some pruning to do to ensure their postseason dreams remain within their grasp.

“We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to fix these things and never play like that again,” Elko said.

KBTX sports director Tyler Shaw contributed to this report.

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