Andy & Ari On3 - Kentucky WALKS IT OFF vs South Carolina: Is it OVER for Shane Beamer? UK-Gamecocks Instant Reaction

Episode Date: October 4, 2026

Kentucky has walked it off against South Carolina, winning 30-27. Is this the end for Shane Beamer? What should we expect out of both teams the rest of the way? Join Andy & Ari here as the fellas react to this SEC game.Our show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinSubscribe to On3!  ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati...Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy & Ari On3 on podcast!Spotify 🎧: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=d9016221aa2a4427Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow Andy & Ari On3 on X! https://x.com/AndyAriOn3Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow Ari Wasserman on Twitter: https://x.com/AriWassermanFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinSubscribe to On3!  ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati...Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy & Ari On3 on podcast!Spotify 🎧: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=d9016221aa2a4427Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow Andy & Ari On3 on X! https://x.com/AndyAriOn3Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow Ari Wasserman on Twitter: https://x.com/AriWassermanFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome. Welcome to an instant reaction edition of Andy Nareon 3, presented by Polly Market. Kentucky has just completed a comeback, gone for two in the first overtime and walked off South Carolina on the road. Down 17. They come back, they tie the game. They had a chance to score at the end of the game, but couldn't pull it off. They give up a TD in overtime right off the bat. They score and Will Stein holds up two fingers.

And a second consecutive throw to the tight end. And as German JP in the chat says, Cocktover is already over. Very sad. Yeah, I like the call for going for two there. You know, got the momentum, don't want to extend the game, just end it. And they did.

Very, very inspired comeback from a Kentucky team that, you know, had some high hopes vanish early on in the season when they had Alabama game at home. You know, a lot of people talk to themselves. up into that one, me, Nick Roush, cough. But they've, you know, looked pretty good. I'm not going to say any of the P or the B words on this one. But, you know, I don't know what the main takeaway from the game is.

Is it Kentucky is maybe B word or Shane Beamer's. I don't think it's, I don't think the main takeaway is about Kentucky, are you? Okay. I think the main takeaway is about South Carolina. This is one that Shane Beamer absolutely needed for all the reasons that we said during the week. Like, South Carolina and Kentucky kind of view themselves as peer. they are supposed to beat each other, and their fan bases get really mad when they don't.

So this is one where Shane Beamer was already on the hot seat. There are much harder games coming. And it's one of those where the South Carolina fans look at this, like if you can't win this one, what can you do? And also blowing a large lead, too. It's not just losing highly contested. I think that makes it worse, doesn't it? Right.

It makes it way worse, for sure, because, you know, you thought you had it. All right, October, you know, here we go. You know, maybe start to gain some confidence back. You know, you get a win. Lenore Sellers might have needed that. And then to fall apart that way, not a great look. And they fought, you know, they fought at the end of the game.

And, you know, because Kentucky was driving with, you know, less than a minute left to try to kick a field goal. And their defense hung in. They're tough and kept them out of the range. Scored first on offense on overtime. It felt like they had some momentum. them, but Kentucky was resilient and beat them. So, you know, I don't know what you're holding on to here, but I just feel like sometimes, you know, in life,

when things aren't going your way, they're just not going your way, and that seems to be kind of what's going on with Shane Beamer at the moment. That is, I don't even know if things are not going your way. We posted two and 12 in the last 14 against Power Conference opponents. It's unacceptable. They made history for the other team again. This is the largest road comeback in Kentucky football history. So congratulations to the Wildcats on that.

And at a certain point, you just, you got to win games like this. Yeah. Oh, man, they got Florida on the road next weekend. We're going to be at that game. It's going to be tough. Florida's going to be pissed at home. After that, you have Tennessee,

then on the road at Oklahoma, which should be a winnable game maybe because Oklahoma's playing like crap this year, but still tough defense on the road. A&M, Arkansas, Georgia, Clemson. That's not a very welcoming schedule for a team that's struggling. No.

It's already got three SEC losses. Yeah. So it is, it was interesting because it felt like Kentucky just couldn't get going offensively in the first half. They did show some signs of life right there at the end of the half.

But I thought in the late in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter, Kenny Minchie finally sort of came into his own doing, playing the way he should be playing all along. And Will Stein to talk this week about wanting to get him more involved in the run game or wanting Kenny Minchie to involve himself more in the run game, take the yards that are available sometimes. And he did that today. You know, he didn't run for a ton of yards, but he used his legs to keep plays alive. And he had the one huge first down where he reached the ball out. and that was a big one because I think if they punt it back to South Carolina, they might lose. Lenora Sellers had a more kind of 2024 Lenora Sellers type game.

Now, he wasn't super efficient throwing the ball, but 226 passing yards, ran 17 times for 147 yards. Like that's the danger of Lenora Sellers. That's what scared you about Lenora Sellers. And I think it's why Will Stein ultimately went for two at the end. because he didn't want to have Lorner Sellers get the ball back. He said, basically, we got interviewed after the game. We were not stopping them. I also just love being a dude and just going for it.

You know that you've got the momentum. You just go down, you score. And just we're going to go win the game and just cut it out now. Especially if you're on the road, too. I don't know what the rule book is for, like, when to go for it and when not to. I know that there's a lot of, you know, thought of. If you feel like you're either the less talented, team or that you lack the momentum that you're not ever going to stop the other team,

you just try to end it on one play because you probably have a better statistical chance of ending it on one play than you do of continuing the game and giving the other team more chances. And that's what Stein said is, is their defense, Kentucky's defense was struggling so much to stop South Carolina's offense that he did not feel confident putting them back on the field. Yeah. Big play, big moment. I was very impressed by Kenny Minchie. I thought that he looked very composed.

Oh, absolutely. So it was really interesting. South Carolina had a great call for its touchdown in overtime. It was third and two, and they run a really condensed formation. They had three backs in the back field, or kind of H-back tight-end guys, and they leaked the tight end out,

pop past to him. Great call. Kentucky ends up with third and short. At about the same spot, it's not the same play call. It actually requires Kenny Minchie to go make some stuff happen with his, he got pressured. He had to climb in the pocket and then he kind of pops it up there to the tight end.

But it was a sort of pop, almost like a delayed pop pass. And it was spectacular. Henry Boyer's only catch the game, but it was a big one. 28 for 41, 272 yards, and three touchdowns. I mean, I don't know. I was very skeptical of the Kenney Molle. Munchy kept the quarterback race with C.J. Carr stuff last year, didn't really think that that was what happened, especially with the way that C.J. Card end up playing when he got the start last year for Notre Dame and continues to play into this year. But I am very impressed. I think Kentucky did a really good job with their lines. I think they did a good job with their head coach higher. And of course, now they had a good job with the quarterback. So I don't know what we think Kentucky's ceiling is. They were in the top 25 coming into the week. Obviously going to move up a little bit now. But,

you know, another big test for them on, in October 10th next weekend against LSU. It's the second big boy program with national championship aspirations. They're going to have to face in the first half of the season. And, you know, they took care of A&M pretty easily. We'll see what happens when they play LSU at home next weekend. Well, I think Alabama qualifies as Alabama qualifies as that and they lost them. But the way they played Alabama in that first half, we were like, oh, you know, they're playing pretty well.

But maybe Alabama is not that good. No, Alabama is that good. And Alabama, of course, ran away with that game in the second half. But this is going to be a tough out. Kentucky is going to be a tough out when they play the teams that are supposed to be, quote, unquote, better than them. And then if you look down the schedule, okay, they're going to be underdogs against LSU at home, probably. They're probably going to be favored against Oklahoma, and they're probably going to be favored against Vanderbilt. They never win at Tennessee, but this might be the time.

Like, this team might be able to. Oh, Producer River's not happy with that comment. But, well, and then, you know, they get Florida at home. We have no idea what Florida team's going to show up. Yeah. The one that went to Missouri today, they can beat them for sure. Very confusing conference. It is a very confusing conference, but it's going to be fun because I think it means

that a lot of teams can beat a lot of teams. So I don't think we can make a lot of assumptions in this conference. So I've just, we said all offseason, we're excited about the Will Stein hire, but who knows because they can't all be good and they can't all win. He's doing pretty good so far. He's started strong as Kentucky's head coach. As for Shane Beamer, we will see how long that goes because you had the Dylan Stewart situation

where he suspends him indefinitely. The SEC suspended for game. I don't know if Dylan Stewart comes back next week against Florida. Shane Beamer, somebody asked him this week, who decides if he comes back? Shane Bieber's like, me. And it's like, okay. But what if you don't work there anymore?

Still you? Like, and I don't know. I don't know if they do that. I don't know where they're at on that right now. I do know it feels like he's on borrowed time. So we'll keep track of that. And then I guess we'll find out what happens next, Ari. Join us for the post-game show.

We break down all college football action from Saturday. We help contextualize everything. We've already done instant reactions to Ohio State and Iowa, to Missouri killing Florida, to Alabama whoop it up on Mississippi State, to Minnesota beating Michigan. But we contextualize all that. I'm going to look at the big picture. And of course, we've got night games.

We've got Washington playing in USC right now. We've got Clemson, Miami. We'll talk about it all on tonight's show.