Romance is still alive: Shane Beamer, South Carolina players serenade his wife again after another win over Texas A&M

Two years ago, the South Carolina Gamecocks posted a locker room video after a win over the Texas A&M Aggies with the caption “and they say romance is dead.” On Saturday night, after beating the same opponent again, the program answered its own line: “Yes, romance is still alive.”

After the 17-9 homecoming win at Williams-Brice Stadium, Shane Beamer brought his wife, Emily, into the middle of the locker room, and the coach and his players surrounded her, singing and pointing at her as the room celebrated.

Beamer told the team it was her birthday. This time, he went with a different soundtrack.

Beamer was asked after the game if there had been any Fantasia in the locker room.

“We talked about it. I said, ‘It’s her birthday, and we’re not going to redo the Fantasia song.’ And the players were kind of, I think, disappointed that we weren’t… But there’s a lyric in there about ‘threw the party of the century, people came over… blah, blah, blah, blah… It was all for you.’ So, we serenaded her to Rod Wave in there, which is probably not what she thought was going to happen,” Beamer said.

Yes, romance is still alive https://t.co/F4v9IQSRTK

— South Carolina Football (@GamecockFB) November 8, 2026

Where the Fantasia tradition started

The first serenade followed a 44-20 rout of No. 10 Texas A&M on Nov. 2, 2024. Beamer, wearing an oversized Gamecock chain, called Emily to the center of the room, told the players her birthday was the next week and led them through Fantasia’s 2006 single “When I See U,” a song the team had been singing before practices. The video spread well beyond college football, and Fantasia sent the program flowers a few days later.

“It was enthusiastic, that’s for sure. Thankfully the team had my back. So they had me surrounded so I didn’t have too much space to be able to operate, Steve. It was more singing and more singing than it was a dance,” Beamer said on the SEC coaches teleconference that week.

South Carolina finished 4-8 in 2025, the worst season of Beamer’s tenure, and this season opened with three straight SEC losses, including a blown 17-point lead against the Kentucky Wildcats that set off talk about his job.

The Gamecocks have since won four in a row, over the Florida Gators, Tennessee Volunteers, Oklahoma Sooners and now Texas A&M, and Saturday’s win made them bowl-eligible at 6-3 and 4-3 in the conference.

LaNorris Sellers hurt his ankle in the first half, went to the medical tent and then the locker room, and came back to throw for 251 yards and a touchdown.
With South Carolina up 10-9, he kept the ball on an option and outran two defenders for a 41-yard touchdown with 1:19 left. Texas A&M drove inside the South Carolina 30 four times in the first three quarters and came away with field goal tries each time.

South Carolina plays at the Arkansas Razorbacks on Nov. 14, with a fifth straight win on the line.

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