South Carolina isn’t winning pretty, but it’s winning. Does it matter how it happens?

The chants echoed around the edges of the hedges guarding the field at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“Beamer Ball! Beamer Ball! Beamer Ball!” the garnet and black clad faithful cried in unison as their beloved second-year head coach Shane Beamer was doused in purple Gatorade.

Those same fans roared when receiver Xavier Legette raced 100 yards for a game-opening kickoff return touchdown. They booed when, on multiple occasions, the South Carolina offense slogged through Saturday night’s 30-24 win over Texas A&M.

But, in the end, they celebrated a victory — perhaps that’s all that matters.

The Gamecocks are 12-8 through Beamer’s first 20 games as head coach. South Carolina over the last two years has looked downright dominant in wins over Florida, North Carolina and even Kentucky. It’s also been run off the field by Georgia (twice), Tennessee and even by the Texas A&M team it beat on Saturday.

If there’s any constant with USC under the Beamer regime, it’s that the Gamecocks are exasperatingly imperfect. The result? A 5-2 record in 2022 and a legitimate chance at a seven- or eight-win season.

The Gamecocks are winning ugly, and that style now has a fitting moniker: Beamer Ball.

“We’ve got to be a whole lot better,” Beamer said, still sopping in sports drink during his postgame press conference. “But, man, to win this one, just so happy for our players. I’m so happy for our fans.”

Saturday’s win over Texas A&M — the first in program history — was every bit an encapsulation of that maddening ebbing and flowing that’s seemingly become the norm in Beamer’s tenure.

The Gamecocks dashed to their first touchdown of the night 14 seconds in via the Legette kickoff return.

As an encore, South Carolina’s defense made Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King look closer to the version of himself that was benched two games into the 2022 season in favor of the since-injured Max Johnson. There was the lofted interception South Carolina defensive back Darius Rush returned to the Aggie 5-yard line on King’s first possession of the night. A 23-yard Mitch Jeter field goal followed.

Then there was the GIF-worthy snap King wasn’t ready for that bounced off his knee and into South Carolina defensive lineman Tonka Hemingway’s arms. That, too, amounted to points, this time a five-yard Christian Beal-Smith touchdown plunge.

Beamer has maligned his team’s slow starts over the last year-plus. Saturday’s 17-0 lead five minutes into the contest was as fast as it can get — shifting Williams-Brice Stadium from a sandstorm to an avalanche of white towels flung round in celebration.

“I told (special teams coordinator Pete Lembo), ‘We’re gonna make a play on special teams and it’s going to be the difference in this game,” Beamer recounted. “I didn’t know it was going to be on the very first play of the game.”

But you know the drill by now. It’s never that simple with South Carolina. Ever.

The Gamecocks offense was anemic in its best moments. It bordered on unwatchable at its worst.

South Carolina trudged to 98 yards in the first half. Rattler completed a season-low 48% of his 25 attempts. Running back MarShawn Lloyd — who’d recorded 359 yards rushing in the three previous games — notched just three carries in the opening 30 minutes.

Texas A&M took USC’s inability to do much on offense Saturday and hung around. It cut the Gamecocks lead to three with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter. A fourth-quarter field goal and a recovered onside kick made the ending nervier than it ever should have been in the first place.

But it was those Gamecocks and their Beamer Ball that found the late punches they needed.

Beamer told Marcus Satterfield to “just get the ball to our best players and let them go make plays.” Seems like a simple enough ask out of an offensive coordinator who’s been equal parts wizard and head-scratching over his up-and-down 20 games as South Carolina’s primary play-caller.

The Gamecocks heeded their head coach’s advice down the stretch.

Jalen Brooks added a sneaky 16 yards on an otherwise quiet night via the same end-around play that led to the game-deciding touchdown at Kentucky two weeks ago.

Lloyd ran for 81 of his 92 yards in the second half. His four-yard touchdown scamper — Lloyd’s seventh score in his last four games — gave the Gamecocks the breathing room they so desperately sought when he burst through the line for the final USC tally of the night.

It amounted to South Carolina first ever win over Texas A&M in nine tries.

“We were able to show people that two weeks ago (beating Kentucky) wasn’t a fluke,” Lloyd said postgame. “We’re here now. South Carolina is on the rise. We’re here to compete with anyone and we’re just going to just keep getting better and better each week.”

There’s been little about South Carolina’s season that’s been picture perfect. USC muddied things up in ugly wins over Charlotte and Georgia State. It beat then-No. 13 Kentucky sans Wildcats starting quarterback Will Levis. Even the victory over Texas A&M will draw asterisks as the once-hyped Aggies seem destined for a 6-6 season or worse.

But, in the end, who cares if the portrait Beamer and his squad are painting is a piece worthy of Picasso or a preschooler?

South Carolina is 5-2 and has a chance to reach bowl eligibility in October for just the second time in a decade.

Beamer Ball might be ugly, but the outcome is worth every extra heart palpitation along the way.