It looked like the remnants of a natural disaster.

Walking behind the north end zone at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night, those signature hedges were rubble. It was as if a tornado had swept through, pulverizing those perfectly manicured plants into sticks and scattered leaves.

Less than an hour earlier, kicker Malik Orsan booted a 48-yard field goal as time expired, securing South Carolina’s upset of No. 11 Tennessee. As the refs signaled Orsan’s kick good, it was as if they'd shot off a starting gun. A mass of USC students bolted toward the field, with only those magnificent Ligustrum hedges in their way.

Let’s just say the bushes became ladders and landing pads and everything in between for about 15,000 folks who congregated on the grass. Another 15,000 or so either hopped over the sideline railings or just walked on the field through the opened gates — aka: the field storm for anyone over 30.

This, of course, is not new. South Carolina has now stormed the field three times in coach Shane Beamer’s tenure following wins over No. 5 Tennessee (2022), No. 10 Texas A&M (2024) and, now, No. 11 Tennessee (2026). And after each, South Carolina head groundskeeper Tim Flanagan’s phone blows up with people feeling sorry for him.

“Oh man, it’s like a wave of emotions,” Flanagan told The State on Sunday. “There’s times where I’m like angry, like 'Oh my god, this is terrible.’ And other times I’m a fan about it and I’m like, ‘This is awesome.’ And I think it’s just because I’m 'seasoned’ in this, I know what the expectations are and I know what’s coming.”

What he didn’t realize until well after the game: This destruction looked like a tea party compared to that 2024 post-Texas A&M field-storming.

His crew two years ago was digging through the rubble discovering meaningful possessions mixed in with obscurities: phones, wallets, credit cards, sunglasses, vapes, single shoes. On that night, too, a swarm of fans gathered at midfield, rubbing their towels on the "Block-C" logo, physically memorializing the night.

Others dug up chunks of the grass (which also clearly happened in a few spots Saturday, Flanagan said) or pulled out what they could of the hedges, either for pictures or an upstart home garden.

There was less of that on Saturday.

“I think people got their taste a couple years ago,” Flanagan said, “because the shrubs took a beating just from the stampede ... but there wasn’t a whole lot of people walking away with shrubs like they were a few years ago. We saw some guys walking down Bluff Road with a shrub (in 2024).”

Granted, that doesn’t mean the hedges are salvageable — at least on the student-section side (north side).

The question now: Will South Carolina replace the hedges this season? The Gamecocks have two more games at Williams-Brice Stadium in 2026, starting in two weeks against Texas A&M.

To make it look like Saturday never happened, Flanagan said, they’ll likely have to plant between 225 and 250 mature Ligustrums, as they did after the Texas A&M game. The price tag on that?

“A lot,” Flanagan said.

An athletics source said Sunday that the athletic department is still working through the next steps of what it’ll do about the hedges. Possibly complicating the decision: The field-storming already cost South Carolina $500,000.

If the athletic department decides that football cannot be played at Williams-Brice Stadium without envious hedges in the end zones — rather than padding covering up railings that might serve as a reminder of the Tennessee game — then Flanagan and his team will get to work.

“You’ve gotta dig them all out, and then you’ve gotta get all the (new shrubs) in,” Flanagan said. “It’s a day of a couple days of prep, a couple days of planting. So, you just factor in five to six solid work days.

“(But) it’s our look,” he added. “It’s our look, and we’ve proven we can make it happen.”

Flanagan prepared for this moment. Heading into the Tennessee game, he put together a field rush plan that included ensuring there were enough Ligustrums on standby for South Carolina to purchase if it needed. The plan, of course, also included ensuring the field was ready for the Gamecocks’ return in two weeks.

On Saturday night, Flanagan’s crew went through the field with a groomer — basically standing the grass back up after it was squashed and matted down by a million shoes — and a sweeper, which cleared the grass of all debris. They then threw down some rye grass seed to ensure the playing surface is pristine for November.

The grass, as it always does, will look immaculate. But will the hedges?