COLUMBIA — Josh Heupel has been to Williams-Brice Stadium twice as Tennesssee football coach but neither time ended in a postgame handshake with coach Shane Beamer because fans storming the field got in the way.

South Carolina football was unranked when it beat the No. 5 Vols in 2022, and the same thing happened on Oct. 24, when the Gamecocks (4-3, 2-3 SEC) beat the No. 11 Vols (6-2, 4-2) 27-24.

Malik Orsan nailed a 48-yard field goal as time expired and fans poured onto the field. Per the SEC's access to competition area policy, South Carolina owes Tennessee $500,000 for the field storm.

There were also incidents during the field storm, according to videos surfacing on social media. UT linebacker Jeremiah Telander appeared to throw a punch at a South Carolina player. And UT defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs appeared to push a South Carolina fan to the ground while the fan was running away carrying UT equipment. Fans also yelled profanities and waved their hands in UT players’ faces.

“I just try and coach the team and win football games," Beamer said Oct. 25. "I love the passion of our fan base. Obviously, in a situation like that, the SEC has a policy. You're concerned about the safety of fans and safety of players on both teams so that's paramount. At the end, my job is just to try and coach the team to where we can win a football game and have moments like we had last night at the end of the game celebrating.”

Beamer was right in the middle of the celebration, as was quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who stretched backward for a 4-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game with a minute left.

Sellers was interviewed by ESPN's Taylor McGregor as South Carolina staff members held their arms out, fending off excited fans.

“Intense,” Beamer said of the field storm. “There's the euphoria of him making the kick, and almost like ‘Wow, did that really just happen?’... Then at that point it’s like ‘OK how are we going to get out of here?’ But I mean, I'm not going to lie, it was awesome.”

Beamer said he was trying to find Heupel to shake his hand as soon as the game ended but that was "impossible" to do.

"The fans are amazing, saw a bunch of recruits that stormed the field, and they were running around. And then you're around a bunch of people that you don't know and all of a sudden you see one of your own players, and you get to embrace,” Beamer said. “ Then … try and find my family … got down toward the end zone where our tunnel is, and saw Emily (his wife) for the first time, and that was a pretty cool moment to be able to celebrate with her, and then get in the locker room and celebrate with the team. So it was intense, but what a what an amazing night.”

Shane Beamer on Vicari Swain penalties, ejection vs Tennessee

Starting cornerback Vicari Swain wasn't on the field to celebrate because he was ejected for targeting right before halftime.

It was the third penalty on Swain in the first half, as he had two personal fouls. The first off-set, with a Tennessee player also involved, but the second led to a touchdown for the Vols to make it 14-7.

“He's got to play for us,” Beamer said. “He knows that he's made a lot of great plays for us. He was matched up against a really good receiver last night … I think the play before he and the guy got into it, or a couple plays before where it was offsetting penalties, and I think he let that lead into the next play, which he can't do.”

Then with 1:42 left in the second quarter, South Carolina had a 17-14 lead when Swain was called for targeting on a hit on Mike Matthews. Six snaps later, the Vols scored again to go up into the break.

“Don’t have a problem with necessarily the technique that he played at the line of scrimmage. We got to be better about where we're putting our hands … then we got to be smarter on the targeting penalty that they called,” Beamer said. “My conversation with him was, ‘We got to play with technique’ and that was the point of emphasis for our entire team all week was playing with great technique and great fundamentals, and that's what got him in trouble on those two penalties last night.”

Next up is Oklahoma (4-3, 2-1) on Oct. 31 (4:15 pm ET, SEC Network) in Norman.