Everything LaNorris Sellers said after the Oklahoma game

South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers went 16-24 for 175 yards and a touchdown against Oklahoma. After the game, he spoke to the media.

Q: Can you just take us through the touchdown pass to Josh Simon?
Sellers: Y’all know, we run a lot of triple option and stuff, so we knew they were fearing that, scared of that. So they squeezed out on the back. We faked option pitch, and the backer jumped down and ran past Josh and Josh was wide open. (Simon chimes in, “I was wide open.”)

Q: What’s going through your head when the defense puts you up 21-0 like that?
Sellers: Really, just keep it going. Protect the ball, be smart, but still take shots when it’s there. Still continue to move the ball, keep them off the field, obviously, because they were on the field a lot that first quarter, just because it was getting turnovers and stuff. But just keep trying to throw. 

Q: You may have had your two best games so far against two of the biggest names on your schedule, Alabama and Oklahoma. How are you feeling confidence-wise and in terms of having control of this offense?
Sellers: I’m feeling good. I knew it was gonna be a process. It’s gonna be ups and downs in the process. They told me that at the beginning of the season, I mean, you’re not gonna go out there and do what you did in high school the first game. These are bigger, faster guys. So it’s like just enjoying the process really, making the mistakes.

Q: Clean game for you today, no turnovers. How do you assess your performance overall and what can you take that into the bye weekend and the rest of the season?
Sellers: Really just knowing my job, knowing everybody else’s job. Checking and protection and stuff, trying to get us protected, and then protecting the football honestly. And then we won so I feel like I did a pretty good job of that.

[See what other fans are saying on The Insiders Forum!]

Q: How difficult is it to balance protecting the ball with trying to make plays and ignoring outside noise?
Sellers: It’s easier for them to say, hey, you need to do this pr you need to do that playing quarterback. But it’s really not that, because it’s a balance of, like you said, making a play and then taking a sack and just living for the next play. They’ve been preaching that to me too. Like hey, we need to protect the ball a little bit better, but also you’ve got to make us right. You’re the last guy with the ball, so you’ve got to make plays happen when they’re there and then when it’s not there, just take a sack and move on.

Q: Do you feel there was anything different about you today with protecting the ball?
Sellers: Yeah, you saw a couple of them where i broke the first (sack) and then took the it the second time. If it’s first or second down you may as well take the sack But if it’s third or fourth down and you don’t want to get out of field goal range or something you’ve got to try to make something happen. So I tried to do that today. 

Q: The run game just struggled to get going today. What happened with that?
Sellers: It’s a good sound defense. Brent Venables, he was the DC at Clemson, so we knew it was going to be a challenge running the ball. We had some run mixed in, but we also had some quick passing stuff just because it’s a sound defense. They’re gonna play their assignments right and everything so we’ve just got to go ahead and execute better.

Q: You’ve had a really high completion percentage the last two weeks. Has it been a scheme to get the ball out quicker?
Sellers: I think it’s a mixture of us, the way we’re practicing and just playing against our defensive.  You’ve got to do that practice. I mean, you probably get harder looks from our defense in practice, no offense to other defenses we play. But you know hard our defense is playing. Just me seeing it better, more comfortable, receivers getting open. So just a mix of all of that.

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!