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'He's definitely a problem': Illinois defense aware of challenges that come with facing LaNorris Sellers

imageby:Jack Veltri•about 14 hours•

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LaNorris Sellers (Katie Dugan/GamecockCentral)

Miles Scott has seen the clip. You know, the one that everybody can’t stop talking about more than three weeks after it happened.

Once the Illinois defensive back watched the highlight, he knew what type of player he was facing. He could immediately tell just how good LaNorris Sellers was.

“Just the way that he’s able to escape the pocket and evade defenders,” Scott said. “I’ve seen the one play versus Clemson where it was really like a cartoon. Like four dudes were on top of him and then he just escaped out of there and ran for like 30 yards after.”

The “one play” Scott was referring to was when Sellers ran into the end zone for a go-ahead 20-yard touchdown to help South Carolina beat Clemson on Nov. 30. It’s a play that even Sellers himself has watched repeatedly. The same goes for Scott with the Fighting Illini taking on the Gamecocks in the Citrus Bowl on Tuesday.

“He’s definitely a problem,” Scott said. “And I feel like a lot of the quarterbacks that we’ve seen are talented, for sure. But I think LaNorris Sellers is in a different category.”

Both Scott and defensive coordinator Aaron Henry felt facing Toledo’s Dequan Finn was the best comparison to what they could expect from Sellers. When Illinois hosted Toledo in its season opener in 2023, Finn was unstoppable. He threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 75 yards and one score on the ground.

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While mobile quarterbacks are nothing Illinois’ defense hasn’t seen before, Henry did admit Sellers is “a little bit different.”

“The reason why he’s a little bit different is because he is 6’3″ and I think he’s 230-225 (pounds),” Henry said. “I mean, he’s just a bigger target. He has a live arm. … He was a freshman of the year for a reason.

“But I do think over the course of last couple of years, some of the teams that we have played, not holistically, but just with some of the things that some of the quarterbacks have been able to do, in terms of being able to run the ball and run around a little bit, they have helped us, to a degree, prepare for a young man of this caliber.”

In preparation for this game, Illinois has been utilizing freshman Trey Petty as the quarterback to recreate Sellers in practice. Petty hasn’t played in a game this season, but he fits what the team is asking him to do.

At Starkville (MS) High School, Petty totaled nearly 7,000 passing yards, over 3,000 rushing yards, and over 100 total touchdowns during his career. Because of his track record, it’s put Illinois in a better position to get ready for Sellers. But even then, Henry felt it’s still hard to fully replicate what Sellers does.

“Kudos to Trey Petty,” Henry said. “… I mean, he’s done a tremendous job, and LaNorris Sellers is really, really hard to replicate. But he’s done a tremendous job for us over the last 15 practices of really kind of giving us that look.”

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