How South Carolina's offense looked once LaNorris Sellers came out and Robby Ashford stepped in

All LaNorris Sellers wanted to do was be out on the field. With South Carolina in a tight-knit battle with LSU on Saturday, all the redshirt freshman quarterback could do was watch on.

Right before halftime, the Tigers defense brought pressure and Sellers rolled his right ankle as a defender took him to the ground for a third-down sack. Sellers had his ankle checked out during the break and came back out to the sideline as the third quarter began. But backup Robby Ashford ran out with the starters for the first series.

Sellers eventually tried to give it a go on the next drive with his team leading by two points. But after going three-and-out, it was clear to him and everyone else he wasn’t operating at 100 percent. He didn’t play another snap after that, and his absence proved to be a difference in the Gamecocks’ 36-33 loss to LSU.

“It makes you feel bad, but you’ve got to be a team player, people look up to you,” Sellers said. “You’ve got to have a good mindset, good attitude about everything. Just keep the guys up, telling them what I’m seeing. Tell them like, ‘Hey, y’all are good, y’all are fine, y’all are moving the ball. Just keep playing smart football.'”

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With Sellers’ day done, Ashford took over the rest of the way, playing 25 snaps on Saturday. Despite his best efforts, the offense didn’t operate the same as it did before Ashford had to come into the game. That’s not to say Ashford didn’t play well. He did what he could. But the offense was built for Sellers, and not having him out there made things tougher.

South Carolina only ran six plays during two drives in the third quarter for a grand total of one yard. That’s right. One yard. Meanwhile, LSU was rolling and starting to close the gap on the deficit and picked up 175 yards in the quarter.

In that span, the Gamecocks ran five straight run plays before throwing a pass on what would be Sellers’ final play of the game. Ashford’s first pass attempt didn’t come until a few minutes into the fourth quarter. But he knew the plan was to roll with what worked before he came in.

“When I got in there, we were winning and we got a very great defense,” Ashford said. “I felt like at that time it was the kind of situation where we’ve got the lead, why risk anything? Why not give it to Rocket Sanders, who’s arguably the best running back in the SEC? Why not feed him? Why not just try and let our O-line out-physical those guys because we were all game.”

In fairness, South Carolina had a great game on the ground. The offense ran for a season-high 243 yards on 41 carries with four touchdowns. Plus, Sanders was having a solid day with 143 yards and two touchdowns. Why not keep running the ball?

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However, with the way LSU’s defense was bringing pressure, it was becoming tougher to make big plays in the run game, unless it was Sanders, who had a big 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

So eventually, South Carolina tried to open the passing game a little more often as the game neared its end. The offense wanted to do more than just run the ball. It just never ended up being that way with only four pass attempts for 42 yards from Ashford.

To be fair, there were more pass plays called for the offense. Ashford ran the ball 11 times but six of those were him scrambling and picking up yardage. He was also sacked three times and fumbled twice.

“We’ve got confidence in Robby as a quarterback and felt good about our ability to run the ball because I thought we were leaning on those guys, and we had some explosive runs with Rocket. I mean, our plan always is to run the ball. It wasn’t necessarily let’s run the ball more in the second half. We just needed to continue to move the ball and make plays — run and pass,” head coach Shane Beamer said.

“You lose your starting quarterback, that certainly is not ideal. But it wasn’t like we went in at halftime and said, ‘Hey, let’s run the ball and be conservative and hope our defense can hang on.’ That wasn’t the thought process at all.”

When Ashford did throw the ball, he made some nice throws, with his best one being a 31-yard connection with Vandrevius Jacobs. Outside of that, he only completed one more pass in the game for 11 yards. He did have another long pass go for 43 yards, but that was wiped out on an offensive pass interference call.

The difference between how the offense operated with Sellers vs. Ashford was almost night and day. In the first half, South Carolina totaled 24 points and 265 yards on 37 plays. Excluding Sellers’ one second half series, Ashford and the offense put up nine points and 127 yards on 21 plays.

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While it may seem South Carolina didn’t have the same confidence throwing the ball like they would have with Sellers, Ashford believed in what he could do and knew the team did as well.

“A lot of people can say whatever they want to but never been in my shoes, never had to go through what I went through. They’re still couch coaches, so I don’t really care about what they got to say,” Ashford said. “All those folks can go and say whatever, but I have faith and the utmost trust in Coach (Dowell Loggains) and Coach Beamer with what they want to run. So, I’m never going to sit here and argue about it. My job is to go out there and command the offense and do what I’m asked to do.”

After a loss like the one on Saturday, there were plenty of what if moments. But none were as big as Sellers’ absence. If he didn’t get hurt, what would that have meant for South Carolina? Would the offense continue to fire away and lock down a huge win? Perhaps.

It’s all hypothetical, though. The reality is the Gamecocks have now seen what life looks like without Sellers under center. It’s not bad by any means when Ashford steps in. But it’s not the same level of production.

Sellers should be fine for next weekend’s matchup against Akron (7:30, ESPNU). Even if he’s not, South Carolina should be able to manage and win. It just starts making you think, though, what if this happens again? You just hope it goes better. Or for that matter, doesn’t have to become a reality at all.

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