LaNorris Sellers' 1st SEC road start ends in South Carolina victory over Kentucky

The pressure was on for South Carolina after a narrow season-opening win over Old Dominion on Aug. 31. A lot of that pressure also fell on the shoulders of LaNorris Sellers.

Sellers’ first collegiate start against the Monarchs was far from ideal. There were moments in his second game of the 2024 season that weren’t pretty, either.

But the redshirt freshman quarterback showed flashes of improvement at Kroger Field on Saturday. And those flashes – along with another strong performance from South Carolina’s defense – helped South Carolina pick up an important 31-6 win over Kentucky.

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“What a team win for our football program. Offense, defense, special teams – you talk about gritty. You talk about tough. You talk about competitive. We showed it all today,” Shane Beamer said.

“Coming on the road, you’ve got to have great toughness. Check. You’ve got to have great physicality. Check. When adversity hits, you’ve got to have great composure. Check. And great togetherness, and we showed that, as well. We talked about getting that game into the fourth quarter and finding a way to win it, and we absolutely did.”

Before Sellers and South Carolina’s offense could find their groove, the team’s defense would set the tone early.

The Gamecocks’ 23-19 win over the Monarchs was due in part due to a strong performance from South Carolina’s (2-0, 1-0 SEC) defensive line and secondary. The Gamecocks sung a similar tune against Kentucky (1-1, 0-1 SEC), as it kept the Wildcats’ offense at bay during the opening 30 minutes of the game.

As a whole, South Carolina’s defense recorded three sacks and six tackles for loss in the opening half. The Gamecocks also forced two fumbles, both of which were recovered by the Wildcats.

South Carolina also made multiple big stops to stunt Kentucky’s offensive drives – most notably at the beginning of the second quarter, when Tonka Hemingway and Alex Huntley combined to tackled Wildcat quarterback Brock Vandagriff short of the yard to gain on a fourth-and-one play in Kentucky territory. The Gamecocks would take over on downs and eventually score on a 29-yard field goal from Alex Herrera.

Kentucky went scoreless on its first five drives. The team was forced to punt on the first four and turned the ball over on downs on the fifth.

But the Wildcats would eventually get on the scoresheet before the half was over. Kentucky used its ground-and-pound offense – which attempted 30 rushes compared to six passes – to march the ball down the field. The drive culminated in a 32-yard field goal from Alex Raynor.

Then, Kentucky had an opportunity to head into the halftime break with a tied score. LaNorris Sellers tossed his first collegiate interception on a pass intended for Jared Brown, allowing the Wildcats to retain possession at the Gamecocks’ 27-yard line. Three plays later, Raynor kicked another field goal to make the score 10-6 at the half.

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South Carolina’s lone touchdown in the first half came on the team’s second drive. Sellers appeared calm and composed in the pocket, as he helped the team gain 61 yards on four plays in less than one-and-a-half minutes.

“I felt a lot more comfortable than last week. I just needed to get that game out of my system,” Sellers said. “Once we started rolling, started getting completions, started moving the ball, I feel like we were just going.”

The final play of the drive – a 24-yard touchdown pass to Mazeo Bennett, the first of his Gamecock career – gave the Gamecocks an early 7-0 advantage.

South Carolina would suffer an injury scare on the next drive, as Sellers headed to the locker room with trainers after suffering an apparent knock to his lower leg. The Gamecocks subsequently ushered backup quarterback Robby Ashford into the game to lead the offense for the time being.

Two drives later, Sellers would return to the game.

“I knew I was going back in. I wasn’t going to play one drive and then come out the rest of the game. You don’t want to do that, especially on the road,” Sellers said. “It was never my decision to sit out at all.”

Upon his return to the game, Sellers re-appeared without the poise he showed on South Carolina’s touchdown drive. He nearly fumbled the ball just before his second-quarter interception. The Gamecocks lost seven yards on the play, which was ruled a completed pass to Joshua Simon.

Sellers experienced a shaky start to the second half, too. The redshirt freshman quarterback fumbled the ball twice on South Carolina’s first drive of the half. Fortunately for the Gamecocks, both were recovered by the offense.

Sellers found a way to restore some confidence midway through the third quarter, though – albeit with some help from Kentucky’s defense. Facing a fourth-and-one situation from midfield, South Carolina got Octavious Oxendine to jump across the line of scrimmage, giving it a first down.

“I think it was huge. Every play is a big play in this game just because it’s typically been a low-scoring game, and it’s a defensive slugfest,” Beamer said. “Being able to stay on the field and stay aggressive was something we needed to be able to do… And what goes into it, it’s something that we worked on in preseason camp.”

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What started as a subpar drive would eventually become another scoring opportunity for the Gamecocks. After South Carolina recorded -4 yards on the first two plays after the penalty, Sellers fired two passes. One was a 32-yard gain to Brown on a third-and-14th play. And the other found Simon in the end zone, giving the Gamecocks a 17-6 advantage.

That score was the first indication that momentum was shifting in South Carolina’s favor. And it would remain that way for the rest of the contest.

A six-yard rushing touchdown from Rocket Sanders put an exclamation point on a nine-play, 43-yard drive on the Gamecocks’ next possession.

But the third and fourth quarters ultimately became another opportunity for South Carolina to showcase its defensive quality.

When Kentucky regained possession of the ball, it would not keep it for long. Nick Emmanwori would not only force South Carolina’s first turnover of the game, but also add another six points to South Carolina’s lead, by intercepting a pass from Vandagriff and running it 24 yards to the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“Coach (Clayton) White was doing a good job calling the defense all day. I just read the quarterback, turned my head and took it for six,” Emmanwori said. “Then, I got a flag. That was on me, and I apologize to Coach. It probably wasn’t smart football. I was a little excited, though.”

Jalon Kilgore would add to the Wildcats’ woes with an interception of his own on the home team’s next drive, which was Kentucky backup quarterback Gavin Wimsatt’s first action of the game.

Overall, the Gamecocks held the Wildcats to just 68 yards of offense in the second half – and even allowed negative yardage (-11 yards) in the third quarter – to cap off a second-straight dominant defensive display.

What’s next

South Carolina will now focus its attention on keeping its winning streak alive against LSU on Sept. 14. The game at Williams-Brice Stadium is set to kick off at noon on ABC.

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