Jawarn Howell praises LaNorris Sellers' leadership on Garnet Trust Hour
South Carolina running back transfer Jawarn Howell has only been in Columbia since January but it didn’t take him long to realize what all the LaNorris Sellers hype is about.
“I can tell you right now, what buzz you’ve heard about LaNorris, it’s not enough,” Howell said with a laugh Thursday during an appearance on the Garnet Trust Hour on 107.5 The Game. “I can tell you right now, he’s a special player, and he can really get this job done. So, I’m ten toes behind him and anything he does. We’re ready to get this thing started.”
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While South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer has not named a starter for the Gamecocks’ season-opener against Old Dominion, he has said that the redshirt freshman Sellers exits spring and enters the summer as the Gamecocks’ starter.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pounder has already developed a reputation for his playmaking skills as both a thrower and runner, but Howell quickly pointed to his teammate’s intangibles.
“I would say what stands out about LaNorris to me is his leadership skills,” said Howell, who transferred to South Carolina after a big season at SC State. “He’s able to control the team at such a young age while facing a lot of obstacles. We’re involving new things in the playbook, bringing in some transfer guys, new receivers, new O-line, essentially. So, it’s really his leadership skills.”
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Last season, Sellers completed all four of his passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns adding five carries for 51 yards and a score.
In the spring game, Sellers completed 9 of 11 passes for 70 yards to go along with five carries for 38 yards and a touchdown in limited action.
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If Sellers indeed follows through as the starter in the fall, he’ll replace Spencer Rattler who emerged as the Gamecocks’ unquestioned leader over the last two seasons. There are personality differences between the two but even with Sellers’ calm demeanor, his teammates already see an emerging leader.
“I feel like he’s calm at all times, but you can see the fire in his eyes,” Howell said. “I never played on the opposite side of the ball as him, but I feel like you wouldn’t really want to either with that frame he has and just his demeanor to play the ball. You can see in practice he wants to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s drills, he wants to be the best. He wants the team to be the best. So he definitely has that fierce dog competition in him. And that’s what you need at quarterback, you need a guy like that, that always wants to win, that never wants to lose. So in my eyes, he’s a great quarterback for us.”
