When you’re drawing comparisons to Superman by other SEC coaches, heroic plays come second nature. At this point, they’re almost expected when South Carolina’s in peril and the Gamecocks need a spark. Not since Cam Newton’s stellar season at Auburn in 2010 has this moniker been mentioned around the league and now, Shane Beamer has his own version of Clark Kent in redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers.
He doesn’t need a phone booth to sport his cape, however. There were rumblings after spring and during the first few fall practices that Sellers was ascending after showing off substantial personal improvements in his game since serving as Spencer Rattler’s understudy last fall.
None of that was uttered on the record, though. There was good reason to be hesitant. Sellers hadn’t start a game in his career and his previous highlights had come in garbage time against Furman and Vanderbilt.
Now, with South Carolina sporting its first national ranking in two years and hoping to play disruptor in the College Football Playoff picture, Sellers is playing as well as any quarterback in the country down the stretch with 10 touchdown passes, a touchdown rush and 1,227 yards of total offense during this four-game winning streak.
The last three victories have come against nationally-ranked competition, the first time that’s been accomplished in program history — not bad for a player teased for wearing glasses earlier in the year from those who had no idea the Gamecocks were set to unleash Krypton’s finest.
Sellers flipped his commitment from Syracuse to South Carolina during the Early Signing Period in 2022 as one of the Gamecocks’ headliners.
The Big Spur’s JC Shurburtt, who has covered SEC recruiting with a South Carolina focus for more than two decades, doesn’t remember the Gamecocks ever signing a quarterback who’s been this good, this quick in the run and throw game in Columbia.
“Two things in my opinion make Sellers different,” Shurburtt said. “The first is the obvious — he’s 242 pounds, 6-foot-4 and is cat quick with elite acceleration in the open field. That’s extremely rare when you package it with good arm talent and proven production in the pass game at the high school level.
“The second, frankly, is his calmness and maturity. He’s hard to rattle and has openly talked about using part of Nick Saban’s process which involves focusing on the play at hand and not the outcome or what happened previously. That’s advanced for a young player and that type of mindset tends to lead to success on the mental side of playing that position.”
Sellers looked like a seasoned vet in the fourth quarter of the Gamecocks’ 34-30 win over Missouri, twice leading go-ahead touchdown drives punctuated by his play-making ability with his team trailing. And like a superhero darting between buildings and avoiding various villains, Sellers seems to welcome the pressure of oncoming edge rushers when plays break down.
Instances that resulted in sacks in September have become chain-moving, momentum-boosters in November. That’s the beauty of facing live rounds against quality opponents while strengthening your armor.
Sellers’ fifth touchdown pass against the Tigers was a shovel toss to Rocket Sanders, who broke several tackles in the middle of the field and sent Williams Brice Stadium into a frenzy with 15 seconds left to cap a six-play, 70-yard march.
Sellers is the first South Carolina quarterback to engineer a game-winning drive when trailing in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter since Dylan Thompson’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Ellington beat Michigan in the Outback Bowl capped the 2012 season.
It hasn’t always looked this easy for Sellers as a first-year starter. He was sacked six times and lost two turnovers during a home loss to Ole Miss before dropping a critical snap for another mistake and sailing a two-point conversion try at Alabama in the final moments.
Early on, things were happening too fast with too much to process for the kid from Florence, South Carolina, but the game has slowed down. He’s matured in rapid time and the errors have evaporated.
“Anything that you aren’t successful at before, now you learn from,” Sellers said after South Carolina’s first win over Missouri since 2018. “I feel like tonight was one of the moments I learned from, brought it to the field and just executed.”
South Carolina plays Wofford this weekend before ending the season at Clemson in a must-watch Palmetto Bowl, which will feature two of the more exciting quarterbacks in college football in Sellers and Cade Klubnik, who each profile as faces of the sport in 2025 and early contenders for that season’s Heisman Trophy.
“[Sellers] is just a really good quarterback,” Beamer said, “and he continues to get better every week.”
