One of the most exciting teams to watch for this upcoming college football season is the South Caroline Gamecocks. This is just about the most exciting time it’s ever been to be a Gamecocks fan under their head coach, Shane Beamer. It’s also in large part due to the play of their very exciting starting quarterback, LaNorris Sellers.
After a big breakout year in 2024, Beamer expects Sellers to be that much better this upcoming season. This is largely due to, as he explained on “Always College Football,” his young quarterback continuing to grow in the offseason. This is growth that Beamer even saw back to last season from early games against the Kentucky Wildcats.
Shane Beamer Opens Up on LaNorris Sellers’ Growth and Rising Stardom
Beamer explains why QB LaNorris Sellers is entering the 2025 season on another level and how his evolution could change the Gamecocks’ trajectory.
“He made some plays in that game with his feet,” Shane Beamer said. “Now, we got hit one time because he missed the blitz pickup, and he had to get himself out of trouble, but he made plays in that game. I knew he would continue to get better as the year went on because if you remember, there was a period of that game where he got knocked out and he wasn’t in the game for a couple of series.”
“The next week we played LSU, and he didn’t play the whole second half. So, the Ole Miss game, which I think was game five for us, that was the first game that he played in its entirety.”
Sellers first came to South Carolina as a four-star recruit as part of the 2023 recruiting class. He broke out in 2024, completing 65.6 percent of his passes and throwing for 2,534 yards and a whopping 18 touchdowns. He also rushed for 674 yards and even got into the endzone seven times on his feet.
“So, he continued to get better throughout the year. He’s continued to get better since the season ended, through January, February, and then March and April with spring practice,” Beamer said. “But, to answer your question, I think his life has changed a lot.”
“You’re the quarterback at the University of South Carolina. You’re already on a pedestal. You’re from South Carolina, an hour down the road from Florence, and you’re even more so on a pedestal. With as good of a player as he is, it’s different.”
South Carolina had a much better season than just about any expert predicted they would. The Gamecocks finished with nine wins and four losses and were just outside of the College Football Playoff discussion.
They went on to have a dramatic Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve as well before entering the offseason. It’s in the offseason, however, that Beamer believes Sellers took another giant leap forward.
“Talking to him a little bit, during the season, you’re kind of in your bubble. You go to class, come to football, you’re in your routine. I think for him, and I don’t want to speak for LaNorris, but just in having some conversations with him, I think he realized that after the Clemson game where you’ve got a month where we’re not playing a game, you kind of be a normal person a little bit more.”
“Certainly, after that Clemson game and the plays he made in that game, if people didn’t already learn about him, they knew more about him nationally, even more so after that game,” Beamer said.
“But I think he’s handled it well. He’s a great young man, he’s got great humility about himself. He’s very steady. Nothing bothers him. He’s sitting here, one of the premier quarterbacks in college football, and a couple of days ago, he was texting me for the summer schedule for the workouts, the times each day, because he’s arranging an internship that he’s got to do this summer for his major. Stuff like that. He’s got his priorities in order. His life has changed. He’s handling it well.”
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South Carolina is looking to continue its impressive play, shock the world, and make it into the College Football Playoff this upcoming season. Sellers will play a pivotal part in that, and they’ll need him at his best when they kick off their season on August 31 against Virginia Tech.
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