South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers was knocked out of Saturday night’s 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt after taking a brutal hit to the head from Commodores linebacker Langston Patterson late in the second quarter.
On Sunday morning, On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed that Sellers suffered a concussion on the play, which was flagged for targeting and resulted in Patterson’s ejection.
Head coach Shane Beamer, speaking during his halftime interview, expressed frustration over how long it took officials to review the hit.
“I asked him as soon as it happened if [they were] looking at it for targeting,” Beamer said. “For our quarterback to be lying there on the ground like that, he probably got hit in the head. And then, for whatever reason, it took them a while to buzz down.
“So, I don’t know what’s going on in Birmingham or wherever they look at it, but I thought it was pretty obvious.”
Before leaving the game, Sellers had completed 6-of-7 passes for 94 yards with one interception, and he had also led a scoring drive early in the first quarter. His replacement, sixth-year senior Luke Doty, entered just before halftime and finished the night with 148 yards passing on 18-of-27 completions, plus 20 rushing yards. However, Doty also committed two turnovers — a fumble and an interception — which stalled South Carolina’s comeback hopes.
Sellers’ availability for next week’s road matchup against unbeaten Missouri remains uncertain. Beamer confirmed that the team will be monitoring his recovery closely, and Doty is expected to start if the sophomore quarterback cannot play
