The No. 23 Missouri Tigers face their first big SEC challenge of the season on Saturday night when they host the South Carolina Gamecocks. But heading into kickoff, the biggest storyline remains unresolved: who will be under center for Carolina.
Star sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers is still recovering from a concussion sustained during last weekend’s 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt. His participation in practice this week has been limited, leaving his status uncertain.
Reports on Thursday indicated that Sellers had returned to the practice field, but South Carolina has yet to make an official announcement on whether he will start against Missouri.
Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz made it clear on SiriusXM Friday that he isn’t letting the quarterback situation distract his team.
“I think that for us, worrying about who ends up playing quarterback is just a distraction,” Drinkwitz said. “Throughout the week, you attack the scheme. You don’t attack an individual player. I think for us we’re assuming that LaNorris is gonna be the quarterback, and everything we do is gonna be in adjustment off of if different.”
While Drinkwitz downplayed the importance of Carolina’s quarterback decision, there’s little doubt that the Gamecocks are a much more dangerous offense with Sellers at the helm.
All eyes will be on kickoff to see if Sellers is healthy enough to lead Shane Beamer’s squad, or if the Gamecocks will have to adjust without their playmaking quarterback against one of the SEC’s top-ranked teams.
