South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers turned in one of his best performances of the season Saturday night, throwing for 153 yards on 11-of-14 passing and adding 81 rushing yards on 14 carries in the Gamecocks’ 35-13 win over Kentucky. After the game, Sellers spoke with the media about his performance, the team’s bounce-back win, and even a bizarre moment involving his grandfather.
When asked about the incident where Kentucky’s Seth McGowan hit a fan with a football, Sellers confirmed the fan was his grandfather.
“Yeah,” Sellers said.
Was he okay?
“Yeah. Nah, he was good,” Sellers replied, adding that he checked in on him after the game. Sellers admitted he saw the play unfold live:
“I saw it. When they showed it, I was like, ‘Oh, yo, that’s my granddaddy.’”
As for whether he confronted McGowan or expected a flag, Sellers said:
“No, I didn’t talk to him. I just went to (my grandfather) after the game, and he was good and all that.”
Switching gears to the field, Sellers felt good about how the offense performed.
“It was better. We’ve just got to continue to get better, fix those little things, and we’ll be all right.”
On his own strong rushing night, he explained:
“I don’t really think a lot changed. I think I was just more aggressive, really. When I’m running the ball, we can throw it as well. So it’s kind of like, if they were overplaying it, I’m pulling it. And if they’re overplaying the pass, I’m making that one guy miss, and it’s pretty much good from there.”
Sellers also praised freshman receiver Vandrevius Jacobs for his growth:
“Just getting more confidence and comfortable, really. He can run, he can obviously make guys miss. He’s good in the open field, so I’m checking the ball on him.”
After Kentucky scored on its opening drive, Sellers said there was no panic—only determination to answer.
“Any time a team comes to our stadium and tries to score on that first drive, it’s like, all right, we’ve got to go and answer. That’s not just this game, though; that’s pretty much any game you play.”
Asked about his confidence, Sellers brushed it off as just playing ball:
“I think it was just me playing football. It just happens. Pass protection breaks down sometimes, they blitz sometimes, you’ve got to get out of it and make a play.”
The win was especially meaningful after back-to-back losses.
“It obviously builds (confidence). Then going into a bye week is good, going in with a win. We’ve got two weeks to recover, get a lot of guys healthy. We’re going in in good spirits.”
Sellers acknowledged the offense still has plenty of room to grow:
“Yes. Obviously, we can continue to get better. Some stuff we missed, a lot of stuff we miss still, but it’s a good start.”
He praised running back Matt Fuller for his toughness:
“(Fuller) can break a lot of tackles. He’s slippery, he’s solid. So he just bounced off those hits. It was good to get him in there against an SEC defense, let him get in, take a couple hits, and get some yards.”
As for his focus during the bye week, Sellers emphasized execution:
“Just fixing those little things… communication, execution, spreading the ball around. Stuff like that, just finding more ways to get balls to the playmakers.”
On the defense’s two touchdowns, Sellers said it made his job easier:
“Pretty much it’s just staying warm because we were on the sideline for a long time. But they’re going out there making plays, they score points, so it’s easy on us. We’ve just got to keep it rolling, keep them off the field as much as we can.”
Ultimately, Sellers admitted the stakes were high for this matchup.
“Yeah. Definitely just coming off the last two weeks, we didn’t play our best. We know that. Going into the bye week, we had to get an SEC win. We’ve still got everything we want ahead of us. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time, and tonight was the start.”
