‘Rising star in the league.’ What Texas A&M said about QB LaNorris Sellers, Gamecocks
Taurean York had high praise for LaNorris Sellers on Saturday.
The Texas A&M linebacker came away impressed at the performance the South Carolina quarterback put on against the 10th-ranked Aggies. Sellers threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for a career-high 106 yards and a score in the 44-20 victory at Williams Brice Stadium.
“Good player, rising star in this league,” York said of Sellers. “That is their guy here and the future of South Carolina. He put it on display today. My hat’s off to him. We played a bad game and he excelled and took advantage of it. That is what good football players do.”
Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said he warned his team on how hard it was going to be to bring the 242-pound Sellers down. Elko, in his postgame press conference, simply laughed and shook his head when asked about his team’s inability to tackle the redshirt freshman.
The Aggies (7-2, 5-1 SEC) had their chances to sack him on several occasions but it never happened as he eluded the rush and found open lanes.
It was just the second time this season the Aggies didn’t record a sack in a game. The other came against McNeese State.
“I think we were close to getting him a bunch of times and we got him none. That is why I was chuckling,” Elko said. “He is a big kid and I did a poor job of getting kids to understand how you have to tackle a 240-pound kid. We kept going up high around him and he was too sharp for that.”
Gamecocks physical up front
Texas A&M came into Saturday’s game known for their physical style of play, especially on the offensive line. But the Gamecocks (5-3, 3-3 SEC) turned out to be more dominant, rushing for 286 yards and piling up 530 total yards.
“They beat us on the line of scrimmage, both sides of the ball, controlled the game and forced turnovers,” Elko said. “We couldn’t run the ball. We couldn’t tackle the quarterback. We didn’t do any things we needed to do to win the football game. We got to get better and we got to fix them.”
Change of momentum
A big point in the game happened just before halftime. Texas A&M took a 20-17 lead on Marcel Reed’s touchdown pass to Jabre Barber with 1:07 left in the second quarter.
But USC was able to answer, thanks to a couple of penalties, including one that wiped away a Sellers’ fumble that the Aggies recovered.
“I thought we should have come into the locker room with the lead. The two-minute drive, we just gifted them three points to tie the game up,” Elko said. “That gave them the momentum back to some degree. We stormed back, had taken the lead. I thought we did a really good job, managing the clock at the end of the first half and left them very little time to go down the field. But we gave them 25 or 30 yards in penalties and gifted them a field goal.
“At 20-20, we still had a chance, but we misread the run on fourth-and-1 and they break it for a long touchdown. That was a killer.”
Penalties catch up with Texas A&M
Texas A&M came in as one of the most penalized teams in the Southeastern Conference. The Aggies were averaging 68.9 yards a game in penalties, fourth most in SEC, and were third in total penalties with 62. On Saturday, the Aggies had seven for 68 yards.
“It was an eye-opener for sure,” Reed said of the penalties. “Things like that will catch up with you as you go through the season. We’ve got to be smarter and play our brand of football.”
