4 questions about South Carolina’s offense heading into the offseason
Considering all the questions about the Gamecocks’ offense coming into the season, it’s pretty incredible that South Carolina went 9-4 and finished with its best record under coach Shane Beamer and its highest win total since 2017, .
Redshirt freshman quarterback quarterback LaNorris Sellers — replacing Spencer Rattler — was a major unknown. As were the wide receivers, most of whom were transfer portal pickups.
Arkansas transfer tailback Rocket Sanders was coming off an injury. The entire offensive line was basically either new or also coming off an injury.
The group took its lumps, especially early, but Sellers found his footing. The offensive line gelled and stayed healthy. And while the receivers were OK most of the season, tight end Josh Simon was very good.
Looking toward next season, here are the top four questions we have about the Gamecocks’ offense:
1. What does LaNorris Sellers look like in a Mike Shula offense?
What South Carolina’s offense looks like in 2025 is basically just asking, what does a Mike Shula college offense look like? Shula, who worked as an offensive analyst with USC last year, is now the unit’s coordinator after Dowell Loggains took the Appalachian State head coaching gig.
And the first question upon Shula’s hire: What does this mean for Sellers?
First off — continuity. Sellers has a really good relationship with Shula and the latter was on the sidelines all year, talking with Sellers after drives and watching film together. That’s a great bond to carry over.
But it seems the top priority for Shula is to develop Sellers into a quarterback who gets the ball out quicker and doesn’t have to so often rely on his legs — which is a tough balance considering those legs were the most-spectacular part of USC’s offense in 2024.
“Some of those runs he’s had where he was just terrific running it,” Shula said in his introductory press conference, “he probably could have got the ball out on time where he didn’t have to run it.”
It will be interesting to see how Shula goes about making Sellers a better quarterback without discouraging Sellers’ rushing ability.
For what it’s worth: In the Citrus Bowl, where Shula called plays, Sellers ran 11 times for 19 yards. It was his third-worst rushing performance of the season. That might just be a coincidence, but will certainly create fodder heading into 2025.
2. What freshman wide receiver steps up?
OK, so South Carolina has four solid wide receivers returning in 2025: redshirt senior Jared Brown, junior Nyck Harbor, sophomore Mazeo Bennett and redshirt sophomore Vandrevious Jacobs.
Problem is: The best of that quartet in 2024 was Bennett, who caught 30 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps he transforms into a No. 1 receiver next year. Maybe it’s Brown. Or even Harbor, who really came into his own toward the end of the season.
The point is that there is room for a surprise. It seems very likely a receiver could join the roster this year and make an immediate impact.
Which brings us to the loaded freshman wide receiver class that Beamer and wide receivers coach Mike Furrey brought in. There are four four-star signees — Malik Clark (Rock Hill HS), Donovan Murph (Irmo HS), Lex Cryrus (from Pennsylvania), Brian Rowe (from North Carolina) — and a pair of three-stars in Jordon Gidron (Ridge View HS) and Jayden Sellers (South Florence HS).
That’s six highly rated wideouts stepping on campus for the Gamecocks.. The law of probability would suggest that at least one will shine next season. That means the only question is, which one?
Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
3. Is Oscar Adaway III going to be the starting running back?
It was quite clear that South Carolina is trying to land a transfer running back out of the portal. It hosted Alabama transfer Justice Haynes (who later committed to Michigan) before landing Utah State transfer Rahsul Faison on Tuesday.
So what does that mean for Oscar Adaway III, the soon-to-be seventh-year senior who is currently at the top of the Gamecocks’ running back depth chart?
If the Gamecocks didn’t add a transfer running back, it would have been assumed that Adaway enters the year as RB1 with Jawarn Howell and Matthew Fuller as backups.
But with Faison — who rushed for over 1,000 yards at Utah State last year — in the mix now, it seems reasonable to assume the pair will compete for the starting spot during spring and fall practices. Regardless of who wins the job, the pair will likely share the workload.
Neither are of Sanders’ caliber, and a multiple-running back system could be the best thing for the Gamecocks.
4. How many transfers start on the offensive line?
South Carolina is returning just two starters on its offensive line — left tackle Josiah Thompson and right tackle Cason Henry.
Center Vershon Lee, left guard Kamaar Bell and right guard Torricelli Simpkins III are all graduating, which raises the question: Are their replacements already on the team?
It’s hard to say, but the Gamecocks have already landed a trio of offensive linemen out of the portal: G Nick Sharpe (Wake Forest), G Rodney Newsom Jr. (Western Kentucky) and C/G Boaz Stanley (Troy). Those three guys positionally perfectly fit into the open starting spots.
Last season, the Gamecocks started two transfers — Bell and Simpkins — on the O-line, and they were two of the better blockers. So it’ll be interesting if it becomes a trend for South Carolina to turn transfer offensive linemen into immediate starters.
Or maybe we begin to see South Carolina’s offensive line recruiting start to pay dividends. Could redshirt sophomores Tree Babalade or Markee Anderson work their way into the rotation. Perhaps 6-foot-8, 345-pound redshirt freshman Kam Pringle could. Or redshirt junior Ryan Brubaker, who took some snaps at center in 2024.
