Shane Beamer praises LaNorris Sellers’ aggressive running style against Kentucky
South Carolina showed some much-needed improvement in the run game on Saturday in a 35-13 win over Kentucky.
The Gamecocks ran the ball 48 times for a season-high 178 yards, up from the measly minus-nine yards South Carolina recorded a week prior against Missouri.
Leading the pack against Kentucky was LaNorris Sellers. The Gamecocks’ quarterback tallied a season-high 81 yards on 14 carries, the most he’s recorded since the Clemson game last year.
His yardage against Kentucky was also more than he’s totaled in all of the last four games. South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said on his Sunday night teleconference the biggest difference against Kentucky was Sellers aggressiveness.
“Probab/ly just his aggressiveness in running the ball,” Beamer said. “There were a couple times last night that we had some called runs that were supposed to be automatic handoffs that he pulled anyway.”
Beamer was quick to emphasize that wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary and that Sellers had not “gone rouge” and wasn’t “doing his own thing.”
“There were some plays that were called runs to a running back but he realized that maybe it wasn’t an ideal play because of what they (defense) were doing and he ended up pulling it,” Beamer said. “I’ve been around coaches like that before. At Oklahoma there were times where Lincoln (Riley) told the quarterback — Kyler (Murray), Jalen (Hurts), whoever — that if you feel this, yes it’s a called run ...it’s not really a zone read, but if you know it’s there you have the option to do it.”
Sellers put together three explosive plays — defined as a play that results in 12-plus yards on the ground and 18-plus yards in the air — in the run game on Saturday. He ran for a 12-yard gain in the first quarter, a 17-yard gain in the second quarter and 20-yard gain in the fourth quarter. Sellers would have had 98 yards in the game had he not been sacked twice for a loss of 17 yards.
Sellers also made a few of his trademarked big plays where he dodged pass rushers and escaped the pocket for a big gain.
“Certainly he was aggressive on some passes that we had,” Beamer said. “He felt a little bit of pressure, then tucked the ball and ran and made big plays out of it.”
Of Sellers’ 81 rushing yards, 39 came in the fourth quarter. Sellers captained South Carolina to a nine-minute drive that drained all but 23 seconds of the remaining time on the clock, icing the game in the Gamecocks favor. Beamer eventually took Sellers out on that drive and replaced him with Luke Doty because he didn’t want him taking any more hits.
“The difference last night was just his aggressiveness and I don’t know if willingness is the word, but his desire to run the ball — he did that last night — and he was going to continue to do it until the end of the game,” Beamer said.
This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 7:10 PM.
