QB LaNorris Sellers will return to South Carolina for 2026 season
LaNorris Sellers will return to South Carolina in 2026.
That’s according to several national reports Saturday and confirmed by The State.
Said ESPN’s Pete Thamel via X/Twitter, citing sources: “South Carolina star quarterback LaNorris Sellers is nearing a deal to return to the school for his redshirt junior year in 2026. He’s indicated to the staff he’ll be returning. The sides are the expected to finalize a deal soon.”
Sellers confirmed with The State his intentions to be a Gamecock for next season.
His return is a major victory for coach Shane Beamer and new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles as they try to guide the Gamecocks back to College Football Playoff contention.
On3Sports reported Saturday that “LaNorris Sellers is in the final negotiations of a deal to return to South Carolina in 2026.” CBS Sports also reported the Sellers news.
This development felt like an impossibility just a few months ago, back when South Carolina’s quarterback was considered a preseason Heisman contender and almost a unanimous Top-10 pick in every NFL mock draft.
But Sellers struggled in 2025, and the Gamecocks finished 4-8 overall.
He regressed in almost every statistical category, completing just over 60% of his passes for just over 2,400 yards and 13 touchdowns while tossing eight picks. In addition to that, he rushed for just 270 yards — more than 400 fewer yards than the previous year.
It was a far cry from his 2024 form, when he threw for over 2,500 yards and 18 touchdowns while leading USC to late-season wins over Texas A&M, Missouri and Clemson — a rivalry game win that was sealed with his spectacular touchdown run on third-and-16.
Now, one could argue why the regressions happened.
Was it simply because of offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who was fired in November. Was it on Sellers’ offensive line, which allowed the third-most sacks among any FBS team in America (43). Or was Sellers also to blame.
It’s probably a combination of all three, but Sellers certainly was a factor. At least a handful of those sacks perhaps could have been avoided if Sellers just threw the ball away quicker. And there were plenty of times throughout the season where he either missed wide-open receivers or tried to force passes into impossible windows.
Yet, it was also hard to deny Sellers’ talent. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound redshirt sophomore kept the Gamecocks in a number of games with spectacular throws — the fourth-down pass to Nyck Harbor against Texas A&M and his 53-yard touchdown pass to Harbor in the Clemson game come to mind.
Briles, introduced Friday as the Gamecocks’ new offensive coordinator, hinted that he expected Sellers to return for the 2026 season. As for what a new-look offense might look like, Briles said, “We're going to do the things that he feels really comfortable with.”
“It's really more the offense fitting around him,” Briles said. “He’s the quarterback, he's touching the ball every single snap. I'm not going to go out there and ask him to do something he's not great at, so we're going to build the offense around him, and the rest of the personnel, and do the things that he's really good at.”
ESPN’s Mel Kiper recently listed Sellers as the third-best QB in the 2026 draft class.
If Sellers departed — whether to the NFL or transfer portal — it would have left South Carolina with three inexperienced quarterbacks: redshirt sophomore Air Noland, redshirt freshman Cutter Woods and true freshman Landon Duckworth. At that point, Beamer and his staff would have almost certainly tried to snag a starting quarterback from the portal.
Now they don’t have to do that. South Carolina can rely on a third-year starter to lead the team back to a winning season.
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM.
