With a little over 5 minutes to play, LaNorris Sellers had to run for his life, escape a collapsing pocket, evade would-be tacklers, and then throw up a prayer on the run.
In a 30-14 loss to No. 7 Ole Miss on Saturday night, that was the story of the game.
The Rebels sacked Sellers 6 times and stopped 8 total South Carolina plays in the backfield for a loss. Sellers was picked off on a third-and-10 desperation play with 5:21 to go after he was flushed from the pocket.
Minutes earlier, in a 9-point game, Sellers was sacked twice in the span of 3 plays to halt a once-promising drive at the Ole Miss 46. On the first play of the ensuing possession for the Rebels, Kewan Lacy broke a 54-yard score to stretch the lead to 16.
Sellers never looked comfortable. He completed 16 of his 30 passes for 180 yards, one touchdown, and 2 interceptions. He had a rushing score, but finished with negative rushing yardage on account of the sacks.
On the other side, Lacy ran for 167 yards as the face of a ground game that brutalized the Gamecocks. Ole Miss averaged 5.7 yards per run in the game. With 259 total rushing yards, Ole Miss became just the second team in the last 3 seasons to top 250 yards on the ground against the Gamecocks.
The line of scrimmage was controlled by the Rebels. Even factoring out sacks, South Carolina averaged only 3.6 yards per run. The Gamecocks went 3-for-14 on third down and failed to convert 2 of their 3 fourth-down attempts. They also turned it over twice.
With the victory, Ole Miss kept itself in the SEC title chase and the national championship race. The Rebels (8-1, 5-1 SEC) host Citadel next weekend and Florida after that. They get a week off before the Egg Bowl.
South Carolina falls to 3-6 on the season. All 6 losses have come in league play, the most in a non-COVID season since 2015. The Gamecocks went 1-7 in league play in 2015, what proved to be Steve Spurrier’s final year in Columbia. They went 2-8 against an SEC-only schedule in 2020 in what was Will Muschamp’s final year.
Shane Beamer will look to make the most of the upcoming off week. South Carolina travels to College Station on Nov. 15.
No. 7 Ole Miss 30, South Carolina 14
Here’s the Ole Miss-South Carolina box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Trinidad Chambliss vs LaNorris Sellers
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has emerged as an unlikely Heisman candidate. Here’s how Sellers performed against preseason Heisman contender LaNorris Sellers:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
