South Carolina uses red-hot offense, stifling defense in 57-0 rout of Kent State
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
It’s the first game of a long season. But South Carolina‘s Week 1 game against Kent State couldn’t have gone much better.
The Gamecocks picked up three passing touchdowns from LaNorris Sellers, added three more on the ground, and held Kent State to just 179 yards of total offense as they romped to a 57-0 Week 1 win.
The temperature at kickoff was 95 degrees, a record for a South Carolina game at Williams-Brice Stadium. But the only thing that may have been hotter was the Gamecocks’ offense under first-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles.
LaNorris Sellers was nearly perfect, completing 19 of his 23 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns before exiting in the third quarter with the game well in hand. Donovan Murph had four catches for 92 yards and two TDs. Jabree Coleman had a pair of scores on the ground. Matt Fuller and Isaiah Augustave added one each.
All told, the Gamecocks offense rolled up 645 yards of total offense.
After punting on their first drive, the Gamecocks’ next eight drives ended in touchdowns. Fuller got things started by taking one in from seven yards out with 4:18 left in the first, but a missed extra point kept the score at 6-0.
That was about the only thing that went wrong the rest of the way for South Carolina.
On its next possession, Sellers recorded the first of his three touchdowns, connecting with Mazeo Bennett from 18 yards out to make it 15-0 after a two-point conversion. Later, on his first touch as a Gamecock, Coleman — a transfer from Penn State — took one 60 yards to the house to up the lead to 22-0 before Sellers found Donovan Murph for a 29-yard score late in the second quarter.
It was 29-0 South Carolina at halftime.
Early in the third quarter, Murph found the end zone again, extending the lead to 36-0 with just over a minute and a half gone by in the period. Cutter Woods came in on the next drive and engineered a TD drive of his own to stretch it to 43-0.
In the fourth quarter, Augustave made it 50-0 after he punched one in from a yard out. Coleman later capped the scoring with his second touchdown of the game with 2:26 left.
South Carolina hosts Towson in Week 2.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
