Unless you were draped in garnet and black, I’m positive that you didn’t expect to see what South Carolina became in 2024.
Hand up, I can’t tell you that I forecasted a year in which the Gamecocks would become the ultimate “you don’t want to see them” team in the latter half of the season, which nearly led to a Playoff berth after LaNorris Sellers put on his cape. I’m not alone. South Carolina being picked to finish 13th by the media (myself included) aged like an avocado. Instead, Shane Beamer led the Gamecocks their best season of the post-Steve Spurrier era.
And now, a program who has never had an All-SEC quarterback at season’s end returns one of the top signal-callers in America after a 9-win season. That’s a massive, massive positive, as is returning of the top defensive players in the sport in Dylan Stewart.
So yeah, you don’t have to be draped in garnet and black to see the positives in Columbia in 2025.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
Today, we’ll continue with the best things about South Carolina in 2025:
Best offensive player: LaNorris Sellers, QB
If you didn’t watch Sellers, you probably think he’s being overhyped in the preseason. You’re gonna look at some unremarkable TD-INT split (18-7), his lack of 300-yard passing games (2) and his team barely cracking the top 50 in scoring offense. It’s easy to lazily analyze Sellers by using some raw numbers and calling it a day.
My advice? Don’t do that. Watch him play and understand the full context of what he did in 2024.
The full context is that once he was healthy, Sellers played an invaluable role in South Carolina’s 6-game winning streak to close the regular season, which included wins vs. 4 ranked teams, as well as a beatdown at Oklahoma. Most notably, Sellers’ emergence was on display in a comeback win at eventual-ACC champ Clemson.
That day, Sellers forced an absurd 15 missed tackles (via PFF). Just for some context, only 8 other SEC quarterbacks forced 15 missed tackles as a runner all season (Sellers was No. 2 among Power Conference quarterbacks with 47). His ability to make defenders miss to extend plays is already as good as there is in the sport, which is why he finished No. 2 among Power Conference quarterbacks with 417 scramble yards. He just needs to cut down on the turnover-worthy plays.
It would also help if — brace yourself for some context — South Carolina didn’t have arguably the worst receiver room in the SEC. There’s optimism that we’ll see improvements, especially if Freaks List staple Nyck Harbor establishes himself as a consistent threat in that offense on the heels of his first football-only spring. Ideally, Sellers will get more help and he won’t have to put on his cape in same capacity as he did last season.
But even if South Carolina’s surrounding weapons are similar to what we saw in 2024, game-planning to slow him down has to be one of the least-fun college football experiences in 2025.
Best defensive player: Dylan Stewart, Edge
I don’t want to discount what the entire South Carolina defense was because a group with 5 players selected in the NFL Draft, which included Nagurski Trophy winner Kyle Kennard, wildly surpassed some pedestrian preseason expectations. And sure, there’s a certain level of expectation when a 5-star recruit steps on the field, but let’s just call it what it is.
What Stewart did as a true freshman was one of the biggest SEC revelations of 2024.
In case you need a reminder of what he did, he had 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries. He was 1.5 sacks away from tying Jadeveon Clowney’s true freshman record at South Carolina. It didn’t matter that Stewart was immediately on everyone’s radar after big showings the first 2 games of the season against Old Dominion and Kentucky. He finished with PFF’s No. 6 pass-rushing grade among FBS edge-rushers, and he had 34 quarterback hurries.
Stewart’s pass-rushing moves at his age already have NFL eyeballs on him. Unfortunately for SEC offenses, he’s got another 2 years of terrorizing them before he cashes in at the next level.
Best freshman: Malik Clark, WR
I’ll be honest here. Three things stand out when it comes to projecting a true freshman’s impact in Year 1. Did the recruiting services give you love? Did you stand out in spring? And perhaps most importantly, do you have a legitimate opportunity to see the field early on because of a lack of proven options at your position? Clark checks all 3 of those boxes. That’s why he’s a clear choice here.
The former 4-star recruit has the top-end speed and size (6-2, 190 pounds) to carve out a role in a room that’s full of opportunity. Early on, that could be more as a field-stretcher, especially if that’s not how Harbor’s speed is being utilized in the offense yet (he’s more likely to take advantage of that speed with a significant cushion and comeback routes). Clark can help South Carolina’s issue with consistently attacking downfield. Last year, Sellers was No. 2 in FBS in adjusted completion percentage on throws that traveled 20 yards downfield, yet he wasn’t even among the top 100 in FBS with just 13% of his passes traveling that far beyond the line of scrimmage.
There’s your opportunity, and perhaps exactly why South Carolina wasn’t in a hurry to overhaul its receiver room in the portal.
Best game: Week 14, Clemson vs. South Carolina
Maybe I’m a purist, but I can’t help but want to see this game above all else on South Carolina’s schedule. Last year gave us ideal early-window entertainment in Rivlary Week. Mind you, that was with South Carolina going into Clemson as the road underdog. What we haven’t seen is South Carolina beat the Tigers at home in the post-Spurrier era. It’s wild to think that it hasn’t happened once in the Playoff era.
But for the first time in the Playoff era, we could see both teams start in the top 15 with legitimate preseason Heisman Trophy contenders at quarterback. Could they be there at the end of the regular season? Will a Playoff berth be on the line? In theory, a Playoff berth was at stake last year, though you could argue that it didn’t change the Playoff picture much because Clemson still got to play for (and ultimately win) an ACC Championship while South Carolina was left at home as a fellow 3-loss team.
Either way, these 2 teams both being a part of the national conversation together has been rare. It’d be must-see TV to watch a down-to-the-wire Palmetto Bowl in 2025.
Best reason for improvement: A full season of a developed LaNorris Sellers
I could lay out all the concerns that I have for South Carolina. Will Stewart get enough help in that front 7 after South Carolina had 5 defensive players selected in the NFL Draft? Will the transition from Dowell Loggains to Mike Shula allow for Sellers to continue to grow and cut down on the ball-security issues? Will a schedule with 5 games vs. teams who won 9 games in 2024 prove to be too daunting?
All of those are legitimate concerns that could halt a path to year-to-year improvement. But if Sellers is the player that he was in the latter half of 2024 once he was healthy and finishing games, South Carolina can beat anyone on that schedule. Period. A player who can do the things he does can put a team on his back and lead them to 10 wins. Don’t believe that? Go rewatch what Cam Ward just did. Go back to 2022 Hendon Hooker or 2021 Kenny Pickett. Those veterans all balled out for their respective teams en route to double-digit wins, and while none of them made the Playoff, one would think a team with South Carolina’s schedule and inevitable preseason respect would be capable of changing that after the year it had.
Sellers can become the most electric player in the sport. He truly has that type of ceiling. There are so few teams who have a quarterback in position to be that special. If the Gamecocks are going to do something that hasn’t happened since Spurrier — win 9 games in consecutive seasons — it’ll be because Sellers developed into the best quarterback in program history.
You don’t have to be draped in garnet and black to see that.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
