Think about this for a second. Imagine you’re the starting quarterback at South Carolina. You’ve got 80,000 people going to watch you play, with tons of them wearing your jersey.
All of the pressure from an entire state is on your shoulders. The way in which you play will either have people continuing to cheer you on or criticizing you for every little thing you do. Sounds tough, doesn’t it?
Going into last Saturday, that’s what LaNorris Sellers was going through. After two strong years from Spencer Rattler, the keys to the car were turned over to a redshirt freshman who had never started in college before.
Spin it however you want, but there’s not much that can prepare you for everything Sellers has to endure as the new leader of the Gamecock offense in 2024. So when he did take the field for his first start, there were obvious jitters and rookie mistakes.
“He was really excited about the opportunity. He knows the burden of that job, what it entails,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said. “But you really don’t feel it until you have to go do it for the first time. And that was the first time he ever went out there to start. It was the first time he felt that pressure of what it’s like to play in front of 80,000 and having a lot of people depending on you and counting on you.”