5 things we learned from South Carolina’s 23-19 win over Old Dominion

Shane Beamer hopped out of his press conference chair. He had just spent 15 minutes rehashing a victory in a way that sounded like deja vu from 2023. The game was sloppy and expectations weren’t met, Beamer said, but his guys fought and wins are celebrated at South Carolina.

Perhaps he was in a hurry to celebrate. He walked to the door with his wife, Emily, then looked back a group of folks in his party — headlined by his dad, Frank Beamer.

“You guys coming, or do you just wanna hang out with these guys for a little longer?” Beamer said, referring to the media.

“We’re old,” Frank Beamer responded. “It takes some time.”

On the podium, his son could have summed up the entire 23-19 win over Old Dominion with a slight tweak of the phrase — We’re young. It takes some time.

Here are five things we learned following the Gamecocks’ season-opening win.

1. LaNorris Sellers is still a work in progress

What did LaNorris Sellers learn in his first collegiate start?

“Really,” Sellers said. “It’s not as easy as you think.”

Sellers, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound quarterback from Florence has seemingly always succeeded. As a senior in high school, South Florence went 15-0 and won a state title. In his first college game — last year vs. Furman — he threw for two touchdowns. Later in the season, he ran for another.

This was different. This was adversity. This was an Old Dominion linebacker coming unblocked up the middle. This was being sacked four times. This was being so pressured or nervous or whatever that too many throws were either going into the dirt or over the head of Nyck Harbor.

Sellers was not incredibly sharp. He was 10 of 23 passing for only 114 yards. He also ran the ball so much (22 times) that it felt like South Carolina at times was afraid to go to the air. Both Sellers and Beamer said that run-heavy approach was part of the game plan, but it couldn’t have inspired much confidence.

“Certainly there’s some throws he’d like to have back,” Beamer said. “Would I have liked to have thrown the ball for more than 114 yards? Absolutely. But I also know we’re gonna get better at throwing the football.”

2. Receivers, for now, are the bugaboo of this offense

The hype of this offseason focused on two guys: Sellers and running back Rocket Sanders. He was back to his 2022 form, everyone said, when he was a sophomore at Arkansas and ran for almost 1,500 yards. He was leaner, attacked rehab and was going to put together the best year of his career.

Saturday night’s result made anyone who predicted him to rush for over 1,200 yards look silly.

He picked up 88 yards on 24 carries, averaging 3.7 yards per rush. And, those numbers are impressive. He never looked to have space. On one run in the second half, he took off right then cut completely left. There’s should’ve been space, but somehow an Old Dominion defender was right there.

It is natural to want to blame the offensive line, a group with four newcomers starting. Not so fast, says Beamer, pin it on the wide receivers and tight ends.

“We were atrocious tonight perimeter blocking,” Beamer said. “If you’re gonna play receiver here, you have to block. If you’re gonna play tight end here and you’re not in the passing game, you’ve gotta block. I’m not saying the effort was poor.”

Not helping the receivers’ case: The 114 receiving yards and the fact that Sellers’ best-thrown ball of the night — an absolute bomb in the first quarter — was dropped by transfer Jared Brown.

3. Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart are monsters

For as much as football is a team game, South Carolina won Saturday because of two players: edge rushers Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart.

For a second there, Jadeveon Clowney’s single-game sack record (4.5) seemed in danger. Kennard was that good. He was so fast off the edge that the offensive linemen were struggling to touch him, let alone block him. His final stats included 2.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles for loss and five total tackles. But that doesn’t tell the story of how dominant he was, how many plays he was in on.

Then there was Stewart, the five-star freshman playing in his first collegiate game. How ready was he to play in a real game? When Old Dominion was running out, he was standing right next to them, almost ready to run into their line and break it up. Some folks had to escort him to the sideline before it escalated.

On the field, he had four tackles, 1.5 sacks and was responsible for the most-important play of the night. With Old Dominion up 3 late, Kennard punched the ball out of ODU quarterback Grant Wilson’s hands. The ball hit the turf. South Carolina recovered and scored the go-ahead touchdown two plays later.

4. The turnovers need to keep coming

Under Beamer, South Carolina is 17-6 when it commits equal or fewer turnovers than the opponents. A turnover was the reason the Gamecocks narrowly beat Jacksonville State last season. It was the reason they beat Old Dominion on Saturday.

South Carolina forced four turnovers against Old Dominion — two fumbles and two interceptions that led to 14 points — and still only beat a middling Sun Belt team by one score.

What happens if those turnovers stop showing up? South Carolina probably doesn’t want to find out .

5. Saturday set a scary precedent for 2024

Yes, South Carolina’s going to celebrate Saturday’s win. And, yes, that’s fine.

But no Gamecock fan can be feeling good about this season. No one can be exuding confidence in South Carolina playing at Kentucky next week. Or LSU the Saturday after that. Aside from some timely turnovers, this looked like South Carolina from 2023 — and that’s scary.

Now, the most amount of change in a football season often occurs between Week 1 and Week 2. Perhaps this was the perfect tune-up. Perhaps Sellers gets more comfortable, the receivers start blocking and South Carolina hits on its big plays.

Everything that went wrong is easily fixable. But when there’s so many things to fix, it can be quite easy to get into a game of whack-a-mole.