Nail-biter: South Carolina holds on in LaNorris Sellers’ debut start to beat ODU

South Carolina struggled mightily against a team it paid $1.5 million to beat at Williams-Brice Stadium. A team picked to finish sixth in the Sun Belt Conference’s Eastern Division.

USC, a 20.5-point favorite before kickoff, defeated Old Dominion 23-19 on Saturday evening to open the 2024 college football season.

The Gamecocks’ post-weather delay crowd (which stuck out a 40-minute break for lightning in the second quarter) booed as both teams made their way to the sideline at the third quarter’s end. A fair reaction to it being a tie ballgame (16-16) with 15 minutes left to play. ODU then took its first lead with 9:54 remaining in the game after a 33-yard field goal.

Both of South Carolina’s touchdowns, including the game-winner a couple drives after ODU’s go-ahead field goal, came after fumbles and with starting field position inside of 8 yards. A late-game interception by Jalon Kilgore sealed the victory.

“Unacceptable from us in the way we performed,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “Certainly happy to win. We’re celebrating in the locker room. Winning is hard. Some people may not like that. We celebrate wins around here.

“A lot of teams would’ve found a way to lose that game. As ugly as it looked at times ... I thought we responded to adversity each time. Whenever something happened in one phase, the other phase responded and picked them up. ... We’ll learn from this one and know that it was nowhere near good enough.”

Here are three takeaways from the season opener:

Assessing offensive line play

South Carolina’s offensive line struggled greatly all of last season.

The unit opened 2023 allowing nine sacks versus UNC and dealt with double-digit injuries. As a result, USC struggled to establish a run game (its rushing offense ranks No. 129 out of 133 averaging 85.1 yards per game), leaning heavily on star receiver Xavier Legette and the scrambling capabilities of captain Spencer Rattler.

The unit stayed in Columbia through the month of May to improve their conditioning and strengthen their bond. But Saturday was lackluster. One could possibly attribute the struggles to typically sloppy Week 1 football. But with a road SEC game next up on the schedule, one could also view Old Dominion’s challenges as cause for panic.

Quarterback LaNorris Sellers was sacked three times in the first half. He found production on the ground after starting the game 1 of 5 in the air, but his rushing success felt more like a testament to his athleticism than the offensive line’s stamina.

“The offensive line has to be better,” Beamer said. “It’s easy to say the offensive line struggled. No, the offensive line did a lot of really good things and played physical as heck.”

Pass protection looked better to start the third quarter until ODU sacked Sellers again (the fourth time overall) for a loss of 5 yards on 3rd and 10, forcing USC to settle for a field goal (putting South Carolina up 16-7 with seven minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the period).

After ODU took the lead, USC’s offensive line failed to create windows for starting running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders to run through. As a result the Gamecocks’ drive didn’t go far, and freshman lineman Josiah Thompson’s false start on third down forced USC to punt.

LaNorris Sellers’ up-and-down debut

Sellers’ first game as the starting quarterback saw some high highs and some low lows.

He opened 1 of 5 in the air but was able to rebound and end 10 of 23 for 114 yards. Some incompletions weren’t his fault, as receivers struggled to create space in the first half or dropped passes. But others exposed issues in Sellers’ decision making, as he threw a couple guys into tough hits (like when Vandrevius Jacobs had to come off the field after he got squished between two ODU defenders).

One of Sellers’ best plays of the game came in the third quarter, when South Carolina’s front five collapsed. Sellers scrambled and found Jacobs downfield for a 41-yard pass. The drive ended in a missed field-goal attempt, but the catch was USC’s longest play of the game.

Sellers found a lot of production on the ground, though, showing off his dual-threat skill set. He led USC’s rushers for much of the game until running back Sanders (who ended with 88 rushing yards on 24 carries) overtook him in the third quarter. Sellers’ longest run was for 21 yards, just 2 shy of Sanders’ long of 23. The quarterback wound up with 68 rushing yards on 22 attempts by game’s end.

Gamecocks defense impresses most of the way

Experience on defense was a major preseason talking point for South Carolina.

The unit’s poise showed in its debut on Saturday evening, recording five sacks and eight tackles for loss. Granted ODU’s offensive line allowed more sacks than any other FBS team last season — 62 in 13 games, way more even than South Carolina’s injury-riddled front five (41 in 12 games).

The most significant blemish Saturday came in the third quarter when ODU quarterback Grant Wilson broke away for a 36-yard touchdown run that got the Monarchs within three points.

Edges Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart led the way with 2.5 and 1.5 sacks, respectively. Kennard also led the team with 4.5 tackles for loss. Twenty different Gamecocks recorded at least one tackle.

Linebacker Debo Williams, who expressed his appetite for “donuts” (also known as shutouts) in the preseason, had seven tackles. He also recovered a fumble (forced by Kennard) in the first half, making good on his goal for USC’s defense to create more turnovers this season.

After taking a hard hit and briefly visiting USC’s injury tent during the fourth quarter, Stewart forced a huge fumble — which defensive lineman DeAndre Jules recovered — inside ODU’s 10. South Carolina’s offense was able to capitalize on the advantageous field position.

Sellers ran in a touchdown on the second play of the drive to put his team up 23-19 with just over six minutes remaining.

Next South Carolina football game

Who: South Carolina at Kentucky

Where: Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.

When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7

TV: ABC

2024 game schedule

• Aug. 31 – South Carolina 23, Old Dominion 19

• Sept. 7 – at Kentucky – 3:30 p.m., ABC

• Sept. 14 – vs. LSU – 12 p.m., ABC

• Sept. 21 – vs. Akron – TBA (night)

• Oct. 5 – vs. Ole Miss – TBA (flex)

• Oct. 12 – at Alabama – 12 p.m., ABC —OR— ESPN
  
  

• Oct. 19 – at Oklahoma – TBA (early)

• Nov. 2 – vs. Texas A&M – TBA (night)

• Nov. 9 – at Vanderbilt – TBA (afternoon)

• Nov. 16 – vs. Missouri – TBA (afternoon)
  
  

• Nov. 23 – vs. Wofford – 4 p.m., SEC Network+/ESPN+

• Nov. 30 – at Clemson – TBA