The South Carolina football season kicks off this Saturday in its first matchup ever against the Old Dominion Monarchs in program history at a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium.
“We’ll need our crowd,” Head Coach Shane Beamer said. “This will be the biggest attendance that Old Dominion has ever played in the history of their program.”
South Carolina is entering the 2024 season with a brand new starting quarterback in redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers. Saturday will be his first start in his collegiate career.
“I’m very excited,” Sellers said to the media on Tuesday. “You dream about things like that from a kid to now it's finally came true so just gotta go out there and play.”
Sellers won't be the only new face in the Gamecocks backfield. He is joined by senior running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, who transferred into the Gamecocks program this past offseason from the Arkansas Razorbacks.
After an injury-riddled 2023 season, Sanders is expected to return to his 2022 form, where he was second in the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards. Sanders is also listed on the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year award watchlist.
Beamer shared excitement in the Tuesday press conference for the wide receiver group that surrounds his young quarterback. He expects to play them all on Saturday.
“I’m excited, though, because of the depth, more than we have around here, on our entire football team,” Beamer said. “We’re gonna play the whole ‘or’ at the receiver position, there’s a ton of ‘ors,' I'm well aware, because we anticipate all those guys playing. I mean, I told the receivers this morning I’d be surprised if we don't play nine receivers on Saturday.”
Last season, the Gamecocks finished 12th in the SEC in total defense. Junior defensive back Nick Emmanwori said he feels good about the depth on that side of the ball this season during his media availability on Tuesday.
“Going back to last year, we were kinda up and down,” Emmanwori said. “Those last four games we finished out strong, we held a couple teams to no touchdowns and finished out strong last year. So this year, we’re trying to start with that same energy we ended on last year."
Redshirt senior defensive tackle Alex Huntley was also confident in his defense line group heading into the game. The Gamecocks are expected to rotate between six defensive tackles on Saturday.
“I think each person on D-line has truly took a step forward, myself included,” Huntley said during his time with the media on Tuesday.
On the other sideline, Old Dominion comes into Columbia as no stranger to winning on the road against major conference schools.
“If you follow college football, you know about their history beating Virginia Tech two years ago,” Beamer said. “They lost to Virginia Tech last year but had over 200 (yards) rushing…They played Wake Forest last year, had them down two scores in the second half.”
Beamer added that the Sun Belt conference, of which the Monarchs call home, has a history of upsetting their stronger opponents.
South Carolina is no exception to this history. In 2019, the Gamecocks lost to the Appalachian State of the Sun Belt conference in Columbia.
“We need to make sure our teams, our fans and everyone understands that this is a quality opponent coming in here that does not look like a group of five team from a personnel standpoint,” Beamer said.
The Monarchs will also be entering the new season returning All-American and the program’s all-time leading tackler, linebacker Jason Henderson. Last season, Henderson led the nation with 14.8 tackles per game and finished second in total tackles with 170 tackles in 12 games.
While Beamer described the Monarch's offense as "unique," he compared them to an opponent the Gamecocks are very familiar with.
“Offensively, they’ll look very much like Tennessee with the tempo, the formations, the concepts they run in the passing game…they were very much like that last season,” Beamer said.
The comparison comes after the Monarchs hired former offensive graduate assistant at Tennessee, Kody Cook, as well as former Tennessee offensive analyst, David Weeks, in the offseason.
Both teams will enter Saturday's game looking to bounce back from season-ending losses in 2023. The Gamecocks will head into the opener as 21-point favorites according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
The Gamecocks kick off against the Monarchs at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. The game will air on SEC Network.