The No. 18 South Carolina football team relied heavily on its passing game in the team's senior day victory over in-state opponent Wofford.
The Gamecocks threw for 343 yards on 32 passing attempts, mainly from redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers. Sellers completed a career-high 85% (23-27) of his pass attempts in a game as a starter against the Terriers despite throwing his first interception since Oct. 12 on the Gamecocks’ opening drive on offense. Backup senior quarterback Davis Beville and senior quarterback Robby Ashford combined for 36 yards passing on 4 completions during their limited action in the fourth quarter.
“From LaNorris, I’m seeing what y’all are seeing,” sixth-year wide receiver Dalevon Campbell said. “(He’s an) absolute dog, so that's just to sum that all up.”
Sloppy play and penalties plagued the Gamecocks throughout the opening quarter, with Wofford’s offense opening the game with a 63-yard reception to senior wide receiver Kyle Watkins that led to a Terriers field goal. The Gamecocks also had a 50-yard touchdown to Campbell wiped off the board in the opening quarter due to a Gamecock penalty.
“I thought our start was awful,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “The first play of the game, they get us in a formation where we’ve got to check the call that we have on defense, we don't communicate it the right way and it ends up in a 63-yard pass on the first play of the game. Then they score, we have a kickoff return (and) we get a penalty. Then we throw an interception. We’ve got missed blocks on the offensive line throughout the first half … First quarter, just not good enough in a lot of ways.”
The team could blame the emotions surrounding senior day for the slow start, but senior linebacker Debo Williams said they just need to execute better.
“You cant blame it on nobody but yourself,” Williams said. “As a team, we got to be better and come out faster. Some of the stuff we were messing up on was strictly us, had nothing to do with them, so we’ve got to come out and execute better. Nothing to blame that on.”
The Gamecocks' passing game had a surprising focus early on senior wide receiver Luke Doty. Doty entered the game without a single reception this season and ended the opening half with 17 yards on three receptions and a team-high four targets.
The targets came from the Gamecocks having to be more creative on offense down multiple tight ends, Beamer said.
“You’re down your top three tight ends, so we were gonna play more four wide receiver sets,” Beamer said. "We weren’t gonna necessarily put Luke (Doty) in there in a 3-point stance to block defensive ends, but he’s a very smart guy that’s played quarterback, played receiver, and can do it all and is a great player for us, so he was in that role because of that.”
The Gamecocks were also without starting junior wide receiver Jared Brown. Brown experienced a minor hand injury in the previous weekend’s game against Missouri and is expected to return next week, Beamer said.
Campbell led the Gamecocks in receiving yards on the entire evening, going for 120 yards on five receptions thanks in large part to a 58-yard reception from him early in the second quarter. Campbell’s 120 yards tied his career-high set in 2022 while he was with the Nevada Wolfpack.
“Dalevon’s been awesome,” Beamer said. “I told you guys at the beginning of the season that our wide receiver room would continue to get better, and the way the wide receiver room looked in September it would probably look different in November.”
Campbell said opportunities at practice are what led to him getting more time on the field on Saturday.
The Gamecocks' offense became more run-heavy when Ashford entered the game in the fourth, with Ashford picking up a quick touchdown and 37 yards on four carries in his opening drive on offense.
The Gamecocks picked up two more rushing touchdowns before the game ended when sophomore running back Jawarn Howell went 27 yards for his second touchdown of the season, and when senior running back Bradley Dunn scored his first touchdown of his career in the closing seconds.
“Hammond, his (Dunn's) high school team, wins a state championship last night, and he gets a walk-off touchdown in his last play ever in Williams-Brice Stadium,” Beamer said.
In total, South Carolina rushed for 129 of its 265 total yards on the ground in the fourth quarter.
The Gamecock defense kept pressure on Wofford throughout the opening quarter despite the slow start, with the opening play reception being the only pass completed for Wofford in the entire quarter. The only other first down allowed in the quarter by the Gamecock defense was due to a roughing the passer penalty that erased an interception from redshirt senior defensive back O’Donnell Fortune.
Despite the strong play at the end of drives from the Gamecock defense, Wofford went into halftime leading in time of possession. The halftime message to the defense was to just get off the field, Williams said.
“They (were) converting on third down in the beginning off of stuff that we were messing up on,” Williams said. “As a defense we need to get off the field, three-and-outs.”
The Gamecocks defense only allowed one touchdown in the entire game, forcing field goals on the Terriers' two other trips to the red zone in the game.
The Gamecocks will close its regular season on the road in the 121st edition of the Palmetto Bowl between South Carolina and Clemson. The game will kick off at noon and will broadcast live on ESPN.