South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers will not return to Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt after taking an illegal hit late in the second quarter.
Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson was called for targeting on the play before being ejected from the game.
Sellers was helped off the field and replaced by Luke Doty with 1:48 remaining in the first half.
He had completed six of seven pass attempts for 94 yards with an interception prior the injury. He took one sack and left with minus-3 rushing yards.
The quarterback led South Carolina on a touchdown drive on the Gamecocks’ first possession of the game, but threw a red-zone interception to Zaylin Wood later in the first quarter.
Vanderbilt was leading 14-7 when Doty took over late in the second quarter on a 1st-and-10 at South Carolina’s 41-yard line.
After a pause to review Sellers’ hit, Doty got the Gamecocks within field goal range. Mason Love missed a 53-yard attempt and closed out a scoreless second quarter for South Carolina.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer expressed displeasure about the delay in deciding to call targeting on Sellers.
“I asked him as soon as it happened if he was looking at it for targeting, that for our quarterback to be laying on the ground like that, he probably got hit in the head,” Beamer told the SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic at halftime about his conversation with officials. “And then, for whatever reason, it took them a while to buzz down. So I don’t know what’s going on in Birmingham, or wherever they look at it, but I thought it was pretty obvious.”
Sellers led South Carolina to a 2-0 start to the 2025 season with 337 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and no interceptions in victories over Virginia Tech and South Carolina State.
The Gamecocks will need a huge second half from their defense and Doty in order to mount a comeback with Sellers watching from the sideline.
