Shane Beamer reveals what game shaped LaNorris Sellers as better leader for South Carolina Gamecocks in 2025

Shane Beamer's confidence in South Carolina starter LaNorris Sellers stems from much more than Sellers' ranking as one of the finest QBs entering 2025.

As his head coach, Beamer has firsthand witnessed the pivotal moment that shaped Sellers as a better leader: their 2024 game against Clemson. 

"I think for him, and I don’t want to speak for LaNorris, but just in having some conversations with him, I think he realized that after the Clemson game, where you’ve got a month where we’re not playing a game, you kind of be a normal person a little bit more. Certainly, after that Clemson game and the plays he made in that game, if people didn’t already learn about him, they knew more about him nationally, even more so after that game," Beamer addressed during the Always College Football podcast.

The game highlighted Seller's scrambling finesse in the close-cut 17-14 game. The QB's two rushing touchdowns were just a cherry on top. 

The break after the Clemson game might be the time when Sellers reflected to improve himself, but being his head coach, Beamer spotted that potential from a mile away during their game against Kentucky.

"He made some plays in that game with his feet,” Beamer said. “Now, we got hit one time because he missed the blitz pickup and he had to get himself out of trouble, but he made plays in that game. I knew he would continue to get better as the year went on because, if you remember, there was a period of that game where he got knocked out and he wasn’t in the game for a couple of series. The next week, we played LSU, he didn’t play the whole second half. So, really, the Ole Miss game, which I think was game five for us, that was the first game that he played in its entirety," Beamer continued. 

The Gamecocks' head coach strongly believes his starting QB has handled all the attention 2024 brought to him well, and lauded that he did not let it get to his head.

"It’s different," Beamer added about Sellers' maturity, both on and off the field, heading into 2025.

2025 has already started bombarding more attention on Sellers than 2024 did. We'll see how he handles them.