South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers spoke with the media Tuesday afternoon. Here’s everything he had to say. With fall camp over and now moving into game prep, have you seen a difference that’s kind of switched over into preparing for Virginia Tech? “Yeah.
South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers spoke with the media Tuesday afternoon. Here’s everything he had to say.
With fall camp over and now moving into game prep, have you seen a difference that’s kind of switched over into preparing for Virginia Tech?
“Yeah. I mean, just focusing on details more, just trying to get looks in and get the best looks you can get offensively, defensively, for their offense and defense.”
Two scrimmages in the books for you guys now. Where do you feel like the offense is at, in terms of rhythm, flow?
“I think we’re pretty good flow-wise, just scheme-wise and all that. Everybody’s learned the system well, picked it up well. There’s a lot of new stuff, so I mean, we’re just learning well.”
With those guys you’ve been going up against these last couple of weeks, besides maybe the obvious names that everybody probably knows about, anyone who’s stood out to you?
“Yeah, (Justin Okoronkwo), Shawn Murphy, both smart players. JO’s from Germany, but just smart, hard-nosed, ready to hit and cover. Shawn Murphy, those guys, transfer defensive tackles, those ends, Demon (Clowney), all those guys, they look good.”
Can you take us through the Beats partnership and filming that commercial?
“Yeah, I mean, it was one day after practice or something, they asked me if I wanted to do it. We got in the works. I shot it after practice, and then I had the Manning Passing Academy the next day. So, I mean, that took from like three to like eight something. It took all day. But I’m not really like an actor or acting type, but they had me doing all this stuff. So I was just like, ‘Alright, let’s do it.'”
How do you feel the balance looks with the passing game for you guys, plus getting the run game involved?
“Pretty much, I think it’s the same. If we need to pass it, we can pass it. If we need to run it, we can run it. We can mix it up. We can pretty much do whatever we want on any formation you want to do, whenever we want to.”
Where have you seen Nyck Harbor take the biggest steps this offseason?
“Yeah, he’s just getting more comfortable, just getting more fluent, just flowing through things a lot better. I think having this spring, because he had a couple of years, helped him a lot.”
Do you often find yourself in practice thinking, “Wow, this is so much easier than last year.” Just what are the biggest mental differences you’re noticing within yourself with your play?
“Yeah, 100 percent. Even sitting in meetings this morning, going through their scheme and all this, like, okay, I can see why we’re doing this now. They’re trying to disguise it again, out of it. And then being on the field with the scout team and all that too, you can definitely see, and I feel a lot better.”
How would you describe where Jayden Sellers is now compared to when he got here in January?
“He’s a lot more comfortable. I mean, he could ask me anything. I pretty much know the whole offense. And then it’s just like being open and around those guys. Those guys have been here, like Mazeo, JB, Nyck and Dre. You can ask them anything. (Mike) Furrey’s on them too about learning the playbook, making sure they know not just their position, but all positions.”
When Mike Shula took over, he was kind of describing that we want LaNorris to run when we want him to, not when he has to. I think that kind of got misconstrued as they don’t want you running as much, but it seems like he just wants your footwork to be better, so that you know when a pass play is called, you guys are throwing more passes. What has that process been like of him articulating that to you, and how does that show up in practice?
“Yeah, I think pretty much what you just said, just making sure my footwork is consistent now that it’s like I’m getting through my drops, getting through my progressions before I’m taking off and running.”
How far along would you say the offense is right now in terms of just avoiding turnovers, taking care of the ball, and just having the overall kind of clean operation?
“Yeah, I think turnover-wise, we were pretty good. Knowing the system pretty good, just because we’ve been doing the same thing since January, spring. Shula just said he wanted us to start where we left off, not start completely over. So after the boat game, we just got into practice and just started from there, just building on that. So I mean, it’s pretty good. Everybody knows the system.”
When you were going back and watching your season last year, were there any plays or drives or things you did where you’re like, “I don’t know how I did that. There’s no way I’ll do that again.”?
I had some good moments like that and bad moments like that. I could barely watch the ODU game. That was one of those games I couldn’t really watch. But, I mean, you just got to watch those games and learn from it, really. Then, early in the season, just like turnovers and stuff. There was stuff I could have easily prevented. But I think now that I’ve had a season under my belt, I can see those things and know what caused them and know what to stay away from.”
When you and Shula are cutting up film, or maybe even in practice, how does he talk to you, like maybe when you do make a bad play? How does it differ from when he’s praising you?
“Yeah, he has this cast of poop, and he’s like, ‘You just took a dump right on my desk,’ if I do something bad. So if I do something bad, he’s like, ‘Just go get the dump off my desk.’ And he makes us put it on his desk. He’s like, ‘That’s what you just did to me.’ If you do something bad, that’s usually what he does.”
What sticks out most about Brian Rowe in this group of freshman receivers?
“Just really his quickness and like twitchiness. He can make people miss. He’s got good burst. It’s kind of like if you were a step behind him, he can just hit another gear and run. I would say that with my brother. And then Malik (Clark) and Jordan (Gidron), they’re big and long, tall or whatever. They can go over guys, jump up, stuff like that.”
In these past two scrimmages, what have you seen from the offensive line and how they play?
“Just a lot of communication, really. We’re throwing a lot at them just because we don’t know what teams are really gonna do. So it’s like going at them with a lot of odd fronts, bare fronts, mid fronts, stuff like that. Just throwing them a lot, making them communicate, stuff like that.”
So does Shula have like a poop emoji thing that you like actually put on your desk?
“No, it looks like real poop. I wish I could go get it. If you had it in your hand, you’d say it looks like poop.”S
So if you’re watching film and there’s a bad play, Shula will grab it and put it on your desk?
“He leaves it in his office. He’s like, ‘Go get the dump off the desk.’ He’ll hand it to me, and he just throws it on his table. So he’s like, ‘That’s what you just did to me.'”
So you physically leave the room and go get it off his desk. How many times have you grabbed the poop?
“I haven’t a lot, but Cutter (Woods), Air (Noland), those guys have done it a lot just because they don’t really know the system. So I mean, obviously, if you don’t know it, you’re gonna make some mistakes. But it happens quite a bit. Jimmy Francis, like a lot.”
Have there been any poop inducing mistakes that have repeated themselves over camp? And how have you all addressed those?
“I think my thing was, most of my poop experience, like whatever you want to call it, it’s like carrying out fakes. (Shula) tells me every day like, ‘Carry out your fakes, carry out your fakes.’ So it’s kind of like if he says it once, he’s like, ‘Hey, carry out your fake.’ Now, if it comes up like two or three times, he’s like, ‘All right, go get the poop.’ And then bonehead stuff, like if you flip sides on a quick game call free throw, lay it over the middle, anything like that.”
With Shula now in that OC role, I can imagine he probably works with you a lot more closely compared to last year. But does it feel any different for you compared to the role he was in last year, being on the field with you and with the quarterbacks?
“No, I spent a lot of time with him last year, too. (Dowell Loggains) was just in the room most of the time, but on the field, he was always there, like DLo’s calling plays and stuff. He obviously talked to me, too, but Shula was really that on-field guy. If DLo needed to say something to me, it would go through Shula, and then Shula would add whatever he needed to add to it. If I had seen something, I would tell it to Shula and then he’d communicate that to DLo or whatever. So, I mean, nothing’s really changed.”
When did Shula introduce the poop to the room?
“Last year I think was the first time. It didn’t really come out last year because he wasn’t really the OC. But this year, he’s kind of like abused it. So it’s like his now, so he can do whatever he wants.”
What’s been the most difficult part of being thrust into the spotlight, just in Columbia and just on the field?
“I think really just like communicating. I mean, I wouldn’t say communicating, but it’s kind of like, if stuff is going bad, I could be better, I think, at communicating rather than just like, because I’m more of like, if something goes wrong, like, all right, I’m just going to fix it. Like whatever I need to fix it, that’s what I’m gonna do. So I think just being able to communicate that to them if they’re doing something wrong, rather not just me trying to fix it myself.”
Where do you feel like the connection is for you and Boaz Stanley, with him being the potential starting center for you guys this season?
“I think it’s pretty good. We lift right across the weight room from each other. We sit beside each other in team meetings and stuff. Our meeting rooms are literally right there beside each other, too. So I talk to him a lot, a good bit really. So I’ll say it’s good.”
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Category: General Sports
