The Film Guy: I’m BACK On The LaNorris Sellers Hype Train

I was high on LaNorris Sellers in 2024. I was also high on him going into the 2025 season, and Mike Shula made me reconsider. It was all his fault. It was not Sellers’ fault.

We watched the back half of the Texas A&M film a couple of months ago when we were introducing Kendal Briles to you and showed you some Arkansas tape. Today is all about LaNorris.

We’re going back to the Clemson game, which maybe you don’t want to watch if you’re a South Carolina fan because the Gamecocks ended up losing by two scores. But there’s still a lot to look at and a lot to pay attention to from Sellers’ game.

I think I’m ready to pick it back up. I think I’m ready to get back on the LaNorris Sellers hype train. Lord knows he’s uber-talented, and I’m a Briles guy. I like just about every offense he’s ever put together, especially when he has a mobile threat at quarterback.

Let’s shut up and grind the tape.

Sellers Has Juice Even Without His Lower Body

Watching this Clemson game, one of the first things I noticed was just how well those Clemson linebackers could run. They were about the only guys who could consistently get Sellers on the ground when they had an angle on him because this kid is a freak back there.

The other thing I love about LaNorris is his delivery. I didn’t love it when I first watched him, but I understand it more and more because he’s so powerful. There’s not a lot of draw in his delivery. We don’t get into a ton of layback. He gets the football up around his ear and rips the hell out of it. We’ve got juice at all times. That’s true even when there are people in his face.

On an early play against Clemson, the defensive end blows up the mesh point and gets directly into Sellers’ face. He has to get the football out really, really quickly and can’t use much of his lower body.

It doesn’t matter. He spits it out to the flat for a good nine-yard reception backed up in his own end.

And by the way, I thought Sellers took a hit there that should have drawn a flag. Bigger, more physical quarterbacks sometimes don’t seem to get protected the same way. Maybe it’s because you think, “Oh, he’s big and tough. He can take it.” No. That’s a penalty.

If I’m Shane Beamer, that would be one of the first things I’m talking to the officials about. Make sure you treat our guy like you treat everybody else. Just because he’s 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, runs like a deer, and has quads the size of brick pillars doesn’t mean we can keep the handkerchief in our pocket. Throw that thing.

South Carolina Has to Give Sellers More Help

The offensive line play obviously has to get much, much better. There’s no doubt about that. And because South Carolina struggled to protect Sellers, some of the opportunities that were available in the passing game needed to be taken immediately.

On one completion against Clemson, I thought Sellers threw the football a little late. He ultimately gets it completed, so I understand it and I’m okay with the result, but the ball needs to come out sooner.

We don’t have a lot of time at South Carolina. We should know this by now. We should have some scar tissue at the quarterback position. If it’s there, we’ve got to take it right now. Take it right now. It’s over the ball. Rip that thing. Let’s go. Sellers holds it a little longer, and the other problem is that the ball eventually gets put on the ground after the completion.

On another play, Sellers turns down an available throw and instead scrambles before eventually throwing toward Nyck Harbor near the sideline. Again, the ball needs to be thrown immediately. That one is on No. 16.

But there’s something else that South Carolina’s receivers have to understand when Sellers is playing quarterback. No play is dead.

Harbor puts his hand up but doesn’t aggressively work back toward the football. The defensive back does. The DB triggers hard and ultimately breaks the pass up.

When you’re working with a quarterback who is always live, meaning no play is ever truly dead with No. 16, you better never take your foot off the gas. Keep moving. Get friendly for your quarterback. Work, work, work to the echo of the whistle.

Sellers’ Mechanics Took a Step Forward

This is one of the things I don’t think I gave Sellers enough credit for last season. There weren’t a lot of areas where South Carolina grew offensively from 2024 to 2025. There just weren’t.

But Sellers’ deliberateness with his mechanics was obvious to me when I turned the tape back on. You can see him working hard to get his shoulder set to the target. His back foot is firm. He’s powerful in his lower body. His shoulders are pointed where they need to be and remain nice and square at the release point.

This kid worked. He worked all offseason to get better. I don’t think I gave him enough credit for that because the results weren’t what we wanted from an offensive-output standpoint. But that’s on the OC. That ain’t on the quarterback.

You see the mechanical improvement on another throw where Sellers holds his eyes firmly to the left before ripping his shoulders back to his initial target and delivering a really accurate football directly onto the receiver’s face.

Those shoulders get set. That back foot is firm. We’re ready to rip this rock. Boom. It’s right on the spot where we want it. I don’t think we had that consistently during his first year as a starter.

Sellers and Nyck Harbor Can Stress a Defense Vertically

Here’s something else for every defensive coordinator playing South Carolina: Do not play off Nyck Harbor. Get in his chest. Reset him at the line of scrimmage.

Harbor is a build-speed football player. You do not want to put a corner in off coverage without immediate safety help and let this guy build up speed. That’s nonsense. It’s going to get you absolutely cooked.

On one play, Clemson gives Harbor room to build up to his speed, and then he simply runs away from the corner. That dude has no chance to run with him.

Clemson eventually starts changing its approach. They get into more Cover 1 robber, play man coverage, send five, and press South Carolina’s wide receivers. I would imagine that’s the answer against this receiver corps.

There’s no way in hell I’d let Harbor get a 10-yard head start and run into the face of my corners. But when Clemson does give him that opportunity, Sellers makes them pay. It’s a great ball. I mean, we throw it a country mile.

The Backside Post Is Very Much Alive

The design of Harbor’s deep shot is another play I love. South Carolina gives Sellers a predetermined rollout to the right while Harbor works the post back to the left. The quarterback action helps pull the safety away from where the football is ultimately going.

This used to be a no-no in quarterback play. The backside post used to be an “I love football” route. You’d never actually work back over there.

Now I see offensive coordinators designing these throws because defenses are predisposed to think, “Oh, that’s dead on the backside.” No, it ain’t. You’re dead.

Roll Sellers right. Stick your foot in the ground. Launch it. They knew. They all knew. It’s tuddies.

When the Cover 2 Hole Is There, Rip It

Another Sellers completion ends up going for a touchdown, helped by some absolutely poor tackling from Clemson.

But I’m more interested in what Sellers does with the football. He works toward the flat and recognizes the void along the sideline. It’s a Cover 2 hole throw. We need to rip this football.

This ball does not need to be touched up. It needs to be thrown firm and on a line. If we put too much touch underneath it, the safety has an opportunity to get over and affect the play.

Sellers understands that. He puts juice on it and gives his receiver an opportunity. That’s the type of throw where his natural arm strength works perfectly for what the coverage is asking him to do.

Don’t Abandon the Screen

There are still plays where Sellers needs to trust the design.

South Carolina has a designed running back screen against Clemson. The offensive line is intentionally allowing the rushers to get upfield. The tackles are giving up those speed rushes because that’s exactly what they’ve been told to do.

I think Sellers needs to flick the football out. Instead, he tries to solve the problem with his legs. That’s a bad recipe on a designed screen.

I know there’s a defender in his face. I know that. Still, flick that thing out. Let’s go.

That’s an example of Sellers’ superhuman ability sometimes tempting him to solve problems himself when the offense already has an answer built into the play.

Nyck Harbor Needs to Be Used as a Build-Speed Weapon

South Carolina gets Harbor another opportunity through a trip-stack look. Clemson is trying to sort through the routes, but the alignment creates traffic. Defenders have to communicate who has the outward-breaking route, who has the inward-breaking route, and how they’re passing everything off.

Then Harbor gets to run across the field at build speed. That’s what he is. He needs to be used as a build-speed football player. Get him into situations where corners can’t get up in his face.

When you put him into a trip stack, defenders have to give ground. They can’t simply walk up and play bump-and-run. Let’s do a lot of that stuff with him.

I don’t think he’s a traditional boundary X because I think he can get jacked up at the line of scrimmage. He’s not always going to be able to stack defenders who can get into his chest.

Harbor is a build-speed guy. Get him into situations where he can build that speed.

If you go back and watch his track stuff, it’s almost like Usain Bolt in the sense that other guys might beat him out of the blocks, but from 50 to 100 meters? Oh my lord. He’ll pull away from people.

And Sellers puts another good rip on him. He’s a lot more accurate than I think people give him credit for.

Sellers’ Placement Is Better Than You Think

Back to the tape.

Sellers gets another throw off a predetermined half-roll to his right. I love what he does mechanically. He does a good-enough job stopping his momentum, gets his energy pointed toward the target and absolutely rips the football.

By God, that is the spot. Right on the face. The receiver doesn’t have a chance but to catch the football. The ball caught him.

That’s another example of something I think gets overlooked with Sellers. He’s a lot more accurate than people give him credit for. We put the football where we want it quite consistently.

Everybody Is Worried About No. 16

One of the most frustrating parts of South Carolina’s offense last season was that they couldn’t consistently run the football traditionally with the running back. But watch how much attention Sellers demands from a defense.

Everybody has eyes dedicated to the quarterback and the possibility of him using his legs. The backside inside linebacker is floating because he thinks he might have to account for No. 16. The defensive end is about as flat-footed as a human can possibly be because he’s worried about quarterback run. The front-side linebacker is playing slowly because he’s worried about the quarterback. The nickel defender travels with motion because he’s worried about another threat to the flat.

Everybody is worried about 16. That should make life easier for everybody else.

On one run, South Carolina has double teams working toward Clemson’s linebackers. When one of those linebackers starts flowing away, the offensive lineman needs to recognize it, come off the double, and wall off the defensive lineman. Do that and there’s a massive lane. We’d be banging our head on the goalpost at running back.

Instead, Clemson gets enough penetration to push the runner off his spot and into help. These are the types of things that can change if South Carolina cleans up the blocking and fully understands what it has at quarterback.

Sellers is going to command attention from second- and third-level defenders. If everybody else takes care of his job, South Carolina is going to run the football a whole hell of a lot better. A six-yard run should have been 60.

Sellers Has One of the Tightest Deliveries Around

Even with pressure getting home, Sellers shows the ability to play hot and get the football out. And look at that delivery. He probably has the tightest delivery of anybody we’ve watched. There ain’t any wasted movement in it.

You almost wonder how he gets as much juice on the football as he does. Then you remember the guy is built like a brick house.

That compact delivery allows Sellers to generate velocity without needing a ton of space or time. That matters when you’re playing behind an offensive line that isn’t always giving you much of either.

The Red-Zone Turnovers Have to Stop

This is the stuff we cannot do. Sometimes you have to be willing to eat a play.

On one red-zone throw, Clemson’s safety stays on the left hash and never gets off it. Sellers is staring at him. His eyes are on the safety. We cannot throw the football into that area without putting it at risk. That’s exactly what happens.

The safety makes a great play and holds onto the interception. Can’t have red-zone turnovers, bud. Can’t have it.

This also goes back to what I’m talking about with Harbor. When a defender gets into his chest, he has trouble getting off press coverage and creating speed space. That might sound crazy considering his track background. But I’ve said it once and I’ve said it a hundred times: He’s a build-speed football player. That release package has to improve. We need a little more wiggle.

Sellers, meanwhile, has to recognize when the matchup and coverage aren’t giving him what he wants and be willing to live for another play.

Sellers Is More Accurate Than He Gets Credit For

There are several throws throughout this Clemson tape where the accuracy stands out. Sellers puts the football where he wants it quite consistently. We are accurate with the football.

That’s part of why I’m willing to buy back into the prospect. The raw physical ability has never been the question. Everybody can see the size. Everybody can see what happens when he takes off running. Everybody can see the arm strength.

But when I went back through the tape, I saw a quarterback who had worked on his mechanics and was delivering the football more accurately than I think he gets credit for. That matters.

There Aren’t Many Defenders Who Can Catch Sellers

Then there’s the obvious. Sellers can freaking run.

On one play, I thought he was gone. I thought we were going to score. Former Clemson linebacker Wade Woodaz had other ideas. If that dude could do anything, he could run. Woodaz eventually gets Sellers on the ground, but there aren’t many dudes who are going to do that to him.

Even on the front side, South Carolina has opportunities to create lanes and creases if it can handle Clemson’s defensive front. If they could have blocked Peter Woods consistently in this football game, my god, there were runs available.

That’s the frustrating part. The quarterback creates problems for defenses simply by existing as a rushing threat. If South Carolina can clean up everything around him, there are explosive plays sitting there.

Take the First Down on Fourth-and-Three

My final criticism comes on a fourth-and-three. South Carolina had taken a shot on third-and-three, and I understand why. In that area of the field, you know you’re probably going on fourth down anyway.

But now it’s fourth-and-three. It’s a got-to-have-it down. It is not a chunk-play down. What should we be doing? Throwing it to the flat. The answer is sitting there immediately. It’s essentially the old Jon Gruden “Y Banana” play out of a different look.

Flip it out there. Live to fight another day and get yourself a first down. Do not throw into whatever we thought was there downfield because it’s not there.

We have the answer right now on fourth-and-three. Let’s play to get the first down, not the touchdown. Flick it over the defensive end. Get it to the tight end and let’s play.

Final Thoughts on LaNorris Sellers

It’s the same old story with LaNorris. If he can get an offensive line and clean up some of the turnover issues, the sky is the limit for him. One of those problems isn’t even his fault.

The physical talent is obvious. He’s massive. He can run. He has a ridiculously compact delivery for somebody who generates that much velocity. His mechanics improved, and he’s more accurate with the football than I think people give him credit for.

Now you put Kendal Briles with a mobile threat like this? Yeah. I think I’m ready to pick it back up. I’m buying stock.