AFLAC KICKOFF GAME: VIRGINIA TECH VS. SOUTH CAROLINA

August 31, 2025

LaNorris Sellers

South Carolina Gamecocks

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Postgame Press Conference

Q. LaNorris, looking at just going back into the game and just what you can see from that first drive that you had and the run that you had to make sure you set the pace, and then just how your team came through for the rest of it -- offense, defense, and special teams. Felt like a total game play from everybody with the Gamecocks today.

LaNORRIS SELLERS: Yeah, we just preach on playing complementary football, special teams picking up the offense, offense picking up the defense, defense to offense and vice versa. So I feel like we did a good job of that today.

Q. Can you just take us through the deep ball to Nyck Harbor? How long have you guys been wanting to pull that one out?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: We've been stapling our offense pretty much. We just like to have answers for pretty much everything. So it's kind of like all week, hey, we don't know what they're going to come down and do, but it's a good play. It has everything. When we got it, safety came down, we just knew we had it.

Q. What did you think about the young freshmen and new guys on offense, Murph and those guys? How do you think they played in their first game today?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: I'm just glad they wasn't shellshocked or anything. It's a new environment for them. They played in front of a lot more people than they have in high school and stuff like that. So I think they did pretty good for their first game.

Q. All off-season, Nyck Harbor has talked about how he's grown his first full off-season dedicated to football. What have you seen from him, and what was it like to see him have a big time performance today? Also talk about you guys' connection and how it's continuing to grow?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: I mean, consistent growth honestly. He's putting in the work for it. Glad he's coming out there shining. He had a full off-season with like me and the offense, just being out there and running routes and stuff. He's more comfortable catching the ball and stuff like that. He just looks more natural.

Q. Talk about the first drive. After practicing all season and everything you did to come out there like you did, first series of the season and almost operate to perfection taking it down the field, it was almost too easy. Talk a little bit about that drive.

LaNORRIS SELLERS: We just came out of the gate and said we're going to straight at them, and that's pretty much what we did. We just got to keep up and keep doing that.

Q. After an off-season where you received a lot of attention, a lot of hype around you and the team, how gratifying is it to you that you had some game-winning plays and you got a big victory on national television here in Atlanta?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: It's always good to get a win. It's a hard win. It's a good team, a lot of tradition, a lot of history in that program. Just to go out and fight like we did and come through in the fourth quarter, it just felt good.

Q. A little bit of a two-parter here. New defensive coordinator, a bunch of new players on defense. Were you all taken off guard by anything that they did? After that first drive, you all struggled a little bit offensively. What did you sense the problems were there for a little while?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: The first part is just -- we knew going into the game we're just going to have to have answers for everything. They had -- he came from Arizona last year, so we looked at a bunch of three high stuff, that's what Illinois did. Then we knew they were a three deep zone team, a lot of field pressure, stuff like that. They may bring some boundary pressure every now and then. A lot of stuff that we had, just had answers versus all of that in particular plays and stuff like that.

Then the struggling part, it's just football. You're going to have some ups and downs, but you just got to keep going and pushing through and fighting.

Q. LaNorris, towards the end of the game, you had a couple of now vintage LaNorris Sellers plays where guys are flying off of you. When that's happening, what's going through your mind? Or are you just trying to get to the marker? What do you see when someone is trying to sack you like that?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: It's a mixture of things really. It's like, all right, if I break this tackle, who's coming? You saw they got me on the sack earlier, he hit my right in the face. Just looking around for those guys. If more guys are coming, I'm going to get down, but if it's one guy or if he's a pretty good distance away, just try to stay up and break it. Got to have a moment. He told me before he caught it, I'm just like, hey, we're running right here, protect the ball and just end the game. So that's what I went and did.

Q. LaNorris, you had a couple big runs today, like was just mentioned. When do you know that you're ready to escape out of that pocket and make a run for it? How does that open up the game for you guys when you can be a dual threat like you are?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: It just opens up a lot. It gives them a lot that you have to take into account for it. We can throw a deep ball obviously. We've got a good run game with a running back, and we can spit things out quick. It's a lot to prepare for. We've got triple option and all that. So it's just a lot to prepare for.

Q. Vicari's return, were you watching closely? Kind of take me through what you're doing when that play unfolded.

LaNORRIS SELLERS: We know they had the penalty or whatever. I was like, I mean, we could take the five yards, but with Beamer and Joe-D, I'm like, they're going to gamble on special teams every time. So I'm kind of like he'd better return it.

Vicari just make plays all the time at corner. Played some receiver in the summer with us, just playing around. He's an all around athlete. To let him go out there and do that, it was just good to see because everybody in the building knows he can do that. A lot of people didn't know he had that in him, but we knew since he got here in my class.

Q. Talk about your running and running through tackles. On that first, on your touchdown run to open the game, from the press box, it appeared that you could have maybe gone right and just gone in untouched into the end zone, but you kind of veered into the defender. Were you intentionally trying to run through him at the goal line? Is that something you were seeking?

LaNORRIS SELLERS: No, I just -- I probably could have went right, but when I was going to go right, he jumped right. Then when I went left, he jumped left. So it was kind of like I'll just go through him, I guess, I don't know.