Biggest Concern for every SEC team in 2026: South Carolina Gamecocks
We continue our countdown to kick-off with our series detailing one biggest concern for every SEC team heading into 2026. Today, we head to Columbia to talk about the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Will LaNorris Sellers have enough help around him this year?
Shane Beamer’s tenure at South Carolina has been a bit of a roller coaster. Strong Novembers followed by bad full seasons. A constant up and down from one year to the next, that has been the Shane Beamer experience. That was especially the case last year when the Gamecocks came into the season ranked in the top 15 nationally and finished 4-8.
A big reason for South Carolina’s issues last year was the offense. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers shouldered a lot of that blame, and unfairly so. He played behind an offensive line that blocked worse than 0 SPF lotion in a 2010 Jersey Shore tanning salon. They allowed over 40 sacks for the third consecutive season. The run game that Sellers needed to help was nonexistent and ranked 16th in the SEC yards per carry (3.24) and 14th in yards per game (111.1).
Sellers ran for his life all season. A majority of his highlights from the season were him escaping pressure and trying to find someone open. That was mostly Nyck Harbor and Nyck Harbor only. He led the team in receiving with just 618 yards, and he and Vandrevious Jacobs were the only two receivers with over 350 yards receiving a season ago. Harbor returns in 2026 for his senior season. Jacobs, however, found a new home in Coral Gables playing for the national runner ups from a season ago, the Miami Hurricanes.
This season the Gamecocks brought in multiple players from the portal to help with eight offensive skill position players including four new wide receivers. They also have a crop of young, extremely talented receivers from their previous two recruiting cycles. Most of those players, aside from LaNorris’ brother Jayden, never saw the field or contributed in any significant way.
That can’t happen in 2026. LaNorris Sellers is extremely talented and has a new offensive coordinator (Kendal Briles) that should tap into his skillset much better than Mike Shula did. If the run game is non-existent though, and the offensive line is Swiss cheese once again, none of that will matter. And that is South Carolina’s biggest concern for 2026.
