Sellers leads No. 23 South Carolina to 4th straight victory with 17-9 win over Texas A&M

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- — Steve Spurrier said this week his Heisman Trophy vote was going to South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers. A few more gritty showings like this out of the Gamecocks quarterback might get a bunch more voters looking at Sellers as college football's best.

Sellers threw for 251 yards and a touchdown and added a clinching, 41-yard rushing score on an injured ankle in the final two minutes to lift the 23rd-ranked Gamecocks to a 17-9 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday night.

Spurrier, who led the Gamecocks to three straight 11-win seasons and its lone appearance in the Southeastern Conference title game, was inducted into the Gamecocks' Hall of Fame this week. He closed his induction speech by throwing his Heisman support — Spurrier is a past Heisman winner and gets to vote — to the Gamecocks' senior.

Asked if Sellers felt he was playing like one of the game's best, answered simply, “Yes, sir," as head coach Shane Beamer smiled widely and laughed.

Beamer has seen so much out of Sellers through the years, yet remains wowwed at his week-to-week performance. “I mean, what do you say?” Beamer gushed. “What a warrior he is.”

Especially when you consider that Sellers went to the locker room right before halftime to get X-rays on his ankle. Beamer “didn't even know if (Sellers) was going to be able to play in the second half and for him to go out there gut it out like he did in a touchdown run there at the end,” he said.

The win was South Carolina's fourth straight after an 0-3 start to Southeastern Conference play.

Malik Orsan's 43-yard field goal midway through the final quarter put South Carolina (6-3, 4-3 SEC; No. 21 CFP) ahead for good, 10-9, while Sellers' 41-yard TD run sealed things.

Texas A&M (4-5, 1-5), which started the season at No. 8, fell for the third time in its past four games and guaranteed itself a losing league season a year after reaching the College Football Playoff.

Not that the Aggies didn't have their chances against South Carolina.

Texas A&M rolled up more yards and had the ball for nearly 10 more minutes. Its chances, though, came down to a missed field goal by David Olano early in the third quarter that would have put the Aggies ahead 12-7. It was Olano's first miss of the season after making 16 straight.

Sellers broke free for his score a play after South Carolina had stopped the Aggies on downs.

Sellers said it wasn't until he got back out on the field for second-half warmups that he was sure he could go. “I didn't want to sit out the second half knowing we had a chance to win,” he said.

Texas A&M got to the Gamecocks' 3 on its last possession. Quarterback Marcel Reed's desperation pass sailed over his receiver's head to end things.

Rueben Owens II had a season-high 137 yards rushing for the Aggies.

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said it was another disappointing finish in a season full of them. “For a large part of that game, I thought we played the way we wanted to,” he said. But settling for field goals near the goal line cost them. “We can't get down there as much as we did and not come away with points,” he said.

Takeaways

Texas A&M: The Aggies have not had the season they expected coming into the year. Even with wins over Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas to close league play, it will mark their first losing SEC season under Elko and their first losing SEC season since going 2-6 in 2022.

South Carolina: It's been quite a revival for the Gamecocks, who were fielding questions of coaching buyouts and mass transfers after starting SEC play 0-3. But coach Shane Beamer has the team ranked and on the rise.

Bowl eligible

The Gamecocks qualified for the postseason when those chances looked dicey earlier in the year. It's the fourth time in Beamer's six seasons he'll lead the team into a bowl game. He recalled last year's locker room disappointment when they finished 4-8 and shut things down after the regular season. “The fact that we're going to get to play football for at least another month,” Beamer said. “That"s an unbelievable blessing.”

Which one was better?

It was Sellers' second straight game when his touchdown run late led to a Gamecocks victory. He tied things up with a twisting run and reached into the end zone through two defenders in a 27-24 win over Tennessee here on Oct. 24. Sellers' scamper against Texas A&M led to the final margin. Asked which one he liked better, Sellers quickly thought and said, “I like the Tennessee one.”

Up next

Texas A&M takes on No. 16 Tennessee next Saturday.

South Carolina plays its final SEC road game at Arkansas on Saturday night.

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