South Carolina quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate LaNorris Sellers left Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt after a blow to the head and didn’t return.
Vanderbilt held a 14-7 lead at the time of the injury and steamrolled the Gamecocks from there en route to a stunning 31-7 win on the road. The unranked Commodores improved to 3-0 with the win while dropping the Gamecocks to 2-1.
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The injury took place on a hit late in the second half that was eventually ruled targeting and resulted in the ejection of Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson. Sellers left for the sideline after the hit and was replaced by backup Luke Doty for the remainder of the game.
Head coach Shane Beamer told SEC Network prior to the start of the second half that Sellers would not return. He didn’t expound on the nature of the injury. Sellers was able to get up and walk to the sideline on his own after receiving treatment on the field from team trainers.
A penalty was not initially called on the field. Beamer was furious and pleaded with an official on the sideline during the delay between plays. Just as the ball was snapped on the ensuing play, officials blew their whistles to initiate a targeting review.
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They ultimately ruled that the play was targeting by Patterson, who made helmet-to-helmet contact on Sellers when he hit the quarterback just after Sellers threw the ball.
Beamer addressed the delay while speaking with SEC Network before halftime.
“I asked him as soon as it happened if it was looking at it for targeting,” Beamer said of his conversation with the official. “For our quarterback to be laying on the ground like that, he probably got hit in the head.
“For whatever reason, it took a while to buzz down. So I don’t know what’s going on in Birmingham, or wherever they look at it. But I thought it was pretty obvious.”
The targeting penalty on the first play of the drive advanced South Carolina to its own 41-yard line with 1:52 remaining in the half. But the drive ended with a missed 53-yard field goal, and Vanderbilt went into halftime with a seven-point lead.
Vanderbilt outscored South Carolina 17-0 after halftime as the Gamecocks’ first-half struggles worsened without their starting quarterback.
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Doty finished the game completing 18-of-27 passes, but averaged just 5.5 yards per attempt while tallying 148 passing yards and an interception without leading his team to a touchdown. South Carolina’s ground game was inefficient as well as Vanderbilt held it to 86 rushing yards on 3 yards per carry.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, tallied 146 yards on the ground (3.9 yards per carry) and capitalized on a 3-to-1 advantage in forced turnovers.
The blowout win is the third in three games for Vanderbilt, which posted a 45-3 win over Charleston Southern in its season opener and beat Virginia Tech 44-20 in Week 2. Vanderbilt next faces Georgia State and Utah State before getting into the heart of its SEC schedule with consecutive games against No. 19 Alabama, No. 3 LSU, No. 25 Missouri, No. 7 Texas and No. 24 Auburn starting Oct. 4.
South Carolina will look to bounce back against Missouri next week while hoping for Sellers’ return.