South Carolina’s offense will be in new hands as the Gamecocks transition from Dowell Loggains to Mike Shula. As On3’s Kevin Miller notes, Shula’s experience working with QB LaNorris Sellers during the 2024 college football season likely means the team’s schemes won’t be changing much.

“As South Carolina transitions from Loggains to Shula, there shouldn’t be a dramatic scheme shift. Shula worked closely with Sellers this year and has shown similar offensive philosophies to Loggains during his other coaching stops. However, Tuesday will mark his first solo experience calling plays for the Gamecocks,” Miller wrote.

Loggains took the head coaching job at Appalachian State, leaving the opening for Shula. Among the many goals Shula has during their Citrus Bowl matchup against Illinois, finding common ground in rushing the ball and keeping Sellers from taking too many hits is of utmost importance.

“South Carolina’s rushing success fluctuated in 2024, and 77.9% of the team’s yards on the ground came from Sanders (who isn’t playing) or the quarterback position. Finding consistency will be key. It seems obvious that Sellers will be a major factor in the game plan on the ground. However, every offense would prefer its star quarterback to avoid taking hits if possible.”

Shula has discussed giving Sellers the key to the offense in a way that’d unlock him – perhaps unleashing a Cam Newton-like QB in the Gamecocks backfield.

“You actually kind of find yourself looking back and I think we’ll do that some in the offseason,” Shula said, per On3. “Maybe there’s some things that we did back there with Cam that maybe we haven’t done in a while that might fit here with LaNorris.

“It’s going to probably be more philosophy wise regarding X’s and O’s than it would be ‘Hey, watch how he runs.’ So, it’s hard to have it both ways. That’s the one thing I’ve learned with guys that can carry the football and run like both Cam and LaNorris. LaNorris has still got a long way to go. It’s just his first year. But we’ll continue to try to build on those things.”

Illinois is a mediocre defensive team, so Shula and Sellers may have a big debut together. It’s no guarantee, though, with bowl game unpredictability being prominent this year outside of any College Football Playoff games so far.