South-Carolina
South Carolina football's 2024 assault on the record books
The 2024 season isn’t over yet. However, South Carolina football’s 9-3 regular season has been a wild (and mostly enjoyable) ride that Gamecock fans will remember forever. Along the way, thanks to big-time statistical performances and a return to winning ways, USC has had to rewrite some of its history. There is one game remaining, so some of these records or near-records could shift by the end of the year.
Let’s take a look at the 2024 Gamecocks’ assault on the record books.
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Team
South Carolina has won nine games in 2024 with one more opportunity left to play (the Gamecocks will take on the Illinois Fighting Illini in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve). In the history of the program, that’s only happened seven other times.
If Carolina were to beat Illinois, that would move this year’s win total to 10. That would mark just the fifth time in history a Gamecock team reached double-digit victories.
Shane Beamer’s team also posted six wins by at least 21 points this season. That is the second most in South Carolina football history and the most since 1987.
Both defensive lineman Tonka Hemingway and punter Kai Kroeger have played in 60 career games. That ties former kicker Parker White for the most games played in team history.
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Offense
The Gamecock offense wasn’t elite in 2024. However, as the entire team turned the corner after a 3-3 start, so did the offense. Much of that started with quarterback LaNorris Sellers.
Sellers had a November to remember. The redshirt freshman broke the South Carolina record (previously held by Jake Bentley) for touchdowns in a single month, totaling 16 scores in the calendar’s 11th month. He also was one shy of tying Steve Taneyhill’s mark of 14 passing touchdowns in a single month.
Sellers also was the only FBS quarterback to pass and rush for 150 yards in a single game this season. He did so when it mattered most, too, beating the rival Clemson Tigers with his dominant performance.
In that same Clemson game, Sellers broke 18 tackles. That’s the most broken tackles ever by a quarterback in the PFF statistical tracking era. It also was the second most (regardless of position) of any player this season.
No. 16’s five touchdown passes against Missouri matched a number only accomplished eight other times in USC history. Only Spencer Rattler (six against Tennessee in 2022) has thrown for more scores in one game.
Sellers’ 398 yards of offense against Missouri also is the eight-highest total ever produced in garnet and black.
Barring disaster, LaNorris Sellers will break Todd Ellis’ single-season freshman record for total yards. He is 46 yards shy of Ellis with 2929 yards passing and rushing combined. He is three passing touchdowns short of Ellis’ freshman record (20), and he already owns the total quarterback touchdown marks among freshmen (24).
Tight end Josh Simon quietly matched a South Carolina tight end record, as well. With six touchdown receptions, he matched Clyde Bennett’s mark set back in the 1950s. No other tight ends have caught six TD passes in a Gamecock uniform.
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Defense
South Carolina senior EDGE Kyle Kennard (who just won the Nagurski Trophy as the top defensive player in college football) pushed his way onto some all-time lists this season.
Kennard finished the regular season with 11.5 sacks. Only Jadeveon Clowney’s 13 quarterback stops in 2012 are better in Gamecock history. Kennard is now one of just four players to reach double-digit sacks in Columbia, joining Clowney, Melvin Ingram, and Andrew Provence. It’s worth mentioning that Kennard had a sack wiped out of the box score thanks to an accepted holding penalty, too.
Dylan Stewart has 6.5 sacks on the year. That is 1.5 shy of Jadeveon Clowney’s freshman record of eight. Stewart could reach or pass Clowney depending on how the bowl game goes.
As a team, South Carolina is three sacks away from tying 2012’s all-time mark of 40.
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Special Teams
Kai Kroeger is averaging 47.6 yards per punt this season. Joseph Charlton averaged 47.7 yards in 2019. With a good bowl game, Kroeger will become the single-season Gamecock record holder for punt average. Kroeger is almost locked into place as the second most prolific career punter (in terms of average distance) behind Charlton.
New details have emerged in an officer-involved shooting that left one dead and a deputy injured in Anderson County on Monday.
A deputy with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) initiated a traffic stop outside of Townville, SC, on I-85 Northbound near Mile Marker 11 for a traffic violation, according to a release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
The deputy requested back-up and spoke to 32-year-old Austin Derrell Robertson, of Pennsylvania, in his patrol vehicle. Once the other deputy arrived, Robertson got out of the vehicle and “a physical altercation involving him and the two deputies” occured, according to SLED.
SC deputy critically injured after shooting during traffic stop, suspect killed
While deputies attempted to tase Robertson, officials said he grabbed a firearm from his vehicle and shot one of the deputies.
Both deputies then shot back at Roberston, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
SLED said the deputy was airlifted to the hospital and remains there for treatment at this time.
The incident remains under investigation by SLED, as requested by the ACSO.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer has been nominated for a position in foreign diplomacy.
The White House on Tuesday listed Bauer as a nominee to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Belize, a Central American country bordering Guatemala.
It’s unclear when a confirmation hearing will take place. WIS has reached out to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee for more information.
Bauer was South Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 2003-2011, serving under then-Gov. Mark Sanford. Before that, he served terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives and the South Carolina Senate.
More recently, Bauer entered the race for U.S. Senate in July 2025, looking to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary. He ended his campaign the following month.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Six Republican candidates vying to become South Carolina’s next governor met in downtown Charleston for a wide-ranging debate that put abortion, infrastructure and the future of data centers at the center of the race.
The forum was held at the Sottile Theatre, where Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy and Attorney General Alan Wilson took the stage.
Questions included whether they would support a state hate crime law, how they would address concerns about growth and infrastructure, how to navigate collaboration, abortion and the future of data centers in the state.
One issue that drew near-unanimous opposition was state Senate Bill 1095, a proposed total abortion ban that passed out of committee earlier in the day. All of the candidates opposed the bill, but they differed on what they would do if it reached the governor’s desk.
READ MORE | South Carolina governor candidates tout infrastructure, growth at business forum
Norman said he would sign it.
“You know, this is an emotional issue, but I will tell you if this bill came to my desk as governor. If it passed the House and the Senate, I would sign it,” Norman said.
All of the other candidates on stage said they would veto the bill if it came across their desk as governor, with Reddy arguing the question should be decided by voters.
“The Supreme Court did not say the loudest voice in the ruling class prevails. It said it’s up to the people in the state, so let’s put it to a referendum,” Reddy said.
On infrastructure, candidates discussed reforming the South Carolina Department of Transportation and allowing private-sector involvement to help pay for improvements.
Wilson outlined ideas that included leasing interstate easements and expanding private express lanes.
“We privatized that grass between the interstates. We turn it into private express lanes that can be told we leased the easements on the sides of interstates to telecommunication companies and energy companies, and charge them for natural gas line and fiber optic fiber optic cables,” Wilson said.
Evette also pointed to public-private partnerships and the possibility of fast-pass lanes.
READ MORE | South Carolina governor candidates tout infrastructure, growth at business forum
“We want to make sure that we’re innovative public private partnerships coming in and creating fast pass lanes to allow people that are in a hurry to be able to utilize that,” Evette said.
The final question focused on data centers, with candidates agreeing corporations should “pay their way.”
“They should pay for their water. They should pay for their infrastructure, any roads around it, and we should look at what Governor Ron DeSantis has done in Florida with the large data centers that are coming to Florida. That should be the model in South Carolina and everywhere,” Mace said.
Kimbrell said the state should set limits to protect natural resources and guard against higher power costs for residents.
“Put parameters around data centers to ensure that the water consumption does not impact places like the ACE Basin,” Kimbrell said. “Ensuring that the Public Service Commission makes absolutely sure nobody’s power rate goes up and we try to get behind the meter energy grids in place so they can be self-sufficient.”
Two more debates are planned ahead of the primaries on June 9.
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