Following the Garnet and Black Spring Game, LaNorris Sellers spoke to the media on Friday. Here is everything he had to say.

How much progress do you think was made? Is there one issue that you think you guys might be working on for the season?

“I mean, we’re always gonna have issues, because of spring ball with a bunch of new guys coming in. Just got to keep up the chemistry, keep going, stuff like that. But yeah, we definitely have improved as a team, I would say.”

LaNorris, could you just give your assessments on the quarterbacks and what you saw from all of them tonight?

“Yeah, I mean, I saw Air (Noland), they did some good stuff with what they had. I know sometimes we have like, pressures like that. This is like footwork, stepping up in the pocket, stuff like that. Cutter (Woods) came out, did his thing. He had a couple of passes. He ran in for a touchdown. I mean, Luke (Doty) has been here forever; he did his thing. Same thing with Dante (Reno), he went out there and did his thing. They did everything and worked with what they had, moved the ball when they needed, to get stuff done.”

Two for you real quick, working with Rodney Newsom tonight, obviously the snap went over your head. What happened on that play there?

“I just think it was a mistake on his part. I mean, it happens. First game in Williams-Brice, stuff like that. So I understand.”

Shane was just in here a minute ago, saying, you know, if at the end of the spring, Boaz (Stanley) would probably be the starting center for you guys right now. From working with him in the spring and stuff, what has that been like? What does he bring to the table that you like?

“Smart guy. He’s physical, super positive, always happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him down. He’s always smiling. No matter what, if it’s good or bad. He just knows what he’s doing. He has a lot of experience at the college level.”

LaNorris, what did you see from the young receivers? Brian Rowe and Malik Clark made some big plays. Your brother was out there as well.

“I mean, they just showed up all spring, so it wasn’t really a surprise. We knew what they had coming in out of high school. So, I mean, we have good players. They can come in and play. Donovan Murph coming in. So we’ve got to be ready to play. And they showed how they are.”

How has your life changed with NIL? Just going out, taking pictures. People know you, how’s your life changed last year?

“It is crazy. It’s going in public, like you said, we do some picture stuff. Just everybody knows you can’t really go in public without being like recognized now.”

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LaNorris, what are you going to spend most time this summer? And what do you want to improve on most? And the second question is, can you critique your brother’s first appearance at Williams-Brice Stadium?

“So I just want to focus on the little things, like footwork, assisting, like I said earlier. Just being more patient, anticipation, stuff like that. Just like the small details. And then my brother, I mean, if you’re gonna fair catch a punt, fair catch it as you catch it. And if you catch an outbreak route, don’t run back into it where the defense is coming from. It’s not going to go good for you.”

I’m sure you had a routine last summer with your receivers. Is there anything that you know you’re going to change for this summer’s routine?

“Yeah, we probably did do it more just because they’re freshmen. I think we had more older guys last year. We had freshmen coming in, so we just got to do it more, make sure they understand, like, why we do things. Understand like reading coverages or routes, bringing flat, keep them high. Make sure to come back to the ball, like, curve off, stuff like that.”

You had the Heisman Trophy tag kind of circulating your name as of late. Is it weird hearing that and hearing your name and those types of conversations and or do you think about it at all?

“I won’t say it’s weird. It’s definitely different. But I mean, I still got to go ahead and play, so I don’t like looking into it too much, but we all have goals.”

The spring game is kind of unique in its structure. How much does tonight scratch the itch for you guys to get back out there?

“Just gets a team to compete in the game setting. I know we practice stuff, but it’s not it’s nothing like an actual game.”

The annual Garnet and Black South Carolina Gamecocks spring game is officially here as kickoff is set for 7:30 pm (ET) on Friday.

South Carolina, like many teams around the country, is choosing not to televise its spring game this year. Fans will have to either attend the event for free or listen on 107.5 The Game in the Midlands. This will be the only opportunity fans will get to see their team live before the start of the 2025 season.

This year the Gamecocks got creative for their upcoming spring game. Instead of matching up the roster based on the depth chart, South Carolina held a mini draft where coaches selected players for their respective teams.

Tune in below for live updates on the spring game throughout the day.

Live Updates:

The Gamecocks’ social team releases the rosters for the Garnett and Black game.

Below is the event’s schedule.

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Brandon Stone saw KJ Scobey gobble up the ground ball at third base, and he put his arms in he air. He watched Scobey make a clean throw across the diamond to Beau Hollins, and he let out an enormous sigh of relief along with a karate kick.

South Carolina baseball finally got the series-opening start it has been crying out for all year, thanks to an instant classic from Stone.

Stone fired a complete game on just 86 pitches, allowing two runs on six hits with four strikes and no free passes allowed, outdueling Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliott and guiding the Gamecocks to a 3-2 victory at Founders Park. The win is just South Carolina’s second SEC series-opening win of the season, and will give the Gamecocks two opportunities to get their first conference series win of the season.

“After having a really bad game and getting walked off twice [last weekend] we needed a leader out there tonight,” Paul Mainieri said. “And he was a leader. I knew he would be. He was a tremendous leader, coming out, pounding the strike zone and getting us off to a good start.”

Stone’s complete game was the nine-inning one for the program since Brett Kerry threw one on May 15, 2021 at Kentucky, and beat the next-longest start from a Gamecock this season by two whole innings.

After shuffling the ace spot in the rotation between Dylan Eskew, Matthew Becker, Stone and Jake McCoy the last two weeks. South Carolina turned back to Stone for the opener against Ole Miss and the JUCO transfer spun a gem.

“I felt pretty good from the beginning,” Stone said. “This week in my bullpen, [pitching] coach [Terry] Rooney really worked on getting the ball down again. I just kept it down, made them get themselves out and kept throwing it.”

Right from the start, Stone had everything working. He was firing strikes, something South Carolina’s (22-17, 3-13 SEC) staff sorely needed after it issued 33 free passes last weekend at Texas A&M. He was inducing soft contact, particularly rollers to his infielders. In the first two innings alone Ole Miss (27-11, 9-7 SEC) hitters tapped two balls in front of the plate that catcher Gavin Braland handled, and weakly tapped two more balls to shortstop Henry Kaczmar.

The one time all night Stone had traffic on the bases, a ground ball saved him. Ole Miss put two runners on with one out in the fourth inning thanks to back-to-back singles — one of them an infield single after a comebacker deflected off Stone and fell into no man’s land — but a weak roller to second base allowed Jordan Carrion to start a 4-6-3 double play and end the threat.

“If I get a baserunner on, the next thing I know I’m talking to Henry and Jordan trying to get them to roll it up for me,” Stone said. “It saves a lot of pitches, and lets me go deeper in the games. It worked out tonight. They were absolutely amazing with that.”

He did allow two solo home runs, a third inning shot by Ole Miss catcher Austin Fawley and a sixth inning blast from left fielder Mitchell Sanford, but quickly got back on the beam both times and ended the inning without any more damage. He induced key double plays in the seventh and ninth innings after lead-off base runners reached.

South Carolina’s offense had its own challenges against Elliott and Ole Miss relief ace Mason Morris, but scratched across just enough offense. Nathan Hall had two critical hits in his first game back from a brief injury absence, both in scoring innings. His lead-off double set the table for the first run when he came around to score on Carrion’s RBI groundout, and his RBI single in the fifth ended up being the game-winning hit as Scobey crossed the plate.

The Gamecocks never added on. Morris struck out six of the eight batters he faced in a dominant relief outing, leaving Stone with zero margin for error. The only question was if he could finish the drill, one Mainieri posed to his starter after the eighth.

“I did go over and ask him after the eighth inning,” Mainieri said.”’Have you ever gone nine innings before?’ And he said yeah, but at a much higher pitch count, 130 pitches or so. He felt so fresh, there was no way I was taking the ball from him.”

It was Stone’s game to win or lose. And on this night, there was never a doubt which way it would go.

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