No. 18 South Carolina will aim to keep its outside hopes of making the College Football Playoff alive when it hosts in-state FCS foe Wofford on Saturday in Columbia.
The Gamecocks (7-3) have to win their last two games and get plenty of help to leapfrog any of the Southeastern Conference schools currently ranked ahead of them: No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Alabama, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 Georgia, No. 11 Tennessee and No. 15 Texas A&M.
Since losing at Alabama on Oct. 12, South Carolina has won four games in a row, with three of them against AP or CFP ranked opponents. Most recently, the Gamecocks took down Missouri at home last Saturday, 34-30, behind a career-high five passing touchdowns from LaNorris Sellers.
Raheim Sanders hauled in Sellers’ go-ahead touchdown pass, a 15-yard shovel toss — with 15 seconds left. It was the first time since 2012, when Steve Spurrier coached the Gamecocks, that they have won four consecutive SEC games.
For his efforts, Sellers — a redshirt freshman from Florence, S.C. — was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week. He has piled up more than 2,200 yards of total offense this season and thrown 14 touchdowns to five interceptions.
“He’s just a really good quarterback, and he continues to get better every week,” Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer said of Sellers.
Outside of tight end Brady Hunt being out for at least two weeks with a lower body injury, Beamer didn’t have many updates to his injury report. Defensive back Judge Collier “should be fine” and left tackle Josiah Thompson “is back healthy,” Beamer said.
The game marks the final one of the season for Wofford (5-6), which has played five games against Top 25 teams in the FCS this season, winning just one. The Terriers, who carry 37 players on their roster from the state of South Carolina, are coming off a 31-17 home loss to The Citadel, which plays at Clemson this week.
“The bottom line is, you can’t turn the ball over, you can’t give up big plays, and you’ve got to get off the field on third down,” Wofford coach Shawn Watson said after the Terriers blew a halftime lead. “For us, right now, I’m just trying to move our program forward and get our football team better.”
Ryan Ingram leads Wofford’s offense this season with 650 rushing yards and six touchdowns, while wideout Kyle Watkins has 43 catches for 689 yards.
South Carolina is paying Wofford a $600,000 guarantee for this game. The Gamecocks are 20-4 all-time against the Terriers with 17 straight wins. This is the final home game of the season for South Carolina before its regular season finale at rival Clemson.
–Field Level Media