South Carolina Football: Gamecocks win! Garnet and Black spring game observations

The annual Garnet and Black Spring Game was played underneath the lights at Williams-Brice Stadium, and before the game even began, headlines were made. In Head Coach Shane Beamer’s effort to make the game as fair and competitive as possible, the coaching staff “drafted” teams, and even before Spencer Rattler was taken as the quarterback of the Black team, true freshman LaNorris Sellers was taken as the first quarterback of the Garnet team. Could Sellers have supplanted returner Luke Doty as Rattler’s backup and locked himself in as QB1 of the future?

Earlier in the day, thousands and thousands of Gamecock fans lined the Gamecock Walk to welcome the team for the first time in 2023, and that energy from the pregame was felt in the stadium at kickoff. The lower bowl of Williams-Brice was close to full, and the announced attendance was over 51,000, slightly above the announced attendance from that team in the Upstate earlier today during their spring game.

The rules of the game were simple. The first half would consist of two 12-minute quarters, and the second half would be two 10-minute quarters. Quarterbacks were live except for Rattler and Doty. No kickoffs or punts would be live.

There were numerous inactive on the day.

The Summary

The Black team and Spencer Rattler took the field first, and the first play was a deep shot to new transfer wideout Eddie Lewis. The throw was slightly overthrown, but after a short pass on second, Rattler and the offense converted on third down with a 56-yard pitch and catch from Rattler to Juice Wells.

Later on the drive, Dakereon Joyner got his first carry from the running back position and looked like a natural. A quick pass to transfer tight end Trey Knox got the Black team down to the 1-yard line. Spencer Rattler thought he scored on a keeper, but Coach Beamer blew the play dead in the interest of quarterback safety. Rattler hit Knox on 4th and goal to score the first points of the game.

Luke Doty started the game for the Garnet team and hit his first pass to Joshua Simon in the flat. He looked shaky in the pocket after that, and the first punt of the day gave the ball back to the Black squad.

A better defensive drive followed for Garnet, and Doty retook the field. After a short gain on a pass to Landon Sampson, Mario Anderson got hit first carry but was hit in the backfield and shot ahead for a short gain. The teams traded punts after three nondescript drives (two punts by Garnet, one by Black), and the first quarter came to a close.

The second quarter saw the Black team drive the ball down the field, with Trey Knox catching three balls. A sack set them back too far to recover, but Alex Herrera was good on the 39-yard field goal to put his team up 10-0.

The Doty-led Garnet squad took the field and earned a first down after a tough run from Mario Anderson and another Joshua Simon catch. Bam Martin-Scott and Donovan Westmoreland showed off their pass rush ability from linebacker with back-to-back sacks to force another punt.

Tanner Bailey took over for Rattler on the Black team’s next drive, and like the starter, he also tried hitting Eddie Lewis deep on his first pass. Elijah Davis sacked Bailey on fourth down to end the Black drive, and Doty returned to the field for the Garnet team. They ended up losing yardage but were still in field goal range after taking over on downs. However, Mitch Jeter missed a 53-yarder.

A nice throw and catch from Bailey to Eddie Lewis brought the Black team to about the 35, and Bailey hit a wide open Juice Wells on the sideline, and #3 walked into the end zone to extend the lead to 17-0. A quick three-and-out saw the Garnet squad leave the field with no points again, but on the ensuing drive, Elijah Davis sacked Bailey, knocking the ball loose for a Jamaal Whyce recovery.

The great field position finally resulted in points for Garnet, as Jeter made a chip shot as the clock ran out. With that, the first half came to a close with the Black squad leading 17-3.

LaNorris Sellers started the second half for the Garnet team, and he immediately showed off his athleticism with an 8-yard carry on the first play. He hit a receiver in the hands on second down, but the ball came in a little too hot and was dropped. The bespectacled #16 ran for about 20 yards on third down after his receivers couldn’t get open. Sellers threw a deep ball that should have been caught by Omega Blake, but a miscommunication between Blake and Ben Rollins caused the ball to drop to the turf.

After a collapsed pocket resulted in a sack, Bailey returned to the game for the Black team. Juju McDowell showed some of his wiggle with a nice run on the drive, and walk-on receiver Aaron Morton caught several balls. DK Joyner came back in at running back and kept up his strong work at the position. Jalon Gilgore made a nice open-field tackle on Joyner and then Bryan Thomas, Jr. logged another sack of Bailey, his second of the night.

When Garnet took over, walk-on running back Bradley Dunn started the drive with a couple of really good runs. After a bad snap sailed over Sellers’ head, the freshman scooped up the ball with one hand while sprinting away from the pass rush, turned his shoulders up square, and fired the ball to the sideline where Kylic Horton made an impressive one-handed snag. Unfortunately, Horton’s foot came down out of bounds, so it didn’t count, but the true freshman and redshirt freshman combined for a nice play.

The very next snap saw Sellers hit walk-on receiver DJ Black in-stride for a huge gain that got the Garnet squad within striking distance as the 3rd period expired. A few plays later, Dante “Lil’ Turbo” Miller ran straight into the scrum but spun out and ran away from the defense for the score to close the gap to 17-10.

Braden Davis replaced Bailey as the signal caller for Team Black. After some forward progression for the offense, big Jamaal Whyce erased it with a big sack. Davis made a very athletic escape from pressure a couple plays later but didn’t get enough on his throw, resulting in a Colin Bryant pick-6 that tied the score at 17-17.

Colten Gauthier saw his first action at quarterback next but the offense couldn’t get past midfield. With a minute and a half remaining in the game, Sellers led his troops back onto the field and immediately drove his team from his own 25 to mid-field. A Felix Hixon sack killed the momentum, and the game went to overtime.

The overtime period was a 2-point play shootout that began with a best two out of three from the team’s head coaches. Head Athletic Trainer Clint Haggard beat Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Luke Day, so his team got to go second in the shootout. After an overthrow from Tanner Bailey for the Black team, LaNorris Sellers just missed freshman Connor Cox for the win, and the second overtime period began.

Garnet went first in double overtime, and Sellers was ruled short on a keeper. A run straight up the gut from walk-on back DJ Twitty won the game for the Black team 19-17.

The Observations

Offense

• The first-team offenses for the Black and the Garnet were:
  • Rattler, Doty (QB)
  • McDowell, Anderson (RB)
  • Wells, Lewis, Brown, Legette, Samson, Blake (WR)
  • Knox, Simon (TE)
  • Nichols, Anderson, Lee, Jones, Wannamaker, Fugar, Gargiulo, Brubaker, Morgan, Mains (OL)
• Despite JuJu McDowell starting, Dakereon Joyner carried the ball before McDowell; Joyner looked pretty natural at the position despite only moving there this spring and ran hard in his opportunities.
• Trey Knox and Joshua Simon both looked very good at tight end. Knox looks like a legitimate TE1, and Simon would probably play that very role on a lot of other football teams. Both players, especially Knox, were heavily targeted when in the game.
• Juice Wells is still Juice Wells.
• None of the quarterbacks looked particularly crisp, but that is to be somewhat expected in a semi-live scrimmage in a new offense. Rattler still had a solid day, and LaNorris Sellers had some very good moments.
• New playcaller Dowell Loggains utilized more pulling offensive linemen in the run game than was the norm under previous Offensive Coordinator Marcus Satterfield. Early on, he called a counter play multiple times that used both the backside guard and backside tackle as lead blockers.
• Mario Anderson runs hard. Speed was a question for Anderson coming in, and while he is no burner, he doesn’t look out of place running the football from a speed standpoint.
• Nick Gargiulo started at guard and got reps at center.
• Several true freshmen played, and freshman guard Markee Anderson started for the Black team.
• Other newcomers who played a lot were freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers (the entire second half), transfer receiver Eddie Lewis, transfer tight ends Trey Knox and Joshua Simon, transfer running back Mario Anderson, and transfer offensive lineman Nick Gargiulo.
• A handful of offensive walk-ons performed well. Receiver DJ Black had a 50-yard catch and run from LaNorris Sellers, receiver Aaron Morton snagged a few passes, running back Bradley Dunn had some nice carries, and big running back DJ Twitty scored the winning 2-point conversion play in double overtime.
• Some other offensive players who “flashed” but haven’t been mentioned yet include wide receiver Kylic Horton (a ridiculous one-handed catch that ultimately didn’t count because his foot landed out of bounds), running back Dante Miller (whose eligibility appeal has not yet been fully approved), and offensive lineman Nick Gargiulo who played most of the game.
• Jaylen Nichols appeared to have been pretty seriously hurt. The big left tackle left the game without being able to walk on his own and had his leg put in a stabilizer before being given crutches.

Defense

• The first-team defenses for the Black and Garnet were:
  • Sanders, Barrett, Huntley, Dawkins, Thomas Jr., Davis, Martin, Whyce (DL)
  • Williams, Martin-Scott, Howard, Blanton (LB)
  • Dial, Byrnes, Emmanwori, Banks, Floyd, Kilgore, Smith, Fortune, Norris, Grier (DB)
• With Jordan Strachan, Tyreek Johnson, and Desmond Umeozulu out for the game, several players stepped up rushing the passer. Elijah Davis played both inside at tackle and outside at end and looked very good, logging a couple of sacks and a forced fumble. Undersized EDGE Bryan Thomas, Jr. also tallied multiple sacks and looked very athletic and comfortable on the field, something that was not always the case during his freshman season.
• The linebackers blitzed a lot. Donovan Westmoreland had two sacks, Bam Martin-Scott had a sack, and so did Stone Blanton.
• The young defensive backs were willing tacklers. KaJuan Banks and Jalon Gilgore played a lot and were mixing it up in the run game.
• 2022 Freshman All-American DQ Smith wore a $1 bill on his backplate. Not important but significant.
• Linebacker Stone Blanton struggled with his speed at times last year but seemed a step faster in the spring game.
• The only very noticeable bust in coverage came on a long Juice Wells touchdown where the All-SEC receiver got lost on the sideline and walked in for the score.
• True freshman Xzavier McLeod got some early run at defensive tackle.
• Other newcomers who played a lot were junior college transfer defensive lineman Elijah Davis, freshman linebacker Grayson “Pup” Howard, transfer linebacker Jaron Willis, and freshman defensive back Jalon Kilgore.
• Some defensive walk-ons made plays. Linebacker Colin Bryant had a pick-6 to tie the game late, and defensive back Landon Grier had a big hit early and a pick-6 called back after an early whistle. Linebacker Andrew Colasurdo made some nice plays, as well.
• Some other defensive players who performed well but haven’t yet been mentioned include defensive tackle Jamaal Whyce, defensive lineman TJ Sanders, defensive tackle Felix Hixon, and Freshman All-American safety Nick Emmanwori. O’Donnell Fortune also showed some good closing speed when chased Juice Wells down from behind on his 1st quarter 56-yard reception.
• Unfortunately, a couple of defensive players were banged up, as well. KaJuan Banks left the game after a strong tackle as he looked a little wobbly. Bam Martin-Scott left the game with a limp but returned. The same can be said of Bryant Thomas, Jr., as the sophomore left under his own power but returned to play later in the game.

Special Teams

• Ahmarean Brown and Eddie Lewis seem to be the primary punt returners.
• Brown, Lewis, Xavier Legette, Juice Wells, Juju McDowell, and others were back with the kick returners.
• Mitch Jeter missed a kick, something he didn’t do all of last season. He made another later and so did Alex Herrera.
• Pete Lembo didn’t have any special teams trick plays for the spring game. Bummer.
• Punts and kickoffs were not live, so there was not much to see on special teams.