A stressful but proud day: LaNorris Sellers’ first start through the eyes of his family
Cheryl Ford sat in Section 21, Row 28, Seat 4 of Williams-Brice Stadium motionless. The mother of South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers was leaning forward, her hands balled together, supporting her chin.
She sat still as Old Dominion’s fourth-quarter field goal went through the uprights, as what was supposed to be a magical day for her son was souring.
The Monarchs had a 19-16 lead with less than 10 minutes to play. From the row in front of her, the father of Gamecocks running back Bradley Dunn turned around and looked at Ford.
“Oh, wow,” he said, his eyes growing with shock.
She didn’t say anything. Just before that, Ford was thinking back to the season opener from 2023. Even though she didn’t say it, the deja vu was setting in.
Last year, a ridiculous number of family and friends made the drive from their hometown of Florence to Charlotte for the Gamecocks’ season opener against North Carolina. So many people wanted to be in the building for Sellers’ first collegiate game. And they also wanted to see him after the game … even though Sellers didn’t play … even though South Carolina lost by two touchdowns.
Except Sellers didn’t want to see anyone. He changed in the locker room and headed straight for the bus. Even after calls and texts from his mom, he wouldn’t get off to see anyone.
“I was so mad,” Cheryl said. “He just took it so seriously.”
She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Saturday’s game turned into a loss, if his first collegiate start ended in a devastating upset. But nothing had been going right.
Late in the first quarter, Sellers unleashed a pass from his own 8-yard line. As if he were painting a rainbow, it traveled 67 yards in the air, hitting the hands of a wide-open Jared Brown on the Old Dominion 25-yard line. Cheryl stood up, ready for a Tiger Woods fist pump. Then the pigskin fell through Brown’s hands and he kicked it forward. The crowd let out a sigh in frustration. Ford shook her fist at the sky. “Really?!” she belted out.
Not long after, Sellers fumbled on a run to the right and Old Dominion snatched the ball and ran it 9 yards from the end zone. She shook her head while trying to stay positive. “It’s all right,” she said.
A play later, O’Donnell Fortune picked off a pass in the end zone, giving Sellers and the offense the ball right back.
“Thank God,” Ford said. “I feel better and I know Nori feels better, too.”
She laughed as her son, trying to block upfield, accidentally tripped running back Juju McDowell. She sat through a 45-minute lightning delay in the heat, figuring Sellers was critiquing himself in the locker room as offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains was telling him to calm down. She threw her towel into her lap as Sellers missed receiver Vandrevius Jacobs on a third down late in the game.
Even after Dylan Stewart forced an Old Dominion fumble, putting Sellers and the Gamecocks 6 yards from taking the lead, she had her arms crossed, nervously looking toward the field.
“Come on, baby,” she said.
Then her baby pulled the ball out of the belly of running back Rocket Sanders, darted left and dove into the end zone. She jumped up, hooting and hollering as she waved her white towel. A few minutes later, Jalon Kilgore’s interception sealed the game.
“Now we can breathe,” she said.
“He’s definitely going to critique himself,” she added. “And I’m probably not going to talk to him much this week because he’s gonna be at the facility: ‘I’m doing this. I’m throwing. I’m doing something.’ He’s always going to be doing something to protect this.”
Sellers’ parents — Norris Sellers and Cheryl Ford — have been divorced since 2019, but you wouldn’t know it. They still talk every day about their kids. They coordinate their travel to away games. On Saturday, they tailgated together in the Woodstock parking lot behind the football facility. Heck, Ford’s mother, Eleanor, and Norris’ dad, Norris Sellers Sr., were there, too.
It’s a healthy and ideal co-parenting situation. If it were any different, Ford said, “our kids wouldn’t just be able to focus.”
They would’ve sat together Saturday but Norris was with their middle son, Jayden, (a South Carolina wide receiver commitment) in the recruits section on the south end of the stadium.
After the game, though, they met up to see Sellers — fresh off his first South Carolina victory as the starter.
“He wasn’t in a talkative mood,” Norris said Sunday night. “He was just ready to go home. … He knows the potential of his team. He knows that mistakes were made and he doesn’t like making mistakes.”
Norris tried to call his son when he got back to his home in Florence around 11:15 p.m. No answer. He called again first thing Sunday morning. No answer. He called again in the afternoon. No answer. Finally, just before 2 p.m., Sellers was at the facility and answered his dad.
“I know that he went home and he looked at that game probably three or four times before he went to sleep,” Norris said. “Then woke up this morning and watched it probably four or five more times before he even went to the facility.”
Sellers’ therapy after a game like Saturday’s is watching film then watching more film, diagnosing everything that went wrong and ensuring he knows the antidote so it never happens again.
It’s all about making sure he doesn’t make the same mistake twice.
And, heck, he’s not the only one who used Week 1 as a test run.
Norris and Ford left their tailgate around 2 p.m. Saturday. They would’ve left earlier but Columbia felt like an oven and the thought of leaving the shaded tailgate wasn’t exactly the most popular idea.
They walked toward Gamecock Park, wearing his officially branded gear, yet no one recognized them. They settled in a shaded area by one of the bathrooms waiting for him to come. Then they kept waiting. And waiting. Eventually someone showed them a video of the team walking in. It had already happened.
At 2:28 p.m., Sellers texted his mom, “I didn’t see y’all.”
They’ll be there next time. It’s a long season.
This story was originally published September 2, 2024 at 8:00 AM with the headline "A stressful but proud day: LaNorris Sellers’ first start through the eyes of his family."
