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    Gamecocks desperately seeking solution to rushing woes … if there’s one to be found

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    By By David Cloninger,File/artie Walker/special To The Aiken Standard

    Copyright postandcourier

    Gamecocks desperately seeking solution to rushing woes ... if there's one to be found

    “We threw the ball successfully. And you would hope that would open up the run game, but we didn’t do it consistently enough,” Beamer said. “Talked to the staff about it today, got to take a step back and really look at everything. And that doesn’t mean blow stuff up, but it means … there’s a four-game body of work right now of evidence that we’re not anywhere close to where we need to be, and it’s our responsibility to get it right.”

    The offensive line has shown no ability to push forward to open holes. Receivers, running backs and tight ends have not done their duties blocking to create potential lanes on the edges. Then, the top runner USC could count on, the wrecking ball of defenses that cannot be stopped once he has a head of steam — LaNorris Sellers — is a shell of himself last year.

    He rushed for 145 yards through the first four games in 2024 when he was still feeling things out as a starting quarterback. That includes the LSU game, which he left early due to injury, and the Akron game, which he did not play. Sellers found his footing, especially in the final six games, and finished with 679 yards, part of USC’s very nice 2,397-yard season.

    This year he has 17.

    “Last year was pretty much the same situation. Start off slow at the beginning of the year, get it rolling later,” he said. “Including me, we can all get better.”

    Not much doubt about that. There aren’t many other places for USC to go.

    But no, this isn’t like last year. Last year showed the promise of a line getting better, Sellers improving and having a stud tailback in Rocket Sanders.

    The Gamecocks this year are clinging to a plan that halfway worked at Missouri. They did pass — and successfully — to set up the run.

    It’s just the run never came around, which fell right into the defense’s hands. USC doesn’t instill fear in any defense right now because every defense knows it can just dare Sellers to beat them with his arm while running right through the Gamecocks’ wet paper sack of a line, thus making Sellers uncomfortable and hurried.