Clemson’s Defense Focused on Containing LaNorris Sellers After Last Season’s Breakout

A year ago, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers delivered one of the most damaging performances Clemson allowed all season. Sellers threw for 164 yards and ran 16 times for 166 yards and two touchdowns in a 17–14 Gamecock win — a game Clemson’s front has not forgotten.

This week, as the Tigers prepare for the 2025 rivalry showdown in Columbia, the focus is simple and non-negotiable: Sellers cannot be allowed to take over the game again.

Unlike last November, when Sellers was one of the most dynamic dual-threats Clemson faced, South Carolina has struggled mightily up front in 2025.

The Gamecocks have surrendered 37 sacks for –313 yards, ranking 130th out of 134 FBS teams in sacks allowed. That negative sack yardage is subtracted from Sellers’ rushing totals, leaving him with 137 carries for just 268 yards and five rushing touchdowns on the season.

Clemson, meanwhile, has underperformed defensively this fall but still averages 2.5 sacks per game, tied for 26th nationally.

The Tigers have not consistently produced dominant pass-rush production. Still, the group led by ends T.J. Parker, Peter Woods, DeMonte Capehart, and Will Heldt remains one of the ACC’s most naturally gifted fronts.

And if there’s one opponent capable of re-energizing that room, it's Sellers.

“He’s a pure athlete,” T.J. Parker noted earlier this week. “We’ve just got to bring him down.”

Parker, Clemson’s sack leader last season with 11 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss, spoke at length this week about facing Sellers again and about the reality of trying to tackle him in live action. While this season’s numbers aren’t where many expected for Parker (2 sacks, 6.5 TFLs), this weekend’s game in Columbia could flip the narrative on the season.

“Just got to bring him down. He’s a great athlete,” Parker noted of Sellers’ escapability. “He’s the heart and soul of the team. We just got to do a great job of executing our plan and tackling.”

When asked whether he realized how difficult Sellers was to bring down before last year:

“Nah, it’s totally different. You see him break all those tackles on film, and then to see it happen live, it’s crazy. He’s a great athlete. We expect him to try to make us miss and things like that, so we’ve just got to do a great job taking him down.”

On what specifically makes Sellers so challenging, the junior defensive end explained, “He’s a pure athlete, and obviously his size plays into the fact that he’s like 6'3", 240, 250, and he can really run. That makes anybody dangerous. So we just got to do a great job, like I said, tackling him and bringing him down.”

Parker’s respect for Sellers is clear. But so is Clemson’s resolve, and the Tigers have lived with the memory of last season’s letdown. However, Parker acknowledged that the loss doesn’t dominate their thoughts, but it was formative:

“You think about it every now and then, but now it’s a new season. This is a whole new team, so we got to go out there and get it done again,” he noted.

There’s a sense internally that this game is a chance to reclaim pride and correct a wrong that still lingers.

Parker’s personal motivations this week stretch beyond Sellers. He is closing in on his Clemson career’s final chapter and wants to end it with a rivalry win:

“It means a lot to me. Once you get here, you understand what this rivalry means to the Clemson people and the state of South Carolina,” Parker stated. “We didn’t get to win last year at home, so we’re looking to go down there and play a great USC team.”

There’s no ambiguity in the message: this one matters — to Parker, to the locker room, and to a defense eager to deliver a complete performance.

South Carolina’s offensive struggles put this game clearly in Clemson’s hands defensively. If the Tigers do the following, they should control the matchup:

• Win on first down to force long-yardage situations where the Gamecocks have collapsed all season.
• Set hard edges to keep Sellers from escaping on designed keepers.
• Collapse the pocket vertically, something Clemson does well when Woods and Page are disruptive internally.
• Finish plays — something Parker emphasized more than once — after too many missed tackles last November.

If Clemson limits explosive QB runs, the Tigers have a much better chance to win as underdogs— a first in the rivalry in a dozen seasons.

Sellers is still a gifted athlete. He is still capable of turning broken plays into 40-yard gains. And as Clemson learned last year, he is fully capable of changing a game by himself.

But the circumstances this season are dramatically different. South Carolina’s offensive line has not protected him, Sellers has been bottled up, and Clemson returns a proven pass-rushing group with a fresh reminder of what happens when tackling fundamentals slip.

The Tigers don’t need revenge to be their motivation.

They need to play to their standard, even if we haven’t seen it consistently this year.

If they do, containing Sellers — and reclaiming the rivalry — is within reach.