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Ryan McGee of ESPN joined Wes Mitchell, Chris Clark, and Tyler Head on the GamecockCentral Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game Tuesday to talk South Carolina football.
Below is a transcript of the appearance.
Q: We’ve talked about it so much this offseason big critical year for coach Beamer coming off the four and eight What do you see out of this team? Where do you think their ceiling is for 2026?
Well, I don’t believe the team could win the SEC, but I think this team is going to be good enough to be a wrecking ball, right? I think they could be in the conversation all year because I think they’re way more dangerous than people realize, because last year was such a disappointment.
I was just talking to some folks in Alabama and Arkansas about this. They both asked, you know, what’s the story we’re not talking about now that the conference will be talking about in November and I said LaNorris Sellers because if if the LaNorris Sellers that we all saw in the Clemson game two years ago, if we tap back into that guy, and I think that that Briles can do that, then, again, I don’t know if he’s good enough to win the league, but I know he’s good enough to ruin the season for a lot of people. So I’m excited about that. I’m excited about the idea of an unbridled LaNorris Sellers
And honestly too, and this is no secret, the Kentucky game I came over to the game, the parents weekend game see my daughter. And prior to the game I was talking to to the coaches. And I talked to LaNorris for a few minutes. And then the conversation I had with everyone was, yes, they could be more creative with him offensively, but he’s also got to do it himself. You know what they need is for LaNorris to take over that locker room a little bit and be more vocal. And he’s not that kind of guy, but he needs to do that. And this is the year to do it. So I think he has the potential to be the biggest wrecking ball in college football that no one’s talking about right now.
Questions about this story? Wes Mitchell is discussing it with subscribers on The Insiders Forum.
Q: What do you expect from a Kendal Briles offense based on what you’ve seen over the years?
A: Yeah, it’s just this creativity, you know, and he comes from — for folks that don’t know — I mean obviously his dad Art, with RGIII and all those legendary offenses at Baylor. But he comes from that Mike Leach, Hal Mumme, Air Raid deal, and so what it is creating open space.
I’m working on this book project right now. It’s all about a hundred years ago college football and when they finally opened up offenses, the goal of the single wing and the goal of the double wing and all that was just to create open space and to get the ball out there.
That’s all the Air Raid does. And so I think that’s what we’re gonna see is we’re gonna see opportunities for LaNorris, not just to have more targets, and it’s gonna be a lot of nine-yard passes, everybody just get ready for that. But I also think it’s now the threat of all these spaces, there’s potential touchdown scorers in there, so that opens up for LaNorris to use his legs. And so that’s what’s good.
It’s just creativity. I love Mike Shula. Nicest guy in the world. My dad, as you guys know, was a college football official forever. We had the most hilarious picture of Mike Shula lighting up my dad on the sideline at a game down in Alabama. Great guy, but It’s very much an NFL, not very creative, you know, offensive process.
And if anything, the only frustration you’ll have with Briles is he might try some stuff that you think, what are you doing, dude? You know, and so I think the openness to creativity is what people are going to hopefully see.
Q: Let’s go big picture, is this one of the stronger years that you’ve seen top to bottom in the SEC at the quarterback position?
A: Yeah, and you got this mix of guys with all this experience and you put LaNorris in that group and you certainly part of Arch Manning in that group. I think Arch Manning has lived with this his whole life. He’s fine, but the hype around him has been the hype around him, but he’s also pretty good. And so I think we kind of have this perfect mix of guys that have been in the league for a long time.
And then you got guys who are really, really talented at places like Tennessee, but have never thrown a college pass. And so top to bottom, I don’t think anyone in the league right now doesn’t have a quarterback that they believe in, we just have a varied level of experience. But yeah, I think I think the potential in this league quarterback wise is through the roof.
Q: Is there a younger guy or somebody with a lot of experience, like a Kenny Minchey, that you’re high on that could really kind of enter into that top level of quarterback by the end of the season?
Minchey’s the guy again. I think it’s it’s gonna be interesting this year because I think there’s a handful of those guys where they quietly have more reps than people realize and now they’re gonna have the opportunity to take over the team.
And it’s interesting because these guys are so much smarter than they ever have been, and you know, even in the NFL we got so we got Super Bowls with rookie quarterbacks, right? I would never imagine that in my life, and we have one with two, and so now in college football, if you come to me even five years ago and said that all these freshmen are gonna have these opportunities or all these second-year guys are gonna have these opportunities, I would (not have believed it), not at the schools you’re talking about. I mean maybe at like USF down the road here. Like even at Auburn. You know, you got Alex Golesh and brought his quarterback with him, and to me, it’s all about the familiarity of it.
I think about I moved to Travelers Rest in the middle of high school, right? I moved from Raleigh down there and I always say if you can walk into a high school cafeteria first day of junior year not knowing anyone, the rest of life is a piece of cake. And these transfers do this all the time but now the system is set up for them to succeed versus when all this started and Juco’s would come in or guys would transfer schools, and you spend a year just figuring out where the bathrooms are.
And now there’s a familiarity level with some of these young guys with their coaches because they came with them. And then they’re just so much smarter than they used to be man. It makes me mad because we all thought we were smart back in the day, but I couldn’t have done any of this.
Q: I was recently going through the Mississippi State game in my schedule breakdown and this one feels dangerous. What can you tell us about Kamario Taylor and this MSU team?
So when my dad was a college football official, he would call games like this million-dollar ballgames. This reminds me of the North Carolina game — not to bring up any pain — but the North Carolina game two years ago. A game South Carolina should have won. That is a tone-setting game for what the year is gonna be.
And Mississippi State and South Carolina are in a very similar boat. And by the way, it’s gonna be an emotional game, because for folks that don’t know, the head coach of Mississippi State is married into the Briles family. A so these guys spend Thanksgivings together, Christmases together, so no I’m with you on that.
And what people need to know is those offenses are gonna look very familiar if Carolina’s able to do what I think they’re gonna want to do. If they can do that early in the year, then there’s gonna be a lot of mirror effect with those offenses. But no, this is not just a dangerous game, it is an important game, and it’s right off the bat.
