Jayden Sellers emerging to make his own name at South Carolina

South Carolina fans have grown accustomed to watching the jersey with L. Sellers on the back making plays at Williams-Brice Stadium. The last two weekends, the guy in the J. Sellers jersey was making some plays of his own.

Wide receiver Jayden Sellers, the younger brother of Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers, technically played in the team’s opener against Virginia Tech and in the blowout win over SC State.

But consider the last two weeks his true debut.

Getting reps in the place of suspended receiver Brian Rowe, Sellers was South Carolina’s leading receiver two weeks ago against Oklahoma, collecting six catches for 57 yards. After that performance, Sellers found himself in the starting lineup against Alabama when he grabbed three receptions for 38 yards, including a key fourth-and-12 conversion.

“He’s just a football player,” head coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday. “And you guys have heard me say that before. The moment is never too big for him. He just loves competing and having fun, and when the ball’s in his hands, good things happen. It’s just very natural for him. He’s an instinctive guy.”

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The younger Sellers joined the program during the spring semester as part of a six-man receiver class that was loaded with four-star prospects and arguably among the most talented Carolina has ever signed.

That’s meant loads of competition at Sellers’ slot receiver position, not just with returning players like Mazeo Bennett, but also with Rowe and others in his same class.

Sellers admits it wasn’t always an easy transition, but as his confidence and his knowledge of the playbook have grown, so has his playing time. And when the opportunity to step in and play was there, he took advantage.

“I feel like I’ve played faster,” Sellers said. “I’ve been more confident. And I showed it on the field. And I’ve been studying the playbook way more. And when my name was called, I was just prepared.”

A quick, speedy playmaker with soft hands and ball skills, Sellers models his game after Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell. He has flashed his ability in practice and now in games, as he begins to emerge from the massive shadow of his brother and the other receivers in his class.

“He doesn’t really say all that much, but he’s just, you know, he’s very much like his brother,” Beamer said. “When the lights come on, he just gets another gear and competes, and that’s what we saw in practice, whether it be from a return standpoint.

“Sometimes in practice we have him back there as a returner, and he had a long return a couple weeks ago in practice against our starting kickoff team and and it’s like, dang, maybe we need to think about him as a returner back there, or the receiver position when he’s out there. He just has a knack for making plays.”

Sellers will naturally draw comparisons to his older brother, who emerged as one of college football’s most well-known players during the final half of last season.

A projected eventual top pick in the NFL Draft, LaNorris has used his experiences to this point to help his younger brother make a smooth transition to the SEC.

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“He helped me a lot with the playbook and stuff like that, because that’s really like a major change from high school to college,” Jayden said. “And I’ll say, he told me the in and outs of everything that goes on here, what I need to do, what I don’t need to do, where I need to be. He basically just taught me the rules to being the great college athlete that he is and I’m just taking all that.”

But Jayden is also well on his way to creating his own name in Columbia.

“The little brother of LaNorris Sellers” — that’s a fact, but also can become a label.

To his credit, Jayden doesn’t seem to carry any resentment or annoyance that his name is often mentioned alongside his brother’s.

But he’s a different person. With a different skillset. And appears to play with a chip on his shoulder to prove himself.

And interestingly enough, Jayden credits a different Sellers from whom he gets his game.

“I would say my dad,” he said. “He was a linebacker and a tight end in high school. And he’s a quiet person, you would never think he would play football, or anything like that, but on the field, he was crazy. That’s who I would say I get my game after.”

And as South Carolina fans are starting to see, J. Sellers has plenty of his own game, too.

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