South Carolina landed two of its biggest names on the 2026 Walter Camp Player of the Year Preseason Watch List on Monday, with junior quarterback LaNorris Sellers and EDGE Dylan Stewart both included among the 50 players selected by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
That puts the Gamecocks in rare company. South Carolina is one of only nine FBS schools with multiple players on the list, joining Georgia, Indiana, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Texas and Texas A&M.
The Walter Camp award dates back to 1967 and stands as the nation’s fourth-oldest college football honor. This year’s watch list will be trimmed to 10 semifinalists in early November, with three finalists set for early December. The winner, chosen by the 138 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced in the second week of December.
Sellers has already built a resume that makes the recognition easy to understand. The Rex Enright permanent team captain in each of the last two seasons has appeared in 27 games with 24 starts for South Carolina, piling up 5,057 passing yards and 33 touchdowns, good for 11th in school history. He has also run for 995 yards and 13 scores, with four career 300-yard passing games and two 100-yard rushing performances.
His accuracy has been a calling card, too. Sellers owns a 63.4% career completion rate, which ranks third in program history behind Spencer Rattler’s 67.5% and Connor Shaw’s 65.5%.
In 2025, Sellers completed 178 of 293 passes for 2,437 yards and 13 touchdowns while adding 270 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on 149 carries. He also connected on eight throws of 50 yards or more, and seven of those went for touchdowns.
His breakout came as a freshman in 2024, when he was named National Freshman of the Year, earned FWAA Freshman All-American honors and was recognized All-SEC and SEC Freshman of the Year. That season, he threw for 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns on 196-of-299 passing, while also rushing for 674 yards and seven touchdowns on 166 carries. Sellers helped lead South Carolina to a 9-4 record in 2024, including four top-25 wins in the final five games of the regular season.
Sellers, a Florence, S.C. native, also picked up a spot on the Maxwell Award Watch List.
Stewart’s rise has been just as impressive on the defensive side. In 2025, the Washington, D.C. native started 11 games, earned All-SEC honors and picked up honorable mention All-America recognition after posting 33 tackles, 4.5 sacks and a team-high 12.0 tackles for loss. He also added eight quarterback hurries, two pass breakups and three forced fumbles, tying for second in the SEC.
His freshman season in 2024 made it clear he was a problem for offenses right away. Stewart was a unanimous Freshman All-American and a finalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award after finishing with 23 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks, which ranked third among all FBS freshmen.
Stewart has already been recognized on several other preseason and award lists as well. He was named a 2026 First Team Walter Camp Preseason All-American, a Preseason First Team All-SEC selection by media attending SEC Media Days in Tampa the week of July 20, and he has also been placed on the Nagurski Trophy List Watch for a second straight fall and The Lombardi Award 2026 Preseason Watch List.
The preseason watch list also includes a long group of notable names across the country, including Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Jeremiah Smith, Bryce Underwood, Julian Sayin and Gunner Stockton, among others.
In Other News...
South Carolina's Passing Game Just Took Another Painful Hit
South Carolinas receiver room took another hit this week when Jayden Sellers went down with a lower body injury in practice, a setback that will cost him the 2026 season. Sellers had appeared in seven games last year and was lined up for a larger role this fall, making the loss especially frustrating for a passing game that had already been trying to sort out its depth and options.
The timing makes the injury sting even more for a unit that can least afford to lose experienced targets. Jayden Gibson and Jackson Repp are also already out for the season, leaving the Gamecocks with more questions than answers as they keep working through camp and try to build around what remains in the wideout group. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolinas Young Quarterback Brings A Powerful Story And Real Upside
Landon Duckworth arrives in Columbia with the kind of profile that usually comes with a long runway and a lot of anticipation. The freshman quarterback was a highly ranked dual-threat recruit, and South Carolina beat out a crowded field to land him after a recruiting process that had multiple schools involved. For now, he is expected to learn behind the current starters, but the upside is obvious enough that he already feels like part of the programs future conversation.
Duckworths story also carries a personal weight that goes beyond recruiting rankings and depth charts. He honors his late brother with a chest tattoo, a reminder that the path to this point has included far more than football. As he settles in and develops, the challenge will be turning that promise into a real push for a starting job down the road, which is exactly the kind of next step the Gamecocks will be watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
LaNorris Sellers Now Faces A Tough South Carolina Reality
South Carolinas wide receiver room took another hit in late August, leaving the Gamecocks to sort through their depth just as the season is about to get rolling. Jayden Sellers went down during a scrimmage on Aug. 15, and Jayden Gibson was injured in practice the following week, a tough stretch for a position group that had already been expected to carry more than its share of the load for LaNorris Sellers and the offense.
Shane Beamer addressed the injuries and the state of the receiving corps, but the bigger concern now is how much flexibility South Carolina really has if the room keeps thinning out. Losing one option is difficult enough at this stage of camp, and losing another changes the conversation around who can step up, who can stay healthy and how much the Gamecocks can ask of the passing game once the real games begin. [Read more 🡒]