After sputtering for much of the game, No. 13 South Carolina scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to pull away with a 24-11 win over Virginia Tech in the second Aflac Kickoff Game of the weekend in Atlanta.
With the Gamecocks (1-0) clinging to a 10-8 lead early in the fourth quarter, Vicari Swain returned a punt 80 yards for USC’s first punt-return touchdown since 2013.
After the Hokies (0-1) responded with a field goal, a 64-yard touchdown pass from LaNorris Sellers to Nyck Harbor put the game out of reach for Va. Tech.
Sellers completed 12 of 19 passes for 209 yards with a passing and rushing touchdown in the first game of his second season as a starter.
Va. Tech starting quarterback Kyron Drones was an inefficient 15-of-35 (43 percent) for 221 yards with a pair of interceptions. He relied heavily on the two-headed monster of Donavon Greene (94 yards) and Ayden Greene (71 yards), who combined for 75 percent of the team’s receiving yards.
The Hokies outgained USC 336-327, but they were also held without a touchdown for the first time since a 34-3 loss at Louisville in 2023.
The Gamecocks got off to a roaring start to their season opener, marching down the field on a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Sellers was 3-for-3 for 54 yards, and reached the end zone on a 15-yard run to cap off the drive.
From there, USC’s offense sputtered out. The Gamecocks managed just three points on their ensuing seven possessions as the Hokies’ defense strung together stops to give the offense a chance to get back into the game.
Va. Tech gradually chipped into the deficit with a safety on a sack of Sellers and a pair of field goals from John Love, including a 56-yarder as time expired in the first half to make it 10-8.
But a host of mistakes prevented the Hokies from ever coming all the way back to take the lead.
Drones threw a first-quarter interception into the end zone to keep the Hokies from scoring on their first red-zone trip. They allowed USC to pick up 30 yards on a second-and-33 carry that set up a second-quarter field goal, and dealt with untimely drops and penalties which also helped the Gamecocks’ cause.
Sellers, who finished the 2024 season with 674 rushing yards, managed just 25 rushing yards on 13 carries and was sacked four times. However, he did have a pair of clutch fourth-quarter scrambles, converting on third-and-13 and fourth-and-5 on the final drive to run out the clock.
Love, who entered Saturday having made 39 of 44 field goals in his career, added a 39-yarder in the fourth quarter to finish the season opener 3-for-3.
