Why this year is make or break for South Carolina’s OL Coach Lonnie Teasley
Why the Gamecocks O-Line must take a step forward in 2025
If you have been a college football fan for any amount of time, you know recruiting high-level talent is a must for any program aiming for long-term success. Look no further than 247Sports’ Blue Chip Ratio, which measures the ratio of “blue chip” (4- or 5-star players) to non-blue chip players present on a team’s roster. While the Blue Chip Ratio isn’t a perfect predictor, teams rarely win consistently without top-tier recruiting.
Based on the Blue Chip Ratio, South Carolina is not a program that has historically recruited well enough to contend for a national title. That, however, is changing before our eyes as the Shane Beamer era is in full swing heading into the 2025 college football season. The Gamecocks are closing in on having a BCR consistently in the top 18 teams in the country, matching what Carolina fans have seen on the field with the rise of preseason Heisman hopeful LaNorris Sellers. Yet, if you hold Beamer’s tenure up to the microscope, one unit has failed to scale with the rest of the program… the offensive line.
Talent is Not the Problem
South Carolina Offensive Line Coach Lonnie Teasley took over the Gamecocks’ offensive line room early in the 2022 season. Since taking over, Teasley has done a great job of recruiting talented players to fill his position group. The Gamecocks’ OL boasts around an 80% Blue Chip Ratio under Teasley’s leadership (as a reminder, the BCR does not include transfer players). Compared to other SEC offensive line rooms, this would place South Carolina in the top third (only Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, and LSU have a better O-Line BCR). Zooming into this upcoming season, the Gamecocks could plausibly deploy a unit that features four out of five former blue chip players. Yet this level of talent is not exclusive to this year’s squad, with over half of the two-deep composed of blue-chip talent since Teasley took over.
More Potential Than Production
Now that we have established the level of talent present in South Carolina’s OL room, let’s dive into the numbers. Here are the number of sacks allowed by South Carolina over the last two seasons:
2023: 41 Sacks Allowed (13th Highest in the Nation)
2024: 41 Sacks Allowed (10th Highest in the Nation)
Needless to say, these numbers just don’t cut it. While it is important to acknowledge the improvement in the Gamecocks’ rushing game (2023: 128th in the country; 2024: 35th in the country), South Carolina cannot expect to contend against the best teams in the country with poor pass protection.
Why 2025 is the Moment of Truth
Talk to any college football coach and they will tell you sacks are not always the offensive line’s fault. Sacks can be the result of a missed blitz pickup by a running back, a poor call by the offensive coordinator, the quarterback holding onto the ball too long (looking at you, LaNorris Sellers), or a host of other failures. That being said, no one unit contributes to the protection of the quarterback more than the offensive line, and the buck should ultimately stop with the big men up front. If South Carolina is going to ride the rise of LaNorris Sellers and ascend the college football ladder, the Gamecocks’ offensive line must protect #16. Failure to keep Sellers safe will stunt the talented quarterback’s development and could be a signal that it is time for a new leader of South Carolina’s offensive line.