Wooing a stern college critic analyst like Paul Finebaum is no cakewalk. But Shane Beamer’s quarterback, LaNorris Sellers, got lucky to have passed the ESPN analyst’s quality check. As Finebaum noted, “To me, LaNorris Sellers is the best quarterback they’ve had; I mean, they’ve had a couple of good ones, but I think he could be the best.” So, it’s obvious that with this Beamer’s Gamecocks, playoff hopes will gain buzz.

Well, Finebaum is not quite convinced about their playoff run as they might lose the race to Alabama, LSU, and Georgia. Still, there might be some hope as Beamer is returning Sellers, who had an impressive season as a redshirt freshman. Even better, Sellers will be mentored by the great Mike Shula. The same coach who had molded the legends like Cam Newton.

Promoting former Alabama coach Mike Shula was an ‘easy decision’ for South Carolina. When Dowell Loggains took an exit from South Carolina, Beamer did not have to look far. Carrying a rich resume with himself, for Shula, the expectations are touching the roof for Sellers. On the August 4 episode of the South Carolina Sports: Chief South Carolina podcast, host JB had a question for Beamer, “How does Mike Shula handle that? How does he lean on the guys that he has coached in his career and be able to take some of that and help better LaNorris Sellers?” Shula himself played quarterback from 1984-1986 in Alabama and later served as the head coach from 2003-2006.

On January 21, 2011, the Carolina Panthers named Shula as their quarterbacks coach. That’s when he helped quarterback Newton earn the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year after passing for over 4,000 yards and accounting for 35 touchdowns. Beamer replied, “I think that was one thing that attracted me to Mike when we brought him into our program was his experience with those guys. And looking at his background, and most recently, okay, he worked with a big athletic quarterback in Cam Newton. He’s been around a big athletic quarterback in Daniel Jones. He was around a big athletic quarterback in Josh Allen and how those teams that he was a part of utilized those guys that was appealing a couple of years ago, and it still is now.”

After being drafted with the top overall pick out of Auburn in 2011, Newton won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award with an insane first season. Sellers’ coach helped the former Carolina legend set an NFL record for rushing TDs by a quarterback (14) on his way to earning Rookie of the Year honors that season. There was a time when Newton had an ankle surgery. The coach knew the assignment and dealt with Newton’s lack of physical reps by adding more mental work.

Beamer thus noted, “He’s [Shula] not sitting here saying that they’re cutting their cookie-cutter the same quarterback because they’re not. But some of the things, whether it be personality-wise, schematically, that you can draw comparisons to and for him to be able to say, ‘You know, we did this with Cam in Charlotte when he was with the Panthers, and maybe we could do something similar with LaNorris and things like that.’ I think that’s good. I think it’s good for LaNorris.” Will this be a pressure for the quarterback? No way. He will be glad to accept Shula’s inputs. Why so?

LaNorris Sellers counts on Mike Shula’s dual blueprint

Sellers has already drawn comparisons with Cam Newton. On3’s J.D. PicKell brought the Gamecocks quarterback and the former Auburn quarterback into the same conversation. He shared, “Cam Newton has one of the best, if not the best, college football seasons of all time to his name, winning the Heisman and winning the natty. But, with that being said, when I watch LaNorris Sellers, I can’t help but have a lot of the same feelings as I did when I watched Cam Newton play quarterback.” The Newton vs Sellers comparison is based on their size and dual-threat abilities.

Maybe that’s why Sellers also counts on Shula in the hope of him making him the next Newton. In a conversation with SEC Network’s Richard Johnson, the quarterback shared, “Shula tells me all the time, whatever worked with Cam would probably work with me just because we play so similar. But it’s also stuff from Eli Manning—since he used to coach him—that he uses with me too. If he can coach Eli Manning and Cam Newton, that’s a wide variety.” But only counting on his coach won’t take him far.

As Gerald V. Dixon has already stirred a wake-up call. LaNorris Sellers got featured in his list of ‘The riskiest quarterback among Top 10′. The reason? Dixon clarified, “It’s not because of his talent, but it’s because of his time in passing being the pocket quarterback.” He came up with some decent numbers like 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns. But there are blind spots in Sellers’ gameplay. For instance, his fumble count was 11 (6 lost). It included 7 interceptions. But maybe Mike Shula can change the picture, and On3 already sees Sellers at No. 5 in their All 16 SEC Starting Quarterbacks Ranking list.