Arkansas football's top task: Confuse LaNorris Sellers

Arkansas football faces another uphill battle on Saturday night when it faces the South Carolina Gamecocks. Arkansas will once again be a home underdog in an SEC game. The Razorbacks haven't yet won an SEC home game this season and will not be expected to change their reality against the visitors from the Palmetto State. The chief task and goal for Arkansas in this game - its best chance to win - is to force South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers to commit big mistakes.

LaNorris Sellers is an electric football player. His touchdown run late in the win over Texas A&M showed why. Even when injured, even when far less than full strength, Sellers was still able to fake out the whole A&M defense and outrun defenders to the end zone. He is explosive and dynamic. When he is on top of his game, he's a force of nature. The problem with Sellers - and where Arkansas needs to make a big imprint on this game - is that he doesn't read defenses consistently. He often gets confused. He is often slow to find the open man or identify the hot read. He gets paralyzed by run-or-pass decisions and hesitates to do things instinctively or naturally. When he is in the zone, he instantly reacts and lets his athleticism take over. That's when he is hard to stop. However, he often overthinks the game and has a hard time picking from the options he has on any given play.

Great athletes think about the game they are about to play when they are preparing in the locker room. That way, when they get onto the field (or court), they are ready for each scenario and game situation. They have done their homework so that they will respond the right way in real time when game pressure arrives. Sellers is a few notches below the best quarterbacks in the country because that decision-making process doesn't emerge as fluidly as it does for the best signal-callers in America, players such as Darian Mensah of Miami or CJ Carr of Notre Dame. Sellers might be as talented as any quarterback in the country, but he isn't as disciplined as some of his other more successful peers.

If Arkansas can confuse Sellers before the snap and disguise its coverages to elicit multiple turnovers from Sellers, the Hogs can make a real game of it against the Gamecocks. Let's see what Ron Roberts has planned for the South Carolina QB.