Todd Ellis sits in the radio booth in Williams-Brice Stadium’s press box like a quarterback sits back in the pocket. He looks down at the field and relays what he sees to listeners across the Palmetto State.

It’s third-and-3 and the Gamecocks have the ball on their own 20-yard line as LaNorris Sellers receives the snap in the Sept. 19 game against Mississippi State.

“Screen play, left side, wide open, caught it!” Ellis yells.

In a split second his eyes shift left. Long-time spotter David Spence points to Matt Fuller’s name on the “spot sheet” that’s in front of Ellis.

“Fuller, 25, 30, drops the shoulder down and sends a message back to Mississippi: Don’t come this way!” Ellis bellows.

Ellis’ eyes then shift right. Long-time statistician Doug Adams points to the No. 25 on his trusty laminated sheet of paper.

“Oh what a hit!” Ellis continues, before telling the listeners it’s a 25-yard gain. Ellis then hands off the talking to longtime color commentator, also a former USC quarterback, Tommy Suggs for analysis.

Ellis and his support crew have relayed plays like Fuller’s countless times over the 24 years he’s been the radio voice of South Carolina football. In total, Ellis has been part of the well-oiled machine that is Gamecock Sports Network for 35 years.

At 59 years old, he has no plans of slowing down.

Quarterback turned broadcaster

Ellis jumped in the broadcasting world shortly after an impressive playing career.

He was the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback from 1986 to 1989. Ellis still holds the program record with 9,953 passing yards and is one of USC’s all-time winningest quarterbacks.

After a brief pro stint in the now-defunct World League, Ellis returned to Columbia for law school at USC. Conveniently, the sideline reporter gig for Gamecock Sports Network opened up at the same time and producer Liz McMillan thought Ellis would be a good fit.

Ellis had some initial trepidation about balancing law school and being a sideline reporter, but it didn’t last long.

“I realized everybody in my class is going to the game,” Ellis told The State. “I might as well work, try to earn some income, and I had an interest in that.”

Ellis believes his experience dealing with the media as a player helped him with the transition to broadcasting.

Former USC head coach “Joe Morrison, my coach for three of the four years, wasn’t your typical today’s media type,” Ellis said. “He was saying as little as possible. He was not doing like these guys are now, which they’re very charismatic and CEO types. ... So that fell on my shoulders a lot, particularly in my junior and senior year, where I answered a lot of questions related to that in the press and doing the press conferences and all. That led me into trying to be succinct on my feet.”

Ellis, in his near-decade stint on the sidelines, learned a lot from the likes of Suggs, who has been doing USC’s color commentary for the last 54 years, and legendary USC broadcaster Bob Fulton.

His role evolved over time, and he quickly found himself taking over the pregame show and the taping of then-USC head coach Brad Scott’s coaches show on TV. There were even times when he’d pull double duty as the sideline reporter for the radio and TV broadcasts of South Carolina games.

Keep in mind, he was doing all that while getting through law school and starting his own practice.

“I took it incredibly serious and tried to learn, and between Tommy and Bob, learned a lot,” Ellis said. “… For a year or two, I would do radio sidelines and television sideline at the same time. So I’d pick one mic up, do my report on the sideline, and then do the other one. That’s like combat pay for a broadcaster trying to get all that done.”

From the sidelines to the booth

Ellis was tabbed in 2003 to become the new voice of South Carolina football.

The idea of switching from sideline analysis, a role most former players stick to in the broadcasting space, wasn’t daunting to Ellis because he’d already done some TV play-by-play.

It also helped that Ellis went through somewhat of a “boot camp” with Fulton — who was USC’s radio play-by-play voice for 43 years before retiring in 1995.

“We would go turn on a game on his television at his house. He’d sit down there beside me, and I’d go through and call the game, and he’d make notes,” Ellis recalled. “We might do two series at a time, stop it, he’d help me with some things … that was hugely helpful. He got me out of what would have been early bad habits.”

Ellis leaned on Fulton for feedback early in his first year doing play-by-play. In year one, Ellis felt he was trying to shake some of his old sideline reporter habits and steer away from effectively being a “half-analyst, half-play-by-play guy”.

The biggest piece of advice Fulton gave Ellis has stuck with him to this day.

“Don’t try to be me,” Ellis recalled Fulton telling him. “You’ve been listening to me for a long time. Be yourself. Be true to yourself. ... You’ll be better and more comfortable as long as you’re doing that.”

Over the last 24 years, Ellis has certainly found his own voice.

Listen to the radio broadcast of any South Carolina football game, and there’s a solid shot you’ll hear Ellis belt out one of his signature lines — “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” or “BOOM!” — in his raspy tone at some point in the game.

His favorite calls are Ace Sanders’ 70-yard punt return touchdown to put South Carolina up 21-0 over No. 5 Georgia at home in 2012 and the Jadeveon Clowney hit from the Outback Bowl in 2013.

What’s next?

Ellis loves USC, Gamecock football and being alongside Suggs in the booth on Saturdays. But even he isn’t immune to pondering whether it’s time to hang up his headset and move on.

It takes a lot to continue practicing law while also being the radio play-by-play voice of the Gamecocks. In late 2022, those thoughts came to a crescendo as he walked into Williams-Brice Stadium for South Carolina’s matchup with then-No. 5 Tennessee after briefly stopping to see his family at a tailgate before the game.

“I got my bag, and I had to leave, and I was thinking, ‘Why am I leaving all these people at a great time. Is this really worth it? I’m getting ready to walk across the street and get my butt kicked in that game.’”

South Carolina proceeded to upset Tennessee 63-38 thanks to Spencer Rattler’s six touchdown passes.

The win helped rejuvenate Ellis’ love for his job.

“I almost slapped myself in the booth,” Ellis recalled. “I was like, ‘Just when you think great things can’t happen, and [question] how much do I enjoy this,’ that was an incredible night. ... That night taught me you don’t know how much I love the game.”

Ellis doesn’t have any plans on slowing down. It certainly helps that Ellis was honored Sept. 30 by the National Football Foundation as the 2026 Chris Schenkel Award recipient. The award recognizes sports broadcasters who have had long and distinguished careers broadcasting college football with ties to a university.

The 2026 season is No. 24 for Ellis as South Carolina’s football play-by-play voice. As long as he still has the love for the job, and as long as USC will still have him, Ellis plans on sticking around.

“I always said I wanted to do at least 25 years in play-by-play. I don’t know why,” he said. “... I’m not ready to give up the [law] practice, so I’ll be in Columbia for a longer period of time. I still enjoy it. I have the energy for it. Tommy and I are great together. Our crew’s great together.”