As South Carolina football enters spring camp, first-year head coach Shane Beamer takes on the second year quarterback Luke Doty you will get the first repetition of the Saturday morning workout. After that, it is fully open in the center for Gamecocks.
“The fact Luke Doty is the only defender that we have in the building that started a game in Carolina and there are four in that room with Jason (brown), Colten (Gauthier) and (walking) Connor (Jordan) and two of these guys arrived here in January, I imagine Luke will go out with the first offense on Saturday morning and make the first appearance on the first offense, ”said Beamer at his spring camp opening press conference on Thursday afternoon.
“After that, it’s an open competition. Trainer (Marcus) Satterfield and I spent a lot of time talking about representatives and how we are rotating guys. We will practice at a pace on Saturday where we will do a lot of repetitions from start to finish. These guys will have many opportunities to show what they can do. “
A new head coach with a new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach performing a different attack will have a group of four callers competing to prove who is best suited to direct the show in 2021. Doty started two and a half games at the end of the 2020 season, Brown is transferred from FCS Saint Francis, Gauthier is a signer of Class 2021 and Jordan, from Raleigh, NC, enters his third season with the program.
“We weren’t here last year and we have a lot of new faces,” said Beamer. “I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t spend any time talking to our team about ‘Okay, this guy is the return holder in this position.’ It is open to everyone. One of the core values of this program is competition and we are going to deal with competition every day. “
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Last year under Will Muschamp and Mike Bobo the Gamecocks had a quarterback battle between Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski that lasted most of the pre-season camp. The spring camp was canceled after five training sessions and Hill did not participate in any, as he was undergoing knee surgery. Although Beamer was a member of the coaching staff who dealt with the defender’s position in this way, he is not opposed to having a named holder at the end of the spring camp.
“I think it’s always good when you can, certainly when you start summer training and the team knows who the starting defender is and to empower you with that leadership ability,” said Beamer.
“But I think of Georgia in 2016. Grayson Lambert was our quarterback there, he was the starting quarterback for the entire offseason and Jaco Eason took over shortly afterwards. So, in 2017, Jacob was our initiator and Jake Fromm took over after Jacob got hurt. My experience with Lincoln (Riley), we had a quarterback competition with Kyler Murray. Lincoln did not announce a starting quarterback until a week before the first game. I have been part of all ends of the spectrum. “
Gamecocks will practice at 9:25 am on Saturday morning. The first three practice periods will be open to members of the media. Stay tuned on TheBigSpur.com to see the first remarks from the defenders and the rest of the Gamecocks 2021 football team.