COLOMBIA – It was great to see handshakes and tickets for the season, the increased presence on social networks an attempt to get people excited again after six victories in the last two seasons. It was a welcome change, bringing a little welcome back to South Carolina football.
But as soon as spring training started, it was time for business. And that always leads to discussions about the quarterback’s situation.
“I think it’s always good when you can (have the title holder named earlier). Certainly when you start summer training and the team knows it, this guy is our starting quarterback and gives him that leadership ability,” coach Shane Beamer said. “As you arrive within about a week and a half of the first game, you better have a starting defender named so that you can divide the representatives correctly and things like that.”
Gamecocks have not yet chosen a starting quarterback, which is understandable for a team that has gone through five players in the past two seasons. Jake Bentley started the opening of the 2019 season, then was defeated in the season after fracturing his foot. This put freshman Ryan Hilinski in the chair and he stayed there for the rest of the year, although Dakereon Joyner played him sometimes (as in the last half of a frustrating victory in Georgia).
Even so, Hilinski failed to defeat Collin Hill’s transfer to the starting line-up last year after Bentley’s transfer. When a change needed to be made, it was freshman Luke Doty who got the call, taking Hilinski’s transfer.
Hill is also gone, refusing a sixth year of eligibility to see if he can attract a professional team to give him a chance. That leaves Doty, the only USC QB to pass a SEC game, along with FCS protractor Jason Brown, the real freshman Colten Gauthier and Connor Jordan.
Doty, the former Myrtle Beach High star, took the first photo in the first spring workout because he was the only one who did it before. Beamer said not to draw any conclusions from that.
Still, after the first four spring training sessions, Doty was still number 1. And from what offensive coordinator / defender coach Marcus Satterfield said, that seems to be the norm now and in the future.
Not that Satterfield did not praise Gauthier, Brown and Jordan. He was.
But Gauthier is a freshman, Jordan is a valuable guy, but everything is behind the scenes and Brown, although athletic and talented, is moving from a diffuse attack to a professional-style attack. Again, it was just a spring break week, but it seems like Doty has to miss it.
“I knew he was a passer above the line, but I didn’t know how natural he was. I am very excited to continue to work on its foundations and create the best that we could do, ”said Satterfield. “But I am very excited about how he is playing the ball now. Obviously, he is athletic and can run and play with his legs, but it is very good to put him in situations where he has to use his arm. “
Doty “debuted” last year as a wide receiver that sometimes ran on routes and sometimes stayed behind the center for a run. He ended up running 41 times for a 91-yard net (149 without subtracting the bag footage).
When he started the final two games, he completed 43 of 71 passes for 405 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. He showed an incredible aptitude to meet tight end Nick Muse, who returns this season and is the only reliable receiver that Gamecocks currently have.
Beamer noted that the starting quarterback in the spring is not always the number one guy when the season begins, telling a story from his days in Oklahoma.
In 2018, coach Lincoln Riley waited about 10 days before the season opened before facing quarterback Austin Kendall and telling him that the other guy beat him. The other guy was Kyler Murray, who shot for 4,300 yards, ran for 1,000 yards and was responsible for 54 touchdowns. And he won the Heisman Trophy.
Beamer’s point is simple: it doesn’t matter when the USC appoints the full-back, as long as it finds the right quarterback.
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.