What Shane Beamer, Mike Shula said about South Carolina’s ongoing QB3 battle

As far as quarterback competitions go, South Carolina isn’t making huge waves across the college football landscape ahead of the 2025 season.

While other programs are announcing starters or weighing their options to back up star signal callers, Gamecock fans are left to speculate who will back up the backup.

LaNorris Sellers is primed for his second season at the helm of the USC offense. Head coach Shane Beamer has not officially named a backup, but he’s been firm throughout preseason camp on Luke Doty’s position behind Sellers going into the veteran’s sixth year of college football.

The true mystery begins after Doty. Beamer has yet to share which player will appear as QB3 on the first depth chart for South Carolina’s season opener against Virginia Tech. In fact, the Gamecocks QB room includes four sets of arms not attached to Sellers’ or Doty’s bodies. The real competition seems to be between Ohio State transfer Air Noland and freshman Cutter Woods.

“It’s been a great competition,” Beamer said Aug. 12. “We’ll certainly want to narrow things down as we get closer to game day here in a couple weeks. But those guys have all had really good moments, and moments ... that you want to teach off of.”

The remaining two rostered quarterbacks are walk-ons Jimmy Francis and Brandon Cunningham. While Cunningham, a product of T.L. Hanna in Anderson, is officially listed as an athlete, Beamer has him working with the QBs as a matter of personal preference and need for bodies in the room.

“We need more than five,” Beamer said. “We’d like to have six arms. So he’s working as a quarterback right now.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Shula spoke with reporters Wednesday, and he was asked about what he’s seen from Noland and Cutter as QB3 candidates.

“They’ve gotten considerably better since day one of fall camp. Both of them get better with each rep,” he said. “It’s good competition right there, and it’s a good room. They’re all pushing each other.”

What Shula wouldn’t say is who’s currently in the lead for the third-string job.

“Those guys are doing to the best they can to not worry about it,” Shula said. “I’ll go to Beamer to announce all that stuff.”

With the Gamecocks’ first game week of the season around the corner, time is running out for USC to keep the curtain up on its QB depth chart.