Luke Doty and the possibility of a Wildcat-style package for the Gamecocks
This conversation has become a tried and true part of a South Carolina football preseason.
First Kurt Roper asked about it, then Dan Werner, now Mike Bobo. The candidates went from Brandon McIlwain to Dakereon Joyner and now to Luke Doty.
Will a young, fast backup quarterback get his own package of sorts?
At the moment, Gamecocks offensive coordinator Mike Bobo sounds open to it.
“When he’s on the field, that gives you another dimension that now you can jump into some kind Wildcat set with a guy that is not just a Wildcat guy but can throw the ball downfield,” Bobo said.”There’s a lot of possibilities, him being able to play in the game and not just be out there but be effective.”
This idea, having a few plays that allow a young, speedy quarterback to go in, is always a vague fascination. Sometimes it’s compared to the “Wildcat” package that Arkansas and later the Miami Dolphins famously deployed to some success, but in those cases, it usually involved a running back behind center instead of a mobile quarterback.
Steve Spurrier dabbled in these change-up packages, and coach Will Muschamp has as well. Even though Roper said he didn’t like to sacrifice having a passer in there, he worked in running back Rico Dowdle at least once and installed a package for sometime-starter Brandon McIlwain in short-yardage situations.
Dan Werner and Bryan McClendon got some work for Joyner last year, and even had a couple of direct snap plays for wide receiver Deebo Samuel (he also played at least one snap at tailback).
Muschamp cracked that he hoped opposing defensive coordinators saw Doty back there as a “Wildcock” formation, as the freshman has more than enough juice as a thrower to be a threat through the air.
Regardless of that, Bobo said he’d have no hesitation in playing Doty somewhere. He said if someone is good enough, it’s on the staff to assemble some kind of package for him.
The Myrtle Beach passer is already among the fastest players on the roster and was getting work as a wide receiver earlier in the offseason. He performed well enough that Muschamp described Doty as one of the five or so most reliable players at that spot.
“If he’s one of our best players, I hope Coach lets me play him (at wide receiver) 30, 35 snaps per game,” Bobo said. “That’s something Luke wants to do. He’s involved in special teams; he had to leave a meeting early ... to go to special teams. He wants to play, he’s a competitor and those are the guys you want on your football team.”
That said, Bobo also sounded like a man who wants Doty to get in his work behind center. He was an Elite 11 passer who connected on more than 70 percent of his passes as a senior. He threw for around 5,000 yards across his final two years of high school and blossomed as a passer his final two seasons.
But there’s still a jump up to the college level with that.
“It’s a process of how to learn to play quarterback, and that takes reps, takes lots of reps,” Bobo said. “It’s a fine line doing what we’ve got to do.”
