Luky Doty or Collin Hill at QB vs. Georgia? Gamecocks offer few hints
Ahead of a Thanksgiving weekend matchup where the Gamecocks will be a heavy underdog, it appears South Carolina is looking to gain whatever edge it can by keeping its starter at quarterback a secret.
Interim head football coach Mike Bobo said as much this week when asked if he’s settled on a starting QB heading into the season’s second-to-last game.
“We know who are our starting quarterback’s going to be, but we’re not going to announce it to the public,” Bobo said Tuesday.
Bobo’s close-to-the-vest comments come after he benched senior Collin Hill, who had started every game this season, at halftime against Missouri. In Hill’s place, true freshman Luke Doty came in and gave USC a jolt on offense, frequently making plays with his legs while also hitting 60.8% of his passes in a 17-10 loss.
In the immediate aftermath, Bobo declined to say whether Doty had won the starting job moving forward, and Doty himself said he didn’t feel as though he had earned the right to start.
On Tuesday, with the Gamecocks in the midst of preparing for Georgia, several offensive players, including redshirt sophomore running back Deshaun Fenwick and senior tight end Nick Muse, said the quarterbacks were getting equal reps in practice. Doty himself spoke with reporters, while Hill did not, and mostly deflected questions about the starting job.
“It comes down to being ready when my number’s called,” Doty said when asked directly if he expect to start. “Everybody’s been getting reps today and everybody’s going to get reps for the rest of this week. So I just have to be ready when my number’s called. And that’s what I plan on doing. And whoever’s in there at quarterback, they’re gonna do a great job, and we’re gonna play the best of our ability on offense and we’re gonna play fast.”
In eight games this season, Hill has thrown for 1,411 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions on a 59.1% completion rate with 6.6 yards per attempt. He’s taken 22 sacks and has shown limited mobility outside the pocket.
Doty, in his first extensive action of the year against Missouri, was 14-of-23 passing for 130 yards and a late interception. He was sacked once but also ran the ball 11 times for 59 yards.
Bobo said during a Sunday teleconference that Missouri presented a favorable matchup for Doty, and Georgia might not be as schematically in his favor. On Tuesday, however, he noted that Doty’s dual threat ability means he can generate explosive plays running, but also passing outside the pocket.
“If Luke’s our quarterback, I think one, we would have to work a lot more on our scramble rules, because a quarterback, if something’s covered, he’s going to break out of the pocket and either look to run or look to throw. So sometimes you don’t work those maybe as much as you would if you didn’t have a mobile quarterback,” Bobo said. “But that’s where a lot of big plays are generated. Sometimes when protection breaks down or things are covered is when you’re scrambling, and then you actually throw the ball, not scrambling to run but scrambling to throw. You see a lot of explosive plays happen that way.”
Bobo also praised Doty’s team-first mindset, and his teammates noted the energy he’s brought to practice since the beginning of the season. On the outside, Gamecock fans seem to favor him winning the starting job, but he maintained that he won’t feel any pressure either way.
“I mean, I’m not a big social media guy. You know, I have Twitter, I have Instagram, but really all that stuff is outside noise,” Doty said. “That kind of stuff doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters is right here in this building, this team, the coaches and the game plan we have going into this week. So really, all that outside noise, the buzz of social media, I try to tune all that out and just focus on the team.”
Behind Doty and Hill, sophomore Ryan Hilinski seems to have fallen behind on the depth chart after starting 11 games last season. He’s thrown just six passes on the season and failed to win the starting job after the coaching staff reopened the quarterback competition following a loss to Texas A&M.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
