South Carolina’s QB situation ‘needs significant improvement,’ national ranking says
Pro Football Focus isn’t exactly high on South Carolina’s quarterback situation heading into the 2021 season.
PFF on Monday released its 2021 college quarterback rankings of all 130 FBS teams’ current situations under center. South Carolina sophomore quarterback Luke Doty came in at No. 125 on the list in the last of six tiers of QBs, a grouping that PFF labeled “needs significant improvement.”
“These quarterback situations are marred by past poor play or unpromising candidates to lead the offense in 2021,” PFF wrote.
Doty’s low ranking comes, at least in part, due to the little game film actually available on him. After spending the bulk of 2020 behind Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski, the former Myrtle Beach High School standout took the reigns of the USC offense over the final two contests. Doty finished his first season in Columbia completing 43 of 71 passes for 405 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Ranked the No. 4 dual-threat quarterback in the 2020 class by 247Sports, Doty also flashed capable mobility last fall as he notched 91 rushes on 41 attempts in his eight games played.
There are some familiar names in PFF’s last tier of QBs alongside Doty: former South Carolina quarterbacks Jake Bentley (South Alabama, 107) and Hilinski (Northwestern, 116); one-time Clemson quarterback Chase Brice (Appalachian State, 113) and Temple signal-caller D’Wan Mathis (120), who started Georgia’s season opener last year.
PFF rated Oklahoma, North Carolina, Miami, UCF, Indiana, Ole Miss, Coastal Carolina, Clemson, LSU and Southern California as the 10 best quarterback situations heading into the 2021 campaign.
Coastal’s Grayson McCall is No. 7; Clemson’s DJ Uiagalelei is No. 8.
The Gamecocks came in as the lowest-rated Southeastern Conference team in the rankings. Vanderbilt was the next lowest at No. 102 as part of Tier 5 — a group of quarterbacks PFF said “... aren’t going to be responsible for their teams having immense success without help from elite supporting casts on both sides of the ball.”
Head coach Shane Beamer announced after South Carolina’s annual Garnet and Black spring game in April that Doty would be the Gamecocks’ starter heading into the summer barring anything unforeseen.
“Luke’s got to continue to progress over the summer. Luke’s got to have a great preseason training camp,” Beamer said at the time. “But yes, as we come out of spring practice Luke’s our starting quarterback. Now it’s his job to continue to earn that and continue to compete between now and the Eastern Illinois game.”
South Carolina will open its first year under Beamer on Sept. 4 against Eastern Illinois at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Beamer takes over after head coach Will Muschamp was fired amid a 2-8 effort in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Muschamp finished his tenure at South Carolina 28-30 overall, and he was 6-13 over his final one-plus season.
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 1:32 PM.
