Gamecocks’ Zeb Noland preparing for homecoming at UGA as Luke Doty progresses
South Carolina quarterback watch continues into Week 3.
With Luke Doty growing increasingly healthy and Zeb Noland holding down the fort in the interim, South Carolina’s situation under center heading into a Week 3 meeting with Georgia remains up in the air.
If it is, in fact, Noland for a third consecutive week, it’ll be a homecoming for the Peach State native.
“When he decided that he wanted to come back out and play — when he and I were having those conversations — one of the things that he did mention was how cool it would be to go back to play at Sanford Stadium in the town he went to high school in and his family lives in,” Beamer said on Tuesday.
Noland was raised in Watkinsville, Georgia, which is just a strong-armed toss of a football from UGA. His father, Travis, has been a high school coach in the state for decades and has won almost two games for every one loss.
During his prep days at Oconee County High School, Noland led the Warriors to a 9-3 record and their first region title in 11 years as a senior. He was also named the 2015 Region 8-3A player of the year and twice earned all-region honors.
“It is a cool story (for Noland) being able to go back to Athens,” Beamer said. “It’d be an even cooler story if he went in there and played well. That’s what he wants, and that’s what he’s working towards right now.”
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Beamer said Doty continues to progress from the foot sprain that has held him out close to a month. Doty suffered the injury when a teammate stepped on him during fall camp. He appeared in warmups for both the Eastern Illinois and East Carolina games but didn’t play.
Beamer said after the win over ECU on Saturday that he wasn’t quite comfortable yet sticking Doty into a game. South Carolina’s head coach reiterated Tuesday Doty was doing more in practice than he had before and the expectation is that he can be healthy enough to play against Georgia this weekend.
What remains to be seen is whether the job will be Doty’s upon his health.
Noland improved drastically as a passer between Week 1 and Week 2, according to Pro Football Focus, as his passing grade jumped from 60.3 against Eastern Illinois in the opener to 74.4 against East Carolina last week.
Albeit in extremely limited action, Doty never recorded a passer rating better than 59.9 during the 2020 season — which he spent bouncing between quarterback and receiver.
Where Doty can help is as a runner. Rated the No. 4 dual-threat quarterback in the 2020 class, he has a shiftiness and speed that Noland doesn’t.
“He had some soreness this time last week, but he doesn’t have that today,” Beamer said of Doty. “... So he continues to do more and more and, like I said, we fully expect him to be ready to roll on Saturday night.”
