Surprise! Dakereon Joyner at QB in bowl game catches Tar Heels off guard, UNC admits
Dakereon Joyner entered Thursday’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl with 24 receptions and eight carries on South Carolina’s stat sheet for the 2021 season.
When he lined up behind center on the first play of the Gamecocks’ first drive of the game, North Carolina coaches and players assumed the redshirt junior wide receiver was preparing to run more of a Wildcat formation.
Did the Tar Heels prepare for Joyner to play “actual quarterback,” as one UNC player described it?
“Obviously, we hadn’t,” UNC coach Mack Brown told reporters after South Carolina’s 38-21 victory, “and he did an unbelievable job. There’ll be some discussion about him moving forward because he played an excellent game.”
Here’s how that opening, three-play scoring drive unfolded:
▪ Jaheim Bell, 20-yard rush;
▪ Kevin Harris, 9-yard rush;
▪ Joyner, pass complete to Bell, 69-yard touchdown.
“We knew about (Joyner) beforehand,” UNC linebacker Tomon Fox said. “When he first came in, we thought it was going to be more of a Wildcat-type offense, but then we saw he was very efficient at running their actual offense. So we had to settle down and figure out he could play actual quarterback and he could run the ball.”
Joyner completed eight more passes on the day — going 9 for 9 for 160 yards and one touchdown — and ran the ball 10 times for 64 yards. He was named the bowl game’s MVP.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer credited offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield with the decision to have Joyner as a full-time quarterback for the game. The plan was cemented when starter Jason Brown entered the transfer portal Dec. 15 in the wake of the Gamecocks signing Oklahoma transfer QB Spencer Rattler for the 2022 season.
By all accounts, graduate senior Zeb Noland was going to be the bowl game starter, with freshman Colten Gauthier as the backup. Instead, Joyner started and split snaps with Noland.
The team kept the move under wraps, including having Joyner with the receivers Monday during the media’s viewing portion of practice held at Charlotte Christian School.
“Honestly, that was the only time he worked with the receivers the whole month of practice was the 20 minutes you guys were out there the other day,” Beamer acknowledged to reporters. “Sorry for not being totally honest and forthcoming with you guys, but felt like it was what we needed to do to win the football game and just to give them something else to defend.”
Joyner signed with South Carolina in 2018 as a decorated quarterback at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston. It was there he threw for almost 11,000 yards, most of that across his sophomore, junior and senior seasons, to go with 160 total touchdowns.
He became South Carolina’s fourth starting quarterback of the season, joining Noland, Brown and sophomore Luke Doty — with each leading the Gamecocks to at least one victory.
Joyner spent the better part of the last three seasons in Columbia at wide receiver. On Thursday, as a quarterback, he delivered one of the most memorable performances of Beamer’s inaugural season that ended with the bowl win and a 7-6 record.
“(UNC) really hadn’t faced a quarterback this year on their schedule that ran the ball like we were going to do with with DK,” Beamer said, “and he’s a talented thrower as well. There’s a reason he was recruited as a high school quarterback by so many programs, including South Carolina.”
This story was originally published January 1, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
