What to expect from South Carolina’s QBs in Friday night’s spring game
It’s hard to think, but at this time last year there really was a competition at starting quarterback.
LaNorris Sellers and Robby Ashford — a transfer from Auburn — were in battle for the starting quarterback job and it was during the spring game that coach Shane Beamer’s decision became quite clear.
Now, with a year of starting experience under his belt, Sellers is not just the Gamecocks’ solidified starter but one of the preseason favorites to win the Heisman Trophy.
For Friday’s spring game, Beamer said, don’t expect Sellers to be out there all night. Though no one is sitting out the spring game — “competition is a core value of the program,” Beamer says ad nauseam — there is no reason for Sellers to play a full game.
He has nothing to prove in April. But others do, and by having Sellers only play a partial game, it’ll allow his backups more reps.
Also, it should be noted: South Carolina is going to play a real game. This isn’t some practice open to the public. It’s a four-quarter game where the teams — the garnet team and the black team — are drafted by the two coaches: Director of Character Derrick Moore and Director of Football Ops George Wynn.
They will likely draft at least two quarterbacks each, splitting up the backups for maximum evaluation.
That leads us to three contenders: redshirt freshman Dante Reno, Ohio State transfer Air Noland and true freshman Cutter Woods.
In the same way Sellers elevated himself into the clear starter following last year’s spring game, could one of those three rise on Friday night to be a clear backup favorite?
“All three of those guys were so much better on Saturday in our scrimmage than they were the week before,” Beamer said. “Not that they were bad the week before, but they took another step, and they’re just getting more and more comfortable.”
Perhaps part of the reason they were so much better during Saturday’s scrimmage might be that every quarterback, aside from Sellers, was live — meaning they could be hit and tackled like it was a real game.
“That was good for them — those young quarterbacks,” Beamer said. “It’s not 7-on-7. You can’t just sit back there all day, you have to get the ball out on time.”
While Reno — a former three-star quarterback from Connecticut — was the only one of the three to be with South Carolina last year, the fact that the Gamecocks have a new offensive coordinator in Mike Shula likely evens the playing field.
And knowing that, most expected Noland — a former four-star quarterback who only spent a year at Ohio State — to be the no-brainer backup quarterback. Yet, Beamer has tried to quell that narrative, noting that even as outsider are “eager to anoint” a backup quarterback, that decision is a long ways away.
Which leads us to the wild card. After leading West Side High School to a state title in 2023 and a state runner-up last season, Woods graduated early to go through spring practice with the Gamecocks.
“Cutter’s done a really good job,” Shula said. “He’s a smart kid. He hasn’t had all the reps — obviously, with being a young guy — but when he’s not in there, he’s taking mental notes and you can see him in the back practicing as if he were in there.”
On Friday night, fans will be able to assess the play of the quarterbacks not named Sellers and try and decipher who the backup might be in 2025.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
