Gamecocks inexperienced, unsettled under center

It’s been easy for so long.

South Carolina’s quarterback situation since 2010 has been simple – Connor Shaw was Stephen Garcia’s backup in 2010, replaced him in 2011, stayed in the saddle for 23 of 26 games through 2013, then handed the reins to Dylan Thompson, who started every game last year.

In a perfect world, Thompson’s successor would have had a seamless transition. He would have received a lot of practice reps and some game reps and slid in once Thompson departed.

The world isn’t perfect.

The way the 2014 season unfolded, plus departures of players once considered strong candidates for the job (Tanner McEvoy, Brendan Nosovitch), have left the Gamecocks with a four-man race for quarterback – all untested. Steve Spurrier said the plan is for two to separate, but also that all four are equal as the first week of camp closes.

That can be a great thing; competition unveils the best. Spurrier has seen it many times – he won several SEC championships with platooning quarterbacks and sees no reason why that can’t happen again. “You can play two quarterbacks if that’s the way it is, if both guys are similar in talent,” he said at SEC Media Days. “We hope one guy would separate himself through preseason practice, so we’ll see how it happens when August comes around.”

It also can be not so great. The last time USC went into a season with the situation this unsettled, it became a one-game blip that started a rollercoaster of quarterbacking.

Remember Tommy Beecher?

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Heading into 2008, Chris Smelley had started six games, but Beecher, a member of Spurrier’s first USC signing class, had been around the longest and played well in limited duty. Garcia figured to challenge for the role but was suspended for his second spring practice.

A checkered spring game (Smelley threw five interceptions, Beecher three) had Spurrier saying he wouldn’t name a starter until after the summer. Three days later at a booster-club meeting, Spurrier said that Beecher would be the No. 1 guy if the season started the next day.

By mid-July, Beecher was the starter. He hadn’t had a chance, and Spurrier, said barring injury, Beecher would go the distance. “This is not, ‘He goes bad the next guy goes in,’” Spurrier said then.

On Aug. 28, 2008, Beecher took the field for his first start since high school. He got the win.

That was the best part.

The Gamecocks crushed N.C. State 34-0 behind a dominating defensive performance (including knocking freshman QB Russell Wilson out of the game), but Beecher threw four interceptions in the first three quarters. He sat out the fourth with a head injury and was limited to mop-up duty in one game for the rest of his USC career. He transferred to Liberty after the season.

Smelley and Garcia alternated the rest of the year, switching on every snap against Arkansas and Florida. Smelley transferred to Alabama to play baseball after the season, and Garcia started the entire 2009 season. In 2010, Shaw enrolled, and a five-year run of established signal-callers began.

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There are similarities and differences. Spurrier has not named a No. 1 guy this year – like 2008. Beecher had an experienced backup in 2008; this year’s group doesn’t. Nobody’s saying Mitch et al is Beecher or that this year will turn out like that one, but the unsettled QB situation is USC’s since that time.

The only way to get experience is to let them play. The Gamecocks are confident that an answer will arrive, and not with in-case-of-emergency-break-glass Pharoh Cooper under center.

“He could step in there and play a bit, if we had to,” Spurrier said of Cooper. “But these other guys, they’re ready. They’re ready to play.”

G.A. Mangus came to USC the year after Beecher, but his relationship with Spurrier stretches to 1990, when he played for him. He knows how Spurrier develops his quarterbacks, and while it would be nice to have an experienced guy, the system has worked before and will work again.

“Statistically, in every single thing, they all did well,” Mangus said. “He always refers to Shane (Matthews). Shane, things were kind of even after that spring, and Shane went out and had a really good summer and kind of separated himself. So, we’ll give the guys an opportunity to do that, and, hopefully, somebody will.”

Mangus also pointed out that it’s not just the quarterback. USC will need production from everybody not calling the signals. That’s also worked before, and he believes it will work again.

“We ran the ball a lot when Marcus (Lattimore) was young and Connor Shaw was young, and even Garcia. We won a lot of games for those three years running the football and kind of maybe even being a run-first team,” Mangus said. “What I know about coach Spurrier is he’s going to do whatever it takes to win a football game.”

They might turn to tailbacks Brandon Wilds and David Williams. They might run packages with Cooper and Lorenzo Nunez on the field at the same time. They might play two to four quarterbacks throughout the season – even in one game, if that’s what it takes to win.

“You have to be a good offense with all 11 guys, and the quarterback’s just part of it,” Mangus said. “We’d love to settle on one, but the guys behind you are the guys behind you.”

It’s not ideal but not impossible.

And Spurrier often has made impossible look entirely different.