Who’s QB1? The answer in Shane Beamer’s Year 1 at USC changed almost weekly
When South Carolina took the field to start the 2025 season, the Gamecocks were led by a bonafide Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback.
And before LaNorris Sellers led the USC offense, it was Spencer Rattler under center for two years.
It represents a stretch of relatively smooth sailing at the quarterback position for the Gamecocks. And it’s a far cry from the QB situation during Shane Beamer’s first year at South Carolina.
The Gamecocks cycled through four different quarterbacks en route to a 7-6 season in 2021 that was capped off with a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory.
Whirlwind. Bizarre. Interesting. Crazy. That’s how those from that QB room described what was a wild ride for all those involved.
The young-gun gets hit with an injury early
South Carolina had a young-gun named Luke Doty who was primed to take over in 2021 as the Gamecocks’ franchise quarterback.
Doty joined the program as a four-star recruit who was named South Carolina’s Mr. Football Award. In his freshman season, Will Muschamp’s last year as the Gamecocks’ head coach in 2020, he split his time in camp as a QB and wide receiver. He ultimately started at quarterback in the last two games of the season, compiling 275 passing yards and two touchdowns against Georgia and Kentucky,
In the spring of 2021, Doty was presumed to be Beamer’s first starting quarterback, and he did nothing to change that as the Gamecocks entered August.
“I spent a lot of time up here just trying to improve my game as a quarterback in the film room,” Doty told The State. “...I think going into that season, I fully expected to be the starter. Going into camp, I expected to be the starter. So I prepared like I was each and every day.”
The first two weeks of camp were great for Doty and the Gamecocks until things went sideways on August 13. Doty ran a quarterback draw during a red zone period of practice, made a jump cut and felt his foot get stepped on.
“That’s pretty normal. Whatever. Walk it off,” Doty recalled feeling.
After that practice, though, Doty still remembers feeling like he couldn’t walk right. And when the Gamecocks went to do conditioning, he felt like he couldn’t run. A trip to the training room followed.
“I take my shoe off and it looks like a sausage,” Doty said.
An X-ray confirmed Doty had a minor strain in his foot — he described it as a “tiny fracture” — that wouldn’t require surgery but needed lots of rehab if he was going to be ready for South Carolina’s season opener.
“It was a crazy couple of weeks, that’s for sure,” Doty recalled.
The legend of Zeb
With Doty’s injury, South Carolina’s quarterback room was suddenly thin. The Gamecocks were left with FCS transfer QB Jason Brown, true freshman Colten Gauthier and walk-ons Connor Jordan and Jake Helfrich.
Those players had zero games of FBS experience between them.
“I guess that’s where Zeb Noland comes in,” Doty said with a laugh.
Zeb Noland’s time with South Carolina was short, but it still captivated Gamecocks. He initially joined the team as a graduate assistant working with the wide receivers and quarterbacks, fresh off a playing career split between Iowa State and North Dakota State.
Despite being a GA, Noland had an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID pandemic. He’d joked he’d lace up the cleats in an emergency, Doty said.
“We never took him seriously,” Dakereon Joyner joked. “...And then whenever Luke broke that foot, the next day big Zeb was in a damn quarterback practice jersey.”
At the Aug. 17 practice, the story of the day was the new 6-foot-2, 232-pound player sporting a No. 25 green jersey. (USC quarterbacks wear green practice jerseys.)
That player was Noland.
“I’m going to Zeb to help me learn the playbook…(then) Zeb comes out there in shoulder pads and number 25 and we’re all like, ‘What the hell, is this a joke?’ ” Gauthier recalled.
Attempts to reach Noland for this story were unsuccessful. He recently welcomed a child with wife Macy in August, per his social media. When asked about getting in contact with Noland, his fellow QBs all laughed and responded with different versions of “Good luck.” If anything, it just adds to the enigmatic legend of Noland.
Most USC players were aware of Noland the coach but not so much Noland the player, Doty said. Beamer brought his team up to speed by showing Noland’s game tape.
“We start watching tape of Zeb Noland at Iowa State, showing him balling out,” Gauthier said. “So the guys on the team understood, yo, this isn’t just like a washed-up coach going up to play. This is a legit guy that backed up (NFL quarterback) Trey Lance.”
Noland at first was activated for depth’s sake. It wasn’t a promise that he’d be the starting quarterback. That’s just what ended up happening.
“I told Zeb and I told the quarterbacks that he’s going to come in here and he’s going to compete like everyone else,” Beamer said in August 2021.“And if he deserves the opportunity to play and can help us win football games, he will. And if he can’t, he won’t.”
Noland started South Carolina’s opener, ditching No. 25 for a No. 8 jersey, against Eastern Illinois and was clinical. He threw for 121 yards and four touchdowns (all of which came in the first half). He remained the starter the following week and threw for 225 yards and a touchdown in a win over East Carolina.
The following week, South Carolina traveled to Athens for a night game against No. 2 Georgia in front of a sold-out Sanford Stadium.
The quarterback carousel continued to spin.
From Noland, back to Doty, then back to Noland again
Noland exited South Carolina’s matchup with Georgia early with a hand injury, thrusting Doty back into action. Doty finished the game with 153 yards, one touchdown and an interception in the Gamecocks’ 40-13 blowout loss.
Doty remained the starter for the next four games and compiled 822 yards and four touchdowns in losses to Kentucky and Tennessee but wins over Troy and Vanderbilt.
That Vanderbilt game, however, is where things swung back to Noland.
Doty played most of the game for the Gamecocks and had compiled 242 passing yards and two touchdowns, but also two interceptions. With 1:36 left in the game and USC trailing, Beamer sent Noland in.
Noland put together a storybook drive. He led South Carolina 75 yards down the field for a go-ahead touchdown that gave the Gamecocks a 21-20 lead with seconds left on the clock.
“It’s those moments you dream of as a kid,” Noland said after the game. “You always think about it. I’m in my whatever year of playing, and you still dream about those moments.”
The joy of Beamer’s first SEC win at South Carolina was dampened by more injury news. Doty aggravated his foot injury against Vanderbilt. Season-ending surgery followed a few days later on Oct. 21.
Enter Jason Brown
Jason Brown remembers feeling “pissed off” when he heard Noland was being added to the active roster during preseason camp. Brown felt bad Doty was injured, but he also felt it gave himself the opportunity to be South Carolina’s starting quarterback.
With Noland in the picture, Brown felt his chance was lost.
“When I saw the next day that Zeb was getting dressed for practice and everything like that…I kind of felt like my chance had just gone away. So I was pissed at first,” Brown said.
Brown quickly pivoted his mindset from “being pissed” to “just being a good teammate” shortly after, and he did his best to not let the decision affect him.
Nearly four years later, Brown admitted he’s not sure he would’ve been prepared to start in South Carolina’s opener anyway. Noland’s knowledge of the offense made him the natural choice, Brown said.
He recalled a specific instance of when then-offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield asked Brown to draw up a play on a white board in a quarterback’s meeting.
“I couldn’t draw you a single thing,” Brown said. “That was just one of those humbling experiences. You’re just up there not knowing what to do and it’s just an embarrassing feeling….(Noland) probably was the right guy for that job at that moment, because I didn’t know it. I thought I knew it, but then when I had to actually do it, it was a little iffy.”
The Saint Francis transfer served as Noland’s backup and was relegated to third-string when Doty returned. But he got his chance to see the field in the thick of SEC play.
Brown threw for 84 yards and a touchdown late in South Carolina’s 44-14 loss on the road at Texas A&M. A few days later, Noland had a minor surgery to repair a meniscus tear, opening the door for Brown to finally get his shot against Florida.
Brown threw for 175 yards and two touchdowns in South Carolina’s 40-17 win over the Gators. The victory put the Gamecocks one win away from clinching a bowl berth with three games remaining in the season.
“Outside of my dad and my family, I don’t think anybody thought we were gonna win,” Brown said. “We were already 20-point underdogs (against Florida), we were struggling throughout the year, (then) the third-string quarterback comes in. They didn’t expect us to win. So it was just a great experience.”
Brown started the last three games of the year for South Carolina and helped secure a bowl appearance for the Gamecocks with a three-touchdown performance in a close win over Auburn.
“Reaching the bowl game that first year, (with) a first-year head coach in the hardest conference in college football, I think that’s just a big, big milestone for anybody,” Brown said.
Brown was relieved by Noland during South Carolina’s regular season-ending loss to Clemson after a 67-yard, two interception performance. Still, he felt like he had positive momentum as the Gamecocks forged on to the postseason.
The Spencer Rattler of it all
In order to fully encapsulate the carousel that was the South Carolina quarterback room in 2021, you have to also factor Spencer Rattler into the equation.
Rattler announced he was transferring from Oklahoma on Nov. 29. Beamer was able to lure him to Columbia, much to the surprise of the college football world, when he announced his intentions to play for the Gamecocks on Dec. 13.
While Rattler’s decision couldn’t join the USC roster right away, it did immediately affect the quarterbacks who were there.
Brown announced his intentions to transfer two short days after Rattler made his announcement. He told The State he regrets that decision to this day.
“At that time Rattler was going there. I’m not an idiot. He’s really good at football, he’s gonna play over me,” Brown said. “...So I left. I wanted to get ahead of everybody in the bowl games and everything like that and enter the portal.”
Rattler’s commitment sent a shockwave through college football and South Carolina’s locker room. Doty, Gauthier and Joyner all said they were surprised by the news. In fact, they can tell you exactly where they were when they first heard about it (a friend’s church league basketball game, the weight room and a dorm room, if you were curious).
Brown wasn’t the only quarterback in the room to ponder the transfer portal. Doty and his dad had a brief discussion about it, but it was never really something he seriously considered. He and Gauthier both saw Rattler coming to Columbia as a chance to learn and grow.
“I was like, I just had surgery. I need to get better before I can really do anything,” Doty recalled. “…I could learn a lot from this guy, and he’s going to make me a better player. I was thinking about it, I’d have to compete no matter where I go. So why not just stay here, continue to do my rehab, get better, and just see how it plays out?”
Joyner makes it full circle
Brown’s departure left South Carolina with an even lighter quarterback room for a Duke’s Mayo Bowl matchup with North Carolina. And after the loss to Clemson to end the year, the Gamecocks were searching for answers.
So Beamer went to Joyner and asked the same question he asked him his first day on the job.
“I want to ask you one more time,” Joyner recalled his coach asking, “what do you think about playing quarterback for us?’”
Joyner gave Beamer the same answer he’d given him months prior: “I told him no.”
At the end of the day, Beamer makes the decisions. Not Joyner.
During bowl practice, South Carolina started Joyner off slow with a few wildcat packages. Then Beamer’s staff continued to test the waters. Joyner, who joined the team as a QB in 2018 but had mainly played wide receiver to that point, continued to perform well as he was tasked with more offensive packages.
Still, Joyner thought he was going to be splitting time between wide receiver and quarterback in the bowl game. But in the final practices before South Carolina left for Charlotte, Satterfield shut that down.
“Coach Satt, he told the whole staff, ‘Listen, stop asking DK to play receiver. He’s not playing receiver. He’s not playing receiver, he’s starting at quarterback,” Joyner recalled. “He’s not a receiver this week. Don’t ask him anymore. Don’t ask me anymore.’ ”
Joyner’s reaction to the news?
“Oh s- -t.”
Any nerves Joyner might have had weren’t noticeable. The star of the show in the Mayo Bowl, he threw for 160 yards and a touchdown en route to the win.
“It was one thousand percent the most memorable, most successful game I ever had,” Joyner said. I think that’s what kind of put me in the history books for South Carolina...The whole thing is I knew what I was capable of, my confidence grew over those three weeks of bowl prepping.
“The most beautiful thing about it was that nobody else knew. We were able to keep it a secret throughout the whole month.”
Even Noland was still able to get in on the action. He threw for 82 yards and one touchdown.
“It was a very collective effort by the both of them, “Doty said. “...It was cool to see all the craziness from the season kind of culminate into that one big moment for both of those guys. Two guys that probably deserved it more than anybody.”
Setting up things for the future
South Carolina faced plenty of adversity in Beamer’s first year as head coach. Navigating the quarterback carousel was perhaps the Gamecocks’ most impressive achievement.
It’s not every day a team is forced to turn to a graduate assistant, a third-string quarterback and a wide receiver in order to secure a winning record.
“We didn’t flinch,” Gauthier said.
Sure it was ugly at times, but the 2021 quarterbacks believe the collective success they had solidified the vision for what South Carolina football could be under Beamer.
“That was just a sneak peek at kind of just building the foundation for Coach Beamer, and setting the tone for what we want this program to be,” Joyner said. “It wasn’t the most successful season, but it was better than the years before. I feel like that team, that staff, despite the record, just the way we handled things, laid the bricks for the foundation (and) the success the team is having now.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 10:15 AM.
