Gamecocks QB commit rolling with the punches early in unusual season
The game at Elbert County High School was wrapped, well out of reach. Hebron Christian quarterback Colten Gauthier staked his team to a 16-point lead on a bit of a sloppy evening, and the defense was closing things out in the final minute.
And there was Gauthier, a 6-foot-3 University of South Carolina commitment, still loud and encouraging on a temperate Georgia night.
“Yes sir, Brad! Yes sir!” he yelled after a nice defensive hit as the seconds ticked away.
The Class of 2021 Gamecocks pledge is early in what promises to be an unusual year. His team has already seen a few games canceled. Friday night’s trip to around 15 miles from the South Carolina border came together late, owing to a relationship between coaches. A recruiting dead period because of the COVID-19 pandemic extends through the end of the year, meaning no official visit before Gauthier enrolls early and having to pony up for tickets if he wants to see the Gamecocks live.
But he’s heading in with big goals.
“Personally to throw for 3,500 yards, but that doesn’t really matter,” Gauthier said. “We’re trying to win state as a team this year. Just as a senior class that’s grown closer, just keep winning big games like this.
“Personal goals are fine, but what really, truly matters is the team goals.”
Gauthier is no stranger to rolling with the punches. He’s on the third head coach and fourth offensive coordinator of his career. After starting his career at Loganville High, he moved over to Hebron and started the past two seasons. He saw his numbers improve from 2,088 yards, 19 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 2018 to 2,401 with a healthier ration of 20-to-4 a season ago.
After throwing for more than 340 yards in the 2020 opener, a game where the Lions defense struggled in a loss, Friday was a night where the defense took the lead. Gauthier had his team up 17-0 before the opponents got their first touchdown, and the 23-7 win was workmanlike.
But the offense came away with a few things to clean up. There were fumbles all over for both teams, at least seven combined, and Gauthier was charged with an interception after a drop on a screen kicked up off the knee of a receiver and right to a defender.
The senior, who has worked on flexibility and mobility within the pocket, also had at least five passes dropped.
“I missed a couple shots,” Gauthier said. “We missed some stuff on offense.
“A win is a win, so right now we’re going to celebrate the win. The things that we missed are the things that we’re gonna go in the film room Saturday and Sunday before we go into next week. Not the best, but a win is a win, so we’re good.”
He’s shown some growth this offseason, impressing his new coaches.
“The thing I love about Colten is his competitiveness, his leadership and his willingness to learn and get better,” Hebron Christian coach Stan Luttrell said. “He’s a guy that I always say leads from the front right. He’s a student of the game, and I think he has a tremendous upside.”
Gauthier comes from a football lineage. His father, Oliver, played wide receiver at Slippery Rock in Pennsylvania in the early 1990s. He was the team’s top pass catcher and returner in 1990, and helped the Division II team almost upset I-AA squad UCF. Oliver Gauthier also coached football in Florida when his son was younger.
Colten Gauthier, a pro-style signal caller, spent the past two seasons playing for NFL All-Pro Jeff Saturday, who worked with Peyton Manning most of his career. Saturday stepped away from the head coaching role this offseason, but is still around the program and has a younger son on the middle school team.
Gauthier said he is talking a good bit to both Mike Bobo and Will Muschamp, even though they can’t meet in person. He’s still hearing from a few schools beyond the Gamecocks, but said that’s not on his radar.
“I still hear a little bit from Ole Miss, a little bit from Florida State,” Gauthier said. “But as of now, that’s just outside noise and I’m really just focused on giving my all to South Carolina.”
He and some of the other players are trying to organize an impromptu trip to Columbia, as some other classes have done, but that’s still in the infant stages.
One perk for playing for Saturday: a chance to make a little contact with Manning, the NFL record holder for yards and touchdowns in a season. Gauthier spoke with him at least once and was supposed to have a chance to attend the Manning Passing Academy and work out with the counselors (college QBs) in the evenings.
“Just to be able to be in that position to, as a quarterback, to talk to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, you can’t put a price on it,” Gauthier said.
South Carolina’s 2021 class
RB Caleb McDowell
RB Antario Brown
WR Sam Reynolds
WR Omega Blake
WR Derwin Burgess
ATH Simeon Price
OL Jordan Davis
DL George Wilson
DL Nick Barrett
DL TJ Sanders
LB Bryce Steele
DB Jayden Johnson
This story was originally published September 19, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
