For all the questions surrounding the South Carolina Gamecocks going into this season, one thing’s for certain: Dylan Thompson is the team’s starting quarterback. There’s no controversy, no maybes, none of that. He’s the guy.
For all the questions surrounding the South Carolina Gamecocks going into this season, one thing’s for certain: Dylan Thompson is the team’s starting quarterback.
That is, of course, barring a catastrophic situation between today and August 28, when he and his teammates open the season against Texas A&M at Williams-Brice Stadium.
But is he ready? You can’t say he’s not battle tested.
We first saw Thompson in 2011, where he appeared in four of games and completed two passes for a total of 17 yards. The next year, his responsibility grew as the #2 behind Connor Shaw, and in week two against East Carolina, with Shaw nursing a shoulder injury, he got his first shot as a starter.
The end result: 21-37, 330 yards and three touchdowns in a 48-10 rout of the Pirates. The skeptics might point to that as a win coming against a lesser opponent, and they might be right.
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Thompson would have spots of time here and there throughout the season including against UAB and Florida. Versus the Blazers, a 49-6 laugher at Williams-Brice, he played the entire second half and was 5-10 for 177 yards and two scores. You may remember that game for this moment, though:
Fast forward to the final week of the season against Clemson. The Tigers were entering this game 10-1, and while they had a propensity to light up the scoreboard, they also had a knack for giving up a ton as well–but they were #12 in the country and a much, much better team than ECU and UAB combined. Add the fact that it was a rivalry game and Thompson (with Shaw declared out) could add a happy chapter to his otherwise short tale with a strong showing.
And it was a strong showing, indeed. While he was 23-41 passing, Thompson made the most of it, throwing for 310 yards (a little over 13 yards a completion) and three touchdowns in the Gamecocks’ 27-17 victory over Clemson.
Thompson added to his annals a few weeks later in the Outback Bowl vs. Michigan. With Shaw forced to sit late in the fourth quarter due to a nagging foot injury, Thompson was forced to enter duty. And while Jadeveon Clowney had the play to remember in that game, the signal-caller from Boiling Springs, SC made some memories of his own.
Dylan saw the field several times last season (10 games, 52-89, 783 yards, four touchdowns), but in his only start last year, against Mizzou, he was an OK 15-27 before yielding to Shaw.
I think 2012 painted a more complete picture of Thompson’s abilities and gave us a glimpse of life after Connor Shaw. If those moments are any indication, life should be pretty good. He’s different from Connor in that he’s not the dual threat that his predecessor was, and, as Barrett Sallee pointed out at Bleacher Report, the accuracy leaves something to be desired.
Will he be the one that leads South Carolina to the promised land? We’ll have to see. But rest easy: the Gamecocks look to be in good hands with Dylan Thompson under center.