South Carolina football’s new starting QB looks a lot like a player from the past.
Freshman signal caller Luke Doty came into last week’s game after halftime with the Gamecocks trailing Missouri by a score of 17-0. The South Carolina offense had struggled to move the ball, with the Tigers holding the unit to just 79 yards over the first two quarters.
With Doty under center, though, South Carolina was able to gain 208 second half yards and score their only 10 points of the ballgame. Doty, alone, accounted for 189 yards (130 pass, 59 rush), leading the team in both passing and rushing.
The performance had some Gamecock fans reminiscing about another dual threat quarterback that helped lead South Carolina football to its most successful run in program history. That player is Doty’s current position coach Connor Shaw.
Shaw was South Carolina’s signal caller from 2010 to 2013. In four seasons, the Georgia native threw for more than 6,000 yards and 56 touchdowns. He added another 1,683 yards and 17 scores on the ground. The legendary Gamecock never lost a game in Williams-Brice Stadium, and led the team to three consecutive 11-win seasons.
Now, the Gamecocks were in a very different situation at that time, having just come off an SEC Championship game appearance under Steve Spurrier, so expectations for Doty to suddenly reinvent this success overnight are not plausible, but the similarities are noticeable.
Doty brings something to the table that Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski don’t, and that’s his ability to extend plays when the pocket collapses. We saw of a number of plays on Saturday where Doty was able to scramble his way out of breakdowns in protection, and turn negative plays into positives.
That scrambling ability has led to a bond between Shaw and Doty.
"“Connor is a mentor to all of the guys, but he’s been a mentor to Luke since day one,” interim head coach Mike Bobo said in the postgame. “I think they share a little bit of a bond because they are the only two in that room that can run and move around a little bit. They’ve had a little bond.”"
His ability to use his legs also opens things up in the run game. Here’s what Bobo had to say about Doty’s performance against Missouri, and how it helped provide the offense with new looks against the Tigers.
"“We had a plan coming in that Luke was going to play more in this game because we felt he gave us an extra hat in the run game and it would open up some seams for him to be able to tuck the ball and run. At halftime we went through things, talked about what we were going to do in the second half and walking out I made the decision we had to go with Luke. I felt he gave us the best chance to win.”"
He went on to commend his quarterback from coming into a tough situation and showing that he belonged.
"“I’m going to say this about Luke Doty. The moment is not too big for him. That was obvious in this game. He was calm, he was cool and he was collected. Now, it was a lot of backyard ball out there and running around like a chicken with our head cut off, but it looked like a calm and collected guy doing it out there. I think the team was proud of him the way he battled.”"
With the Gamecocks struggling at the receiver position, and opposing defenses loading the box to stop leading rusher Kevin Harris, Doty likely gives South Carolina the best chance to win moving forward.
The next matchup comes against the SEC’s top defense in Georgia, which is a tough task for any quarterback, but at least he’s got a mentor on the sidelines that’s familiar with beating the Bulldogs.
The Gamecocks pulled the upset last year behind the play of a freshman quarterback. Here’s to hoping for a repeat in 2020.