South Carolina fans have been unusually comfortable over the last several years. Since Connor Shaw took over at quarterback during the 2011 season, the Gamecocks haven’t had a concern about who would start week-to-week at quarterback.

That’s set to change in 2015. After two-and-a-half years of Shaw and a season of Dylan Thompson, South Carolina has a big hole to fill. The veteran leadership will be gone, and into its place comes uncertainty.

2014 quarterback: Dylan Thompson, 3,574 yards, 26 TD, 11 INT, 59.9 completion percentage

2015 favorite: Connor Mitch, rishing redshirt sophomore; career stats: 2-of-6 passing, 19 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT

Others involved: Perry Orth, rising junior; Michael Scarnecchia, rising redshirt freshman; Lorenzo Nunez, incoming freshman

Level of concern (1-10): 7 — Next season will be crucial to the future of South Carolina football. After the Gamecocks’ three-year run that totaled 33 wins, setting and then tying the school’s single-season wins record in successive years, South Carolina took a step back in 2014. While a down year can happen at any top-tier program, it’s a bigger issue at Carolina, where the Gamecocks have only recently become a respected SEC program. Going into 2015 without an established quarterback is a major issue for a team that will be trying to rebuild on the fly. Mitch has yet to get an opportunity to prove himself on the field, but Steve Spurrier is high on his talent.

When it will be decided: Spring practice. This might be an actual competition if Nunez were enrolling early, giving him a chance to go through spring practices and the spring game. Mitch and Orth will be the only two quarterbacks with any active roster experience in spring practice; while Orth has a little more time on the field than Mitch does, he’s a former walk-on player, while Mitch was brought in with the hopes of one day being a top-tier SEC quarterback.

Biggest ally: Pharoh Cooper. Having an all-purpose weapon that can even take snaps under center will be a major benefit to Mitch (or Orth, Scarnecchia or Nunez) when the Gamecocks kick off 2015. While Cooper isn’t the type of receiver that a quarterback can just heave it up for, he has a mastery of the route tree and can even come get the ball himself for running plays. Defenses will key on Cooper in 2015, giving the Gamecocks one-on-one matchups elsewhere on the field.