Secret weapon? Shane Beamer unveils new QB at practice who has Power 5 experience, eligibility
By Keith Farner
Published:
The South Carolina quarterback situation took another twist on Tuesday, and coach Shane Beamer was there to clarify.
The new player is graduate assistant Zeb Noland, who came to South Carolina as a graduate assistant, but previously played at Iowa State and North Dakota State. What’s more? He still has eligibility. So he could be a possible fill-in for the injured Luke Doty.
But Beamer also wanted to pump the brakes on the notion that the quarterback room is not up to par, or that the coaching staff had this move in its back pocket.
“It’s not like I went to 5 Points and found a quarterback,” Beamer said, per Mike Uva. “I told the quarterbacks if he competes and deserves to play then he will.”
“We weren’t discussing it before Luke (Doty) got hurt,” Beamer said, per Josh Kendall. “It’s not a reflection of our QB room at all. This is not a situation where we are desperate for QBs. It’s not like I walked around the corner to Budweiser and the loading dock and asked if anybody played high school QB.”
Noland started 7 games for the Bison last season, which was played this past spring. He was 51-for-100 passing for 721 yards with 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. He previously played in 9 games over 2 seasons at Iowa State.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
