Zeb Noland’s path to becoming the starting quarterback at South Carolina is one of the most unusual stories in college football.

The former Iowa State and North Dakota State quarterback who was a graduate assistant only a couple weeks ago will lead the Gamecocks on Saturday night in Williams-Brice Stadium against Eastern Illinois.

Noland is best friends with former teammate Trey Lance, who now plays for the San Francisco 49ers, and Noland said Trey Lance called him maybe one minute after it went out that he was QB1.

His biggest advice? Turn your phone off.

“I now understand why he had two phones in college,” Noland said, per Ben Portnoy.

Noland, who wore No. 25 in practice, will wear No. 8 on Saturday. He expects to have 7 immediate-family members plan to be at the game on Saturday to watch Noland. He expects several more friends to come later in the year. They never had that opportunity at Iowa State or NDSU because the distance and weather always made flights difficult.

Noland also said he talked with Luke Doty before Doty was hurt, and that he wants to be a mentor to the other quarterbacks. Noland said they have class together and alternate who drives. Once Doty gets back, Noland said it will be a competition for the role. “At the end of the day, the best player’s gonna play.”

But the most interesting part of his media appearance was that Noland shared that he had plans to continue playing even if Doty was not injured.

“Probably,” Noland said, and added that he didn’t feel comfortable giving up the game three months before camp and wanted to do more.

H/T David Cloninger.