GA turned South Carolina QB Zeb Noland outlines opportunity

South Carolina graduate assistant Zeb Noland was added to the Gamecocks’ roster just weeks before the season and spoke to the media recently on the opportunity ahead and his conversation with first-year head coach Shane Beamer introducing the opportunity.

“It was Sunday, and it was, ‘Let’s get the ball rolling.” Noland said on what Beamer told him. “‘Go out there and do the best you can.’ I didn’t work out with the team all summer. I did my own little workout, an old man workout, just lifting some weights. I came back and just did the best I can.”

Noland joined the Gamecocks as a graduate assistant under Beamer but still holds one year of college eligibility, that South Carolina is now able to utilize with starting quarterback Luke Doty going down with injury.

On3 covered the news of Noland moving from GA to quarterback in an article written by James Fletcher III.

Noland spoke on what his role will be as the season fast approaches.

“Yeah, go out there and we’re still all competing for the job, so we have to be at our best every single day,” Noland said. “We have to make each other better. I played in some really good quarterback rooms in the past, and our goals – I’ve played with Kyle Kempt all the way to this last year with Quincy Patterson – is to all be best friends.”

Luke Doty was expected to be the starter in 2021 prior to the injury. Doty isn’t expected to be out for the season, or even miss more than a handful of games, but a foot sprain suffered in practice made his status for South Carolina’s week one game against Eastern Illinois on Sept. 4.

Zeb Noland added that even before Doty’s injury, he wanted to do this.

“We needed depth in the quarterback room,” he said. “Coach Beamer said in his press conference, at Oklahoma, they had seven quarterbacks in fall camp. The unfortunate events enhanced this. Deep down, I wanted to do it.”

South Carolina has just four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. St. Francis transfer Jason Brown, freshman Colten Gauthier and redshirt sophomore Connor Jordan are the other three. Brown hasn’t played at any level of college football since 2019 while Gauthier and Jordan have no collegiate experience.

In the press conference announcing the move, Beamer said the move to add Noland to the room wasn’t out of desperation.

“This is not a situation where we are desperate for quarterbacks,” Beamer said. “I was not in Five Points last night seeing if anybody played high school quarterback. We’re not in that situation. We have someone on our team who can help us. If he earns the opportunity to play and help us win football games, he will.”

Zeb Noland spent three seasons at Iowa State before transferring to North Dakota State, where he backed up Trey Lance. In 2020, when Lance left to prepare for the NFL Draft, after the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the FCS season, Noland stepped into the starting job. He threw for 721 yards with five touchdowns and six interceptions during the spring season.