How Dowell Loggains plans to develop South Carolina quarterbacks

New South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains was not only brought in to call plays but also to coach quarterbacks.

Loggains has a long history of coaching quarterbacks in the NFL. In his time in Chicago, he helped Jay Cutler have one of the best seasons of his career. He was around guys like Matt Hassleback, Kerry Collins, and Vince Young.

“I think it’s finding what they do best and making it better,” Loggains said. “I do think the advantage of coming from the NFL is that you learn a lot from quarterbacks that you coached.”

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Loggains’ approach to coaching the position falls in line with everything that Shane Beamer is preaching.

“You work together with them, you’re not telling them. It’s not a dictatorship,” Loggains said. “I love coaching quarterbacks because I love the fundamentals of it, I love the intangibles that come with it. I think you can make a huge difference on people who are willing to work.”

It all starts with the intangibles. Then Loggains start sharpening the mental aspect of a quarterback’s game. When evaluating potential recruits, Loggains is looking for toughness.

“I think with young people one of the biggest things that stick out, especially in today’s age of transfer portal, instant gratification, and all those things are emotional stability,” Loggains said. “You want a kid that’s emotionally tough, that’s been through hard things in their life because most time if you’ve been through hard things, you’re willing to stick things out because you know everything in life is hard.”

Loggains will be a crucial part in recruiting and evaluating quarterbacks for South Carolina. He’ll be tasked with recruiting Spencer Rattler back to South Carolina over the NFL Draft and filling out the Gamecocks’ quarterback room over the next few recruiting classes.

“I don’t think you can change the throwing motion. People that say they can coach accuracy I think you can improve it a little bit but some of its god-given and a loose arm and playing with the base. What playing with the base is you play with your feet apart because in the pocket it’s like a phone booth when everything starts shrinking you have to be able to stand there and sit on a spot and make a throw,” Loggains said.

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“There’s also the courage to stare down the barrel when you know someone’s coming, you know you’re gonna get hit and it’s going to hurt but it’s third and seven and it’s the fourth quarter in the in a big game in the SEC and you got to be able to hit the dig. and when we call dagger you have to be able to throw that,” Loggains said.

Loggains has seen mental makeup–both good and bad–at the NFL level from quarterbacks. It’s something he pays attention to intently both on his roster and while out on the recruiting trail.

“I think it’s there’s a mental makeup of it that I think the NFL scouting process has huge advantages. When we go into high schools, at Arkansas when I was there, people would laugh at me because I would go talk to the trainer and the student managers and ask about the kid and ask the counselor and it’s the teachers and the people at the convenience store,” Loggains said.

“I also wanted to know especially at that position quarterback how important the mental make of it is. Can you handle the burden of being a quarterback in the SEC? It’s hard, you guys are hard on people, our fan base is hard and all the fan bases because it’s a heavy burden to wear the crown and you have to be able to handle that in in the SEC.

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