Luke Doty reflects on redshirt year, early Loggains impressions

Sometime after South Carolina defeated South Carolina State 50-10 in late September, Luke Doty received a text from Shane Beamer asking to stop by his office.

“Whenever you get that text you’re like, ‘Oh crap, what did I do? Did I do something wrong,’” Doty said.

The junior quarterback hadn’t done anything wrong at all, the two merely needed to have a conversation about how the rest of the season would play out for Doty.

At that point, he had only totaled 44 total snaps, but those snaps came across four different games. Meaning that if Doty were to play in any more games, he would burn a potential year of eligibility when he hadn’t done much but stand on the sideline.

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Doty said Beamer asked him what he wanted to do, and being the team player he is, Doty said he’d do whatever the coaching staff needed him to.

“I’ve always told you all this I’m a team player on the team guy. I told (Beamer) the same thing, if there’s something that I needed to do, and if there’s something that they needed me to do that I will be more than up for it,” Doty said. “But if that wasn’t the case, and they were on the same page with me and you know, trying to save this year and redshirt, that I would like to do that as well.”

Doty hasn’t logged a snap in a game since that conversation – allowing him to secure a redshirt for this season. He plans to use this year as a redshirt and is “absolutely” returning to Columbia next year.

Another problem arose when there was speculation that Spencer Rattler may forgo South Carolina’s matchup with Notre Dame in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Hypothetically down their starting quarterback, the Gamecocks could’ve potentially had to burn Doty’s redshirt and play him in the bowl game.

But that hypothetical was squashed recently, with Rattler confirming he would play in the bowl game and a recent NCAA rule change that exempts postseason participation from counting towards that four-game limit.

Doty said he was excited and “pretty fired up” when Beamer texted him about the rule change. He doesn’t know what his role in the bowl game could be – but is excited about having any opportunity that comes his way.

“Any opportunity I get I’m gonna take it,” Doty said. “I don’t know what my role will be – if there will be any – but whatever it is, whatever I got to do, I’m always up for it. So I’m just ready to have some fun out there.”

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He wasn’t just excited about the fact that he might get an opportunity to play in the bowl game though. True to Doty’s nature, he also stressed the importance the rule change has on younger players who now won’t have to be worried about the limitation of a potential redshirt.

“That gives not only me but a lot of these guys that have played in four games, the opportunity to go out there and show what they can do as well,” Doty said. “It doesn’t just affect me, it affects everybody else. A lot of the young guys have come along these last couple of weeks and it’s been fun to see kind of what they can do out there.”

This perspective is just one of the many things Doty said he took away from his redshirt year. He said he took time to take a step back and add some things to his metaphorical toolbox that he may not have been able to add while on the field.

“Being on the field is one thing, but being off the field, you get to see things that you might not see when you’re out there,” Doty said. “That’s some of the stuff that I can use for next year, or whenever I step back on the field…just everything that I’ve learned and gone through this season, I know it’s going to put me in a good position for next year.”

With Rattler’s future after the bowl game still undetermined, Doty may be the guy next year. He’ll need to use what he learned this year to adjust to new offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains’ system.

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Doty said he and Loggains have already had plenty of conversations, but that most of them have been relationship-building and not necessarily football related.

“We haven’t really talked much ball. Really it was just getting to know him on a personal level before the ball started,” Doty said. “I think that that stuff will come like I said, this winter and spring. Obviously, we’ll get more into that but I thought it was awesome just to kind of sit down with him, just talking to him man-to-man and just do those kinds of things.”

Doty said he and other Gamecocks on the offensive side of the ball are excited about next year with Loggains and the potential he has as a coordinator at South Carolina.

“I think he’s gonna bring a lot of juice, definitely a lot of a lot of good stuff that will take the kind of playmakers that we have, and fit the system around them, and what they’re good at,” Doty said. “…I think we’re all really excited just for him to get here and to continue to build that relationship as the winter, and spring goes on into the spring ball camp. So, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

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