Phil Steele: Gamecocks have a Top 10 QB room
South Carolina’s quarterback room goes into the 2023 season featuring a rare combination in the transfer portal era: a talented returning starter, an upperclassman backup with experience, and young high-upside players rounding out the depth chart.
College football media legend Phil Steele’s latest preview magazine is out and the veteran ranked the Gamecocks’ QB room as the seventh-best in the country.
Said Steele:
Spencer Rattler was once projected as a future No. 1 overall pick. But an up and down career at Oklahoma led him to a transfer to South Carolina. But he’s on the up and up going into his final college season.
Luke Doty is the experienced backup but behind him are freshmen LaNorris Sellers and Tanner Bailey.
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The top quarterback unit in the country also features some tangental connections to Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks QB room.
The other USC with former Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams at the helm is ranked the No. 1 room in the country, according to Steele.
The Gamecocks’ season-opener with North Carolina will no doubt be dubbed as a battle between Rattler and North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye and Steele gives the Heels their due, primarily due to Maye’s presence:
Drake Maye is another Heisman Trophy candidate and lit it up during this first year as the starter. It was a seamless transition from Sam Howell to Maye.
The depth doesn’t quite measure up to the above units, but Maye makes this position go. Can he supplant Williams as the NFL’s top pick next year?
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Other highly ranked rooms on South Carolina’s schedule for 2023 are Arkansas (No. 5), Tennessee (6), and Mississippi State (8).
The Gamecocks and Tar Heels are set to kick off their respective seasons when the two match up in Charlotte in the Duke’s Mayo Classic. The matchup is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on Sept. 2 at Bank of America with ABC broadcasting the game.
The two teams last met in December of 2021 with the Gamecocks defeating UNC 38-21 to cap off Beamer’s first season in Columbia behind an MVP performance from Dakereon Joyner.
