Zeb Noland, a former Iowa State quarterback, went from graduate assistant to starting quarterback at South Carolina before a hand injury cost him his starting spot. (South Carolina Athletics Photo)
One of the feel-good stories this college football season is now apparently over at South Carolina — or at least for this week’s game against Kentucky. It made national headlines when South Carolina converted graduate assistant coach Jeb Noland into the starting quarterback the first three games. However, he was injured during last week’s loss to Georgia and now South Carolina coach Shane Beamer says Luke Doty will start Saturday night against Kentucky.
“Assuming everything is good with Luke, he will be our starting quarterback on Saturday night,” Beamer said in his weekly news conference Tuesday.
Doty, a sophomore, was 13 of 26 passing for 153 yards with one touchdown and one interception against Georgia, one of the best defensive teams in the nation, despite having returned to practice just two days earlier.
“Zeb gets hurt, and Luke just handled it fantastic,” Beamer said. “There’s no flinch, no bright eyes. It was, ‘All right. let’s go, what’s next?’ And he’s just very calm with all that going on out there and the noise and some adversity that we’re facing on offense. He’s really smart, very poised.”
Doty apparently had no setbacks from his preseason foot injury after his play against Georgia. Noland, 24, hurt his throwing hand against Georgia and needed stitches on the cut he suffered when his hand was stepped on.
Beamer said that Noland should get the stitches removed from his finger this week and he expects him to be available against UK if needed.
However, the Gamecocks will not have senior linebacker Sherrod Greene after he suffered a leg injury at Georgia.
“That’s a huge loss. It really is,” Beamer said. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. Leader of the defense who had just been so fantastic for us since January. Steady in his leadership, playmaking ability, and he was playing on a really high level.
“What a great kid that was playing really, really well for us, and I hate it for him. He’s had some injuries in the past and I hate this one crept up, but we’re still optimistic that we can potentially get him back before the end of the season. But obviously, he’ll be out this week.
