South Carolina releases 'not a hype video' hype video before opener
The Shane Beamer era is about to begin in South Carolina. The Gamecocks finished last season at a disappointing 2-8, and Beamer is looking to turn things around in the program. South Carolina defeated No. 15 Auburn to get back to 2-2 last season, but it all went downhill from there. The team lost its final six games and did not score more than 18 points over the final three weeks of the season.
Most teams across college football release some sort of hype video ahead of their season opener. South Carolina seemingly did just that on Thursday. Unless they didn’t. The Gamecocks tweeted a video, but the first line within the video reads, “This is not a hype video.”
South Carolina begins its 2021 season with a home matchup against Eastern Illinois Saturday at 7 PM ET. The Gamecocks then travel to Greenville to take on East Carolina before hitting the road again to take on No. 5 Georgia in week three.
Former graduate assistant Zeb Noland will open the season at quarterback for South Carolina
With presumed starting quarterback Luke Doty sidelined with a foot injury, South Carolina was thin in the quarterback room. Zeb Noland began the season on South Carolina’s coaching staff as a graduate assistant. With Doty’s status uncertain, Beamer chose to add Noland to the active roster.
Now, Noland is atop South Carolina’s quarterback depth chart entering the season opener. Noland played three seasons at Iowa State before transferring to North Dakota State last season. He was expected to back up third-overall pick Trey Lance, but the FCS season being moved to the spring opened up a starting opportunity for Noland. He threw for 721 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions.
“In all seriousness, we named Zeb Noland our starting quarterback this week,” Beamer said Tuesday. “Obviously, he has Power Five experience. It wasn’t that long ago. He played in [an FCS] playoff game a few months ago/ He is very efficient getting us in and out of the huddle, commanding the offense, controlling what’s going on out there. He has a great understanding of what we’re doing offensively because he spent the entire summer — I know he told you guys — drawing up the playbook and coaching.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Zeb being able to go out there and operate at a high level on Saturday night,” Beamer continued. “We’re not asking him to go out there and win the football game, we’ll never ask our quarterbacks to do that. We’re going to ask him to get us in and out of the huddle cleanly and efficiently, without pre-snap penalties.”
Will South Carolina release a true hype video ahead of their season opener? Who knows. For now, they have a pretty cool ‘not a hype video’ hype video with an interesting storyline to follow on Saturday.