Luke Doty is 'strictly a quarterback' as fall camp begins

As South Carolina begins fall camp on Friday, Luke Doty will be returning to the position he began his college career at, now on a full-time basis. Head coach Shane Beamer said Doty “is strictly a quarterback” and deemed him to be the backup to LaNorris Sellers as of right now.

“Luke’s got the most experience,” Beamer said. “If we played Virginia Tech tomorrow, and LaNorris had to come out of the game for a play, Luke will be the next quarterback in the game as we stand here today.”

This means Doty won’t be spending much time, if any, at wide receiver, according to Beamer. Though he’ll still work some with special teams and in the return game. He’ll be competing alongside Cutter Woods and Air Noland to officially claim the backup role to Sellers in camp.

“He’s not doing anything with wide receiver right now. Could he? Absolutely. He’s smart enough, and he knows the offense,” Beamer said. “We could put him out there and certainly do some things with him from a receiver standpoint, but he’s working at quarterback right now.”

Doty hasn’t thrown a pass in a game since 2023. He hasn’t focused solely on quarterback since 2022, when he was the backup to Spencer Rattler. But he’s been working under center since the spring and even put up strong numbers in the team’s spring game in mid-April.

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The sixth-year senior went 10-for-12 passing for 85 yards and a touchdown. He led a two-minute drive towards the end of the first half that was capped off by a 16-yard touchdown pass to Malik Clark. It was impressive enough for this to become a serious possibility going into camp.

“He did a really good job of making good decisions,” offensive coordinator Mike Shula said. “He had really good mechanics, and he had good poise with that little two-minute drive in the spring game. So he’s done a really good job.”

It’s not just what Doty has done on the field that has helped him get back to this point. Another reason why he’s moving back to quarterback is due to he’s the oldest in the room and able to help the younger guys.

“Just being able to help them and be there for LaNorris to support him and make him better, push him to get better,” Doty said. “I think that was kind of when we kind of made the decision, like, ‘Hey, we’re going to, we’re going to start working more here.’ I’m just excited to get to do it some more in the fall.”

Dating back to 2020, Doty’s first season with the Gamecocks, he’s made six starts at quarterback and three at receiver. In his career, he’s thrown for 1,543 yards with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Coming out of high school, Doty was a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 7 quarterback in the country in the Class of 2020 by On3. While he hasn’t seen meaningful snaps at the position in some time, he described it as riding a bike and something that “you never really lose.”

“You kind of always know how to do it,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a little bit of rust that has to be knocked off. But I think I’ve done that. I feel like I had a good spring ball, great summer, and just ready to get back rolling tomorrow.”

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