Shane Beamer provides update on competition in South Carolina's QB room
One week into spring practices and competition is already starting to heat up. Especially in South Carolina’s quarterback room.
With the departure of Spencer Rattler, who opted to enter the NFL Draft following the 2023 season, the Gamecocks are looking for a new signal-caller.
“First of all, there’s just great competition in that room because you’ve got a bunch of guys that are all competing and they all believe they can be, and should be, the quarterback here at South Carolina,” said coach Shane Beamer. “So, there’s great competition, first of all, which I love. Then, I think there’s just an experience and a maturity aspect with those guys.”
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That maturity was found through bringing in a pair of veteran quarterbacks through the transfer portal. Those additions included Auburn transfer Robby Ashford and Oklahoma transfer Davis Beville.
While at Auburn, Ashford started much of the 2022 season for the Tigers. He threw for 1,613 yards, with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions, while also rushing for 710 yards and seven scores. His playing time decreased in 2023 once Hugh Freeze was named head coach of Auburn.
Beville didn’t see nearly the same amount of playing time as Ashford did while at Oklahoma. But he does have experience of playing in big games.
“Robby has started games in this conference. Now that Oklahoma and Texas are in the SEC, Davis Beville has started a game, an SEC team now versus an SEC team now. And when you play quarterback in that OU-Texas game, that game is wowzers when you talk about just electricity and intensity. They’re not like freshmen out of high school.”
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Through four practices, the two transfers are still getting acclimated to South Carolina’s playbook but they’re quickly making a good first impression.
“It’s new for them because they’re learning a new system and how we do things and things like that, but it’s not a situation where the bullets are flying out there and they don’t know how to respond. They’ve been in those situations before, which is great.”
While Beamer has said in the past not to look too deep into who’s getting first team reps this early in spring, it’s hard not to imagine that former four-star recruit LaNorris Sellers doesn’t have the leg up in the competition. A redshirt freshman, Sellers completed all four of his pass attempts for 86 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 51 yards on five carries, including a 36-yard touchdown.
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“That helps LaNorris, as well, just having those guys to compete with him. And LaNorris, I’m really pleased with the progress he’s made because there is no Spencer in that room anymore. There’s Luke (Doty), who obviously has played a lot of football and somebody he can lean on. But he can’t rely on Spencer, and LaNorris really since January has been great just as far as taking a leadership role vocally and continuing to try and do the things that you need your quarterback to do.”
Rounding out South Carolina’s quarterback room is true freshman Dante Reno who enrolled into the university in January. An Elite 11 finalist, Reno threw for 2,358 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior in high school. He added 232 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.
