What Shane Beamer sees in Gamecocks QB room, his expectations for who returns
The quarterbacks Shane Beamer has seen up close of late, they’ve been pretty special.
In 2017, he saw Jake Fromm when he led Georgia to the edge of a national title as a freshman. Then at Oklahoma he was part of an offense that featured Kyler Murray (Heisman winner), Jalen Hurts (Heisman finalist) and Spencer Rattler (currently 12th nationally in passer rating).
And now he inherits a QB room with a pair of Elite 11 talents, but also some questions about who will be there next year.
“I’ve talked to all of those guys and reached out to all of them and had good conversations with them,” Beamer said Thursday in an interview on the JB and Goldwater show. “It’s still early. They are finishing out 2020. I’m looking forward to getting there and visiting with them. We’ll see how things go forward. Certainly, we want them all back, but all of those guys have to make decisions that are best for them and their families and going forward with what they think is best. We’ll see what happens.”
Collin Hill can come back for a sixth year in college, but he was benched this past season after starting the first eight games. Luke Doty took over, and showed a blend of spark and growing pains. Ryan Hilinski was a starting in 2019 as a true freshman, but got no work down the stretch under Mike Bobo despite the season being lost.
Bobo’s situation also might factor in a bit. More signs are pointing to the former Georgia coordinator getting to stick around. Hill was a player he brought in. Hilinski never got on the field in his offense, despite a week where the job was “opened” up in the middle of the season.
The team also added three-star quarterback Colten Gauthier as a signee, and could look to the transfer portal for help if numbers get low.
Hill threw for more than 1,400 yards last season, but was sacked often and didn’t have much help in terms of weapons. Doty had 405 yards on 71 passes and ran for 91 yards. Hilinski threw only six passes after throwing 406 the year before. He posted 2,357 yards and 11 touchdowns as a true freshman despite lacking much support.
But ahead, there’s weeks of bowl preps with Bobo still in an interim role and then a long offseason, which could bring a few different things.
“I know they are all great young men and really good football players,” Beamer said. “We would love to have them in the program, but if it comes to a point where they decide that moving on and not being at South Carolina is the best thing for them then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I haven’t been given any indications from those guys that that’s the route that they are going to go.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 7:16 PM with the headline "What Shane Beamer sees in Gamecocks QB room, his expectations for who returns."
