Muschamp talks Doty taking receiver reps

With rumors hitting social media about Luke Doty moving to wide receiver, Will Muschamp didn’t waste any time putting those thoughts to bed about the coaching staff making a permanent move away from quarterback.

“Luke is still a quarterback,” Muschamp said in his opening statement. “He’s also a guy that’s going to do some different things for us.”

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Doty committed to South Carolina and came on campus a four-star quarterback prospect, the No. 99 overall player in the country and the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the country.

Coming out of Myrtle Beach High School, Doty played quarter

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After enrolling in January for the start of spring practice and was met with rave reviews, so impressive athletically the Gamecock coaching staff wanted to get his skill set on the field as early as humanly possible.

“When we finished our first five days of spring—and I do this every year—I had our offensive coaches draft a team of the guys that participated in the first five practices. Draft your team, one through 11. Who are the best 11 guys on our offense?” Muschamp said.

“Luke Doty’s name kept showing up on the top 11. He’s sub-4.5. He competes his butt off and practices hard every single day. He’s extremely bright, extremely intelligent. He can contribute to our football team and help us win football games. He’s a really good athlete. He’s a guy that’s going to play multiple spots for us offensively.”

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Muschamp continued to reiterate Doty is a quarterback long term but his skill set is too good to not have him on the field.

With two other quarterbacks on the roster with a combined 30 games under their belt in Collin Hill and Ryan Hilinski, the path for him to see the field as a freshman would be easier at receiver.

“The end of the day, there’s only one quarterback on the field at a time,” Muschamp said. “He’s one of our best 11. The guy’s a great competitor, he brings tremendous speed to our team and catches the ball extremely well. We need to get him on the field.”

Muschamp said both he and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo called Doty about it and the Gamecocks’ freshman passer was all for it.

Doty just wants to play and play early.

“I said we’re not moving you, we just want to get you on the field,” Muschamp said. “He said, ‘Coach, I want to play and I want to win.’ That’s another selfless guy on our football team.”

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The Gamecocks’ are in the middle of their OTA workouts right now and will start preseason camp Aug. 17 and will have 25 practices in 40 days before the start of a 10-game, conference-only season starting Sept. 26.