Coming out of the bye week and entering Florida preparations, the Gamecocks are still unclear as to who will be the starting quarterback Saturday.

It will come down to two passers in last game’s starter Zeb Noland, coming off a knee surgery, and backup Jason Brown with Shane Beamer saying on Sunday the staff will have a better idea as the week progresses.

“Zeb was out there and very limiting in what you could imagine less than a week out of surgery but we’re still optimistic about his availability this Saturday,” Beamer said. “If not, we have full confidence in Jason brown and Colten and Connor Jordan to be able to go out there and operate efficiently.”

Noland had what South Carolina dubbed a minor procedure on a torn meniscus during the bye week with the hope he’ll be able to play when the Gators come to down.

The graduate student has started five games this year, averaging 7.6 yards per pass attempt, completing 58 percent of his passes with six touchdowns to one interception.

If he can’t go it’ll be Brown, who’s logged snaps in three games, going 12-for-20 with 129 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) with a touchdown and two interceptions.

The plan, Beamer said, is to get both quarterbacks first team reps if Noland is healthy enough to practice when the team reconvenes Tuesday morning.

“I’m not going to sit here and say either one is the starter as we sit here. We want to get into the week and see how these guys practice and compete and how they prepare. We have confidence in both of them,” Beamer said.

“We’ll see how Zeb’s health is on Tuesday morning as we go into practice. We have to do a good job of getting both those guys ready to play and then getting Colten ready to play as well if Zeb’s not 100 percent.”

South Carolina has Monday off and will practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before a Friday walk-through and the game Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET).

Beamer said he’d love to have an idea of who’s starting before then and let things progress from there as the week of practice goes on.

“I’m a believer that your quarterback needs to be able to practice during the week. It’s hard to not do anything during practice during the week and show up on Saturday and play when you haven’t gotten reps,” Beamer said.

“Ideally Zeb would be able to do something Tuesday when we get back on the practice field and progress as the week goes. Both guys are older guys and have confidence in both of them regardless of how much time they get. Ideally I’d like to be able to say this guy’s our starter and go with it and everyone rally around that guy.”

Beamer’s next scheduled media availability is his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

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