Shane Beamer said at the beginning of spring practice he’d like to have a starter at quarterback after 15 practices and right now he does.

After the spring game Beamer said Luke Doty is the Gamecocks’ starter emerging from spring and will need to hold onto that spot as the team enters the summer portion of its offseason.

“Unless something totally changes from now until we watch the tape, Luke Doty’s our starting quarterback. Like every other position there will be competition throughout the summer,” Beamer said.

“By no means are we anointing Luke but Luke’s taken every rep with the first team all spring practice. I didn’t see anything today to make me think otherwise.”

Doty took every rep with the first team this spring, including every rep Sunday in the spring game, and by virtue of being the starter out of spring is ahead of backups Colten Gauthier, Jason Brown and Connor Jordan.

The second-year player was the incumbent starter coming out of last season and hasn’t done anything, Beamer said, to loosen his grip on that this spring.

Now he has to maintain that starter role over the course of the next few months and throughout camp before the start of the season.

“We’re competing, don’t get me wrong. Luke has to continue to get better, Luke has to progress over the summer, Luke has to have a great preseason training camp,” Beamer said. But as we come out of spring practice Luke’s our starting quarterback. Now it’s his job to continue to earn that an continue to compete before the Eastern Illinois game.”

Last season Doty started the second half of the Missouri game and was the starter the final two weeks of the season.

He went 43-for-71 for 405 yards (5.7 yards per attempt) with two touchdowns and three picks last season as a freshman.

The now second-year player doesn’t hold much stock in being named the starter right now, understanding there’s still months to go before the games begin counting for real.

“I mean I don’t think it means much right now. Coming out of spring ball, we had a lot of good things and I know there’s a lot of things for me personally to get better at to improve myself going into the summer and going into the fall once we get into camp,” Doty said.

“I don’t consider starting or not. It’s really about coming into work each and every day with the desire to get better and to make everybody around me better.”