From the time Luke Doty was injured to the time he jogged onto the field against Georgia he had 11 full practice snaps under his belt.

Since then he’s played 110 snaps, including 51 against Kentucky, in what’s been a hard-to-judge start for the sophomore quarterback.

The Gamecocks are winless in the games he’s played with limited offensive success, but despite it the Gamecocks think Doty’s playing well enough coming off his injury.

“I thought he played well enough for us to win the game. Was he John Elway? No. But I wasn’t Bill Walsh,” Marcus Satterfield said. “He threw the ball well and put the ball in places where maybe they weren’t always caught on certain a very high pressure down. I think the guys will make the plays for him moving forward but thought he played well enough to win the game for sure.”

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Since being thrust into the starting role at Georgia, Doty is 30-for-51 and averaging 6.1 yards per pass attempt with two scores, a pick and a NFL passer rating of 81.41.

Where he’s been at his best so far this season is on deeper throws with a passer rating of 103.3 on throws 20 yards or more downfield and a 155.8 one on throws between 10 and 19 yards.

“He was locked in and made some great decisions,” Satterfield said. “He had good tempo throughout the game. I was proud of him. Still, for him to be performing like he is after practicing his first full week after Georgia is really cool to watch.”

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The dynamic of the offense missing at the moment which was expected with Doty has been the quarterback run game with the Gamecocks only using a few designed quarterback runs or sprint outs.

It’s harder, obviously, as Doty comes back from a foot sprain that kept him out for the better part of a month to have some of those more effective quarterback runs but those will continue as he gets further out from his injury.

“He’s continuing to get better and better, continuing to get healthy. Is he running as well as he did before he got hurt? Probably not. Is he that far off? No. As he continues to feel better we’ll continue to open up stuff,” Shane Beamer said.

“We don’t feel necessarily limited but I don’t think it’s realistic to say he’s 100 percent Luke Doty. He’s dang close to it and well enough to play. I’m glad he’s out there battling and he is as tough as he is.”

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The Gamecocks will say they don’t feel limited with Doty in the game and still somewhat hampered on his foot, but as he gets closer to and stays at 100 percent will certainly allow more in the run game and potentially allow Satterfield to open the playbook up more than it has the first few weeks.

“As he gets stronger and stronger he can do more with his legs,” Satterfield said. “He’s trying like heck to churn it out and get every yard he could. Is he as fast as he was before his injury? No. But he’s working to get back to that point. He’s progressing and on schedule. The toughness he’s been playing with the last two weeks on that injury has been impressive to watch. His role with his lower body will grow as he gets more healthy.”

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