Gamecocks grad assistant trades in whistle for helmet and pads

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer received a first-hand view of what Zeb Noland can do with a football when the former Iowa State quarterback passed for 360 yards and two touchdowns in a shootout against Oklahoma when Beamer was an assistant there.

On Tuesday, Beamer got an even closer look at Noland when he suited up to practice with the Gamecocks' quarterbacks.

Noland, who played quarterback at both Iowa State and North Dakota State, originally joined the South Carolina program as a graduate assistant in June.

But with the Gamecocks looking to add depth to their quarterback room and Noland still having an extra season of eligibility due to COVID, Noland traded in his whistle for a helmets and pads this week.

"One of the core values of this program is competition," Beamer said Tuesday. "And this is an opportunity to continue to increase the competition on this team and in the quarterback room as well and then have a chance to make the team better. I think he's a great resource for our young quarterbacks right now. He's played in a lot more football games as a starting quarterback than probably all of them combined at the college level."

A Watkinsville, Ga. native, Noland signed with Iowa State out of Oconee County High and spent four seasons there before transferring to North Dakota State where he backed up first-round draft pick Trey Lance before starting in the spring.

At ISU, Noland completed 106 of 176 passses for 1,255 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions in his career.

This spring, Noland went 51-for-100 with five touchdowns and six interceptions for NDSU.

College teams typically carry five, six or seven quarterbacks, including walk-ons, on the roster. With Luke Doty missing practice time, Beamer and the staff didn't want to put their quarterbacks in a position to wear out their arms in practice.

With Noland on staff and available, it was a move that just made sense. Not out of desperation but to help provide additional depth to the QB room, especially in practice where the Gamecocks frequently work two full separate units at the same time.

Beamer also pointed out that Noland has recent experience after playing a spring season at NDSU and that he has more college experience than the rest of the QBs combined.

It's a move he says they'd been considering since even before the Doty injury.

"It's not like I walked around the corner to the Budweiser distributorship and went to the loading dock and saw and asked if any of those guys played high school quarterback or went down to Five Points and was at a bar last night seeing if anybody was a high school quarterback," Beamer said. "We're not in that situation. We've got somebody here on our team that can help us and increase the competition in the quarterback room."

Before officially making the move, Beamer wanted to make sure it wasn't something that would cause ripples within the team to add a coach to a roster of guys who had been working all offseason for their opportunities to play.

After okaying the idea will multiple team leaders, Beamer announced the news to the team Tuesday morning with the group welcoming him with open arms.

"Zeb's awesome," Doty said. "From the moment he got here, we kind of create a bond right then and there. He's been awesome for me just to have an older guy in the room and in the building that's been around the block and been in a lot of great situations, not only in football but in life as well.

"He's been a great mentor to me, somebody to look up to and kind of model myself after the kind of person and leader that he is. He's going to bring a lot of that to the quarterback room. We're really excited to have him in there and he's going to be awesome for us."

Tuesday's news of Noland working with the team creates an obvious question: is the coach-turned-player a legitimate option for the Gamecocks on the game field or just someone who will take practice reps?

"Nothing has been promised to anyone," Beamer said. "I told Zeb, I told the quarterbacks, that he's going to come in here and he's going to compete like everyone else. And if he deserves the opportunity to play and can help us win football games, he will and if he can't, he won't. And that's what I've told him. That's what I've told the quarterbacks."

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