Like it was straight out of a movie, Zeb Noland came off the bench to lead South Carolina down the field to score the winning touchdown against Vanderbilt.

"It's one of those moments you dream of as a kid, you know you always think about it," Noland said. "It's a surreal feeling, I think I've told you guys before, I never thought I'd put on the pads again and never get the opportunity to do this again and I came back just because I love these guys, I truly love every one of them.

After watching from the sidelines the last four games with injury then as backup to Luke Doty, he was coming off essentially a month without any game reps. It didn't matter, finishing the drive 5-for-8 and averaging 9.4 yards per attempt.

"I mean realistically, and I mean this in a good way, I'm ready whenever. I was a backup for a really long time so I've always had to be ready to go," Noland said. "You never know when your number is going to get called, I know it's cliche but I truly take that to heart because I wanna be there and I don't wanna let anybody down."

Shane Beamer said the decision to put Noland in came the series before Luke Doty threw his second interception of the day. Beamer said that the foot Doty injured in fall camp was bothering him late in the game, playing a major role in the decision.

"We just needed a spark to finish some drives," Beamer said. "Right after that last interception we just knew if we're gonna go win the game we were going to give Zeb an opportunity, and we needed a healthy quarterback in there as well."

Noland was given the reigns to the offense with 75 yards to go and 96 seconds to do it . Prior to the first snap he took he told the offensive line to keep their heads up and smile.

""I told them, 'Keep me clean, I got you.' That's what I told them, and let's roll," Noland said.

His second pass of the series was a 29-yard dime to Nick Muse that got the Gamecocks to the Vandy 45 yard line. Two plays later Noland did it again, this time finding Josh Vann for a 15 yard completion that landed the offense at the Vandy 30 yard line.

The South Carolina coaching staff has talked about feeding the hot hand and Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield continued to do just that.

"I told Satt, we talked about what plays I liked, there's probably 15, 16 pays he went down a list on it and I said just call any of em' and we'll go," Noland said.

The very next play was another completion for Noland who found Dakereon Joyner for a 21 yard completion that put the Gamecocks within striking distance from the Vanderbilt nine yard line.

Two plays later Noland found Xavier Legette in the back of the end zone for a nine yard touchdown pass to tie the game and set up a Parker White extra point to take the lead with 35 seconds left in the game.

South Carolina ran eight plays on the final drive, and all of them were passes from Noland. He finished the drive 5-for-8 with 75 passing yards.

The pass to Legette was a familiar one, Noland said they'd run it in practice multiple times in fall camp.

"Xavier works hard every single day, during fall camp he made great plays," Noland said. "Actually the play we scored on I threw a touchdown to him in practice to him on the same exact thing just it came from the other side."

The touchdown was Noland's sixth of the season, putting him back in the lead for most passing touchdowns on the team.

"I'm in my whatever year of playing and you still dream of those moments," Noland said. "Even at practice every day you think about making those throws and just doing your job and that's what it came down to."

Looking forward the Gamecocks find themselves in an interesting quarterback situation once again. Is Doty 100 percent healthy? Do you start Noland next week against Texas A&M?

Beamer didn't directly say yes or no to the question of if Noland would be the starter going forward, and rightfully so.

"We'll see," Beamer said. "Like every game, we'll go back and look at the video of the game but Luke did a lot of good stuff and Zeb obviously came in and did an amazing job as well."

As for what Noland can go he made it simple, help his teammate grown and develop.

"The only thing I can do is go be a good teammate and help Luke be ready every single week no matter who we're playing," Noland said. "No game's bigger than the next, I spent just as much time up there as I did when I was a starter and there's not a day goes by where we watch it all together."

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