What South Carolina's offense could look like with Noland as QB1

If there’s one play encapsulating the main difference between Zeb Noland and Luke Doty, it happened the first snap of the game in Athens.

Going up against now a top-ranked Georgia team, Noland pulled the ball back in a zone read and began sprinting toward the edge of the defense. He didn’t make it more than a yard before getting pulled down.

It’s a departure from a quarterback run offense around Luke Doty, and with Noland again the Gamecocks’ starter, his different skill set likely means skewing back to what the offense stylistically looked like the first two games (and one drive) of the season.

“We have to call plays that allow our offense to have success. With Luke that could be with his feet as well as his arm,” offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said. “But with Zeb it’s got to be with his mind, his maturity and the reps he’s gotten at this position and less with his feet and more with him being savvy."

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With Noland at the helm, the Gamecocks won both games to begin the year, including a 20-17 win over East Carolina and Noland leading the game-winning drive in a 21-20 win over Vanderbilt.

It was an offense predicated by more straight dropback passes instead of play action, which was more the case with Doty.

Of Noland’s 62 dropbacks this season, only 16 included play action and he’s exceled more without the fake run element in the offense.

On plays without play action (46 dropbacks), Noland is 24-for-40 and averaging 8.5 yards per attempt, five touchdowns, no interceptions and an NFL rating of 127.1.

Comparatively Noland is 8-for-16 and averaging 8.8 yards per attempt with a touchdown and interception (75 NFL rating).

Another interesting wrinkle now could be the re-emergence of the Gamecocks’ downfield passing attack, which hadn’t been as potent lately but could be with Noland.

This season Noland is money on deep balls going 14-for-23 on throws at least 10 yards downfield, averaging 15.4 yards per attempt with three touchdowns and a pick (NFL rating of 126.36).

On throws of 20 or more yards downfield he’s 4-for-6 for 167 yards and a touchdown.

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“He’s got really nice touch and the amount of snaps he’s taken, you have to utilize the play action game with him because he’s not a runner,” Satterfield said. “(Beamer’s) always pushing to attack downfield and that’s something Zeb’s really good at. Hopefully you’ll see some of those he was doing with Josh earlier in the season show up more.”

It stands to reason now Satterfield, Noland and the rest of the offensive staff have a better idea now at the end of October on the difference makers offensively compared to maybe early September.

If the offense reflects that—more touches for Jaheim Bell, Juju McDowell and others—then the offense could look different than it has the last few weeks when struggles permeated.

“You obviously see who the playmakers are more and more and who we can get the ball too,” Noland said.

“I told Satt before the two minute, just call it. He calls 7-on-7 some days in practice and I love it. Just call it and I got you. I told the guys before the drive to keep me clean and we rolled. There wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind we were going to roll as long as we kept getting completions. We practice that a lot. It showed.”

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What could also help the offense with Noland—which wasn’t there the first few weeks—is the Gamecocks’ run game, which has been better of late, turning in a 25.8 percent stop rate (runs of two yards or less) and a 6.5 percent stuff rate (runs of no gain or a loss), both season-bests, against Vanderbilt.

“I know it’s getting better because of how we’re attacking. We’re trying to attack the edges probably more than we were early on and making sure we’re getting the running backs in the right play they fit,” Satterfield said. “I think it’s naturally going to get better the more you practice it and play and the more you’re in the system. It’s trending in the right direction.”

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