With Luke Doty going down with a mid foot sprain the South Carolina football team have called on graduate assistant Zeb Noland to help with the new found depth issue at the quarterback position.

Noland, who got to campus after spring practice after a two-year career at North Dakota State, has served as a graduate assistant helping out wide receiver coach Justin Stepp before heading onto the active roster with one year of eligibility remaining.

Beamer said that he'd been discussing the possibility of Noland playing for a while with him and that he wanted to him to be a resource to the young guys in the quarterback room.

"I think he's a great resource for our young quarterbacks right now," Beamer said in a media availability Tuesday afternoon, "he's played a lot more football games as a starting QB then probably all of them combined at the college level."

Noland played two seasons at Iowa State where he played in nine total games, throwing for a total of 1,255 yards, six touchdown and two interceptions before transferring to North Dakota State where he failed to beat out Trey Lance for the starting job.

Despite being behind Lance, Noland played in 15 games during his two seasons for the Bison and threw a total of 841 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions.

But while the head coach may have known of his past, some of the players were unaware of Noland players history.

"I didn't really know him at all, never really recognized the name," quarterback Connor Jordan said. "I actually just figured out that he played at Iowa State before NDSU this morning."

Offensive linemen Eric Douglas was in the same boat.

"Honestly, I didn't even know- somebody told me he played QB but I didn't know he played at Iowa State and at North Dakota State," Douglas said.

Beamer held a meeting with the team this morning to inform them of his decision to bring Noland in as a player, part of that meeting was playing Nolands highlights.

Douglas said that we was wowed by the highlights Beamer showed and Jordan added that Noland "can spin it."

While Noland is effectively being added to the roster to provide some depth at the quarterback position, he's also taking on a veteran leadership role.

Luke Doty and Noland hit it off after they first met and Doty said that Noland has become a great mentor for him, saying he's "someone to look up to and kind model myself after-the kind of person and leader he is."

Dakereon Joyner, who worked with Noland at the wide receive position, echoed the sentiment saying that Noland is a, "really great guy, really smart guy that has some experience."

Beamer made it clear however, that the purpose of the addition of Noland is also to add competition to the quarterback position.

"At the end of the day one of the core values of this program is competition and too continue to increase the competition on this team and in the QB room as well and then have a chance to make the team better," Beamer said.

Beamer made it clear to Noland and the other quarterbacks that "nothing is promised" and that Noland is "going to come here and 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.

Jason Brown said that Noland would not only help the current quarterbacks, but that they would also help Noland get back up to speed saying, "we're just gonna all push each other each every day wether its in the weight room, in the film room or out on the field. We're gonna help each other that way as a whole we can be the best QB room that we can be."

The team is embracing the added sense of competition though, beamer said that the team has totally "wrapped their arms around him and welcomed him."

"We're really excited to have him," Doty said. "He's going to be awesome for us."

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