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Grad assistant Zeb Noland competing for South Carolina quarterback job

 Chris Lee   in Football

Zeb Noland photo courtesy of North Dakota State athletics.

South Carolina's starting quarterback competition took an unexpected twist when FootballScoop.com's Zach Barnett reported on Tuesday that graduate assistant Zeb Noland is now participating in August practices with the Gamecocks

As we referenced yesterday, an injury to Luke Doty has put his availability in doubt for Carolina's opener with Eastern Illinois. That apparently left the quarterback battle between St. Francis transfer Jason Brown and true freshman Colten Gauthier.

"He's going to compete like everyone else," coach Shane Beamer told the Charlotte Observer this week. "If he deserves the opportunity to play and can help us win football games, he will. And if he can’t, he won’t.”

Noland, a Georgia native, was 60-for-114 passing for 841 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions between 2019-2020 at North Dakota State. While that's not much of a résumé, Noland also played behind Trey Lance, who was the third pick in this spring's NFL Draft.

Noland, now 24, signed with Iowa State out of high school in 2016 and was 36-of-66 for 533 yards and two touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. That included a 263-yard passing performance against Oklahoma State after entering the game in the second quarter.

Noland was rated as a two-star prospect by Rivals out of Oconee High.