USC held its first scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday, but the concern for Gamecock fans were reports regarding a foot injury to starting quarterback Luke Doty. After recapping the workout inside Williams-Brice Stadium, head coach Shane Beamer stressed that the alarm bells were somewhat unwarranted.
“The big elephant in the room is Luke Doty and his situation”, Beamer said. “He got stepped on in practice yesterday. Continued on and ran the ball in for a touchdown. After practice his foot started bothering him. He got a ton of tests done this morning. Right now it’s a sprain in that foot. Thank God it’s not as serious as we thought. He’s questionable I would say for the first game right now. It is not season ending. He’s in great spirits.”
Beamer went on to voice his displeasure at the amount of what he called, “doom and gloom” being circulated on social media because of Doty’s injury.
“I saw and heard a lot about how the hopes of our season hinged on the results of an MRI. Frankly, that’s bull crap. We’ve got a helluva football team. Whether one guy is in or out, we’ve got a 117 other guys that are ready to step up no matter who’s out.”
After chastising the “outside narrative”, Beamer went on to discuss preseason camp and Saturday’s scrimmage. Some of the other interesting notes from his presser:
–Jason Brown took the majority of the 1st team snaps at quarterback in Doty’s absence. He also mentioned that Dakereon Joyner played some quarterback today and may play some during the season.
–On Doty’s return, Beamer said they’ll let him rest that foot for the next couple of weeks and come back and see where he is. Compared Doty’s situation to Connor Shaw’s injury during his career with the Gamecocks.
–Beamer discussed the progress that both Brown and Colton Gauthier have made at quarterback.
–He elaborated on defensive back Karon Prunty entering the transfer portal and how that will affect the USC secondary.
–Beamer also noted that he hopes running back Kevin Harris will return to practice next week, but that’s unclear.
–There were turnovers created during the scrimmage on Saturday and Beamer attributed that to defensive effort, not necessarily sloppy offensive play.
