QB Luke Doty upbeat on injury outlook as Gamecocks’ season opener nears
Luke Doty scooted into the interview room in the Long Family Football Operations Center on Tuesday with an ear-to-ear grin.
Moving around the building on the scooter he recently decked out with a bell and a cast on his left foot, Doty has largely remained in good spirits since a lineman stepped on his foot during practice Friday afternoon.
“I’m definitely not rushing anything,” he said Tuesday. “Every day I’m just just trying to do something to get healthy, to get back in shape. Obviously I’m in a boot and rolling around on a scooter, but that won’t be for long.”
Heading into the heart of fall camp, Doty had secured the starting quarterback job just a few weeks shy of the season opener against Eastern Illinois on Sept. 4. But now dealing with what he and head coach Shane Beamer said is as a sprain in his left foot, it’s unclear whether he’ll get the chance to start that game at all.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the Myrtle Beach High School product remained in largely positive spirits. It comes with his nature. Doty joked and laughed his way through the press conference. He added snippets of focus and determination in his answers.
Freshman quarterback Colten Gauthier later told media members Doty went into the quarterback room ahead of Saturday’s scrimmage with a simple message: “Hey, we’re going to smile today. I’m going to be pissed off if we’re not smiling. We get a chance to go play in (Williams-Brice Stadium).”
“That’s our brother, Luke,” Gauthier said. “The team really felt it (when he was injured). I mean you could feel it in team meetings when he got hurt.”
Doty said Tuesday the expectation is he’ll be on the scooter for a few more days before starting full-go into rehab work.
In the meantime, FCS transfer Jason Brown took reps with the first team-offense on Tuesday. Walk-on Connor Jordan repped with the second team during the portion of practice open to reporters.
Gauthier was also out at practice Tuesday, but he did not take any reps during the team session that occurred during media viewing.
“It’s been hectic,” Brown said when asked about what the past week or so has been like. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on here every day. We’re here for a long time every single day ... and it’s just non-stop football. This isn’t for everybody. You’ve got to love football to be able to do this and I do.”
That Doty has taken so positively to his diagnosis comes on the heels of Beamer’s recent rant on the “doom and gloom” that surrounded the program when its starting quarterback went down.
Talking with reporters on Saturday, Beamer maligned those who felt as though the season might be over with Doty potentially out for the foreseeable future and lauded the other 117 players on the roster as people who could pick up the slack.
“It’s not doom and gloom right now,” Beamer said. “It’s a great opportunity for everybody else.”
Beamer, to his credit, has stayed largely positive after inheriting a team that has won just six games over the past two seasons. Doty has mimicked that same attitude, gusto and belief in Beamer and his staff’s process.
Wheeling out of the meeting room following his press conference on Tuesday, Doty scooted over top of a loose camera wire forcing him to bounce a bit. “Oh shoot,” he exclaimed as he laughed off the briefly bumpy ride as a chorus of chuckles scattered around the room.
The next few weeks could be bumpy at quarterback. So much so former graduate assistant Zeb Noland — who still has a year of eligibility remaining after stops at Iowa State and North Dakota State — was added to the roster this week.
Bumps aside, Doty is taking to the situation in stride and with a smile on his face. He’ll be back soon enough, he assured. When that is, though, remains to be seen.
“Obviously it’s not the best situation,” Doty conceded. “It’s not an ideal situation, but, like I said, it’s football. Stuff like this happens. You get stepped on, you get injured, and you just got to kind of take it for what it is.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 3:37 PM with the headline "QB Luke Doty upbeat on injury outlook as Gamecocks’ season opener nears."
