‘Who the hell is number 25?’: How a Gamecocks graduate assistant became a USC QB
Travis Noland pulled his gray Ford F-150 into the parking lot beside Williams-Brice Stadium as the damp, midsummer South Carolina heat beat down on his dashboard.
Walking out from under the steel and concrete structure that houses nearly 80,000 fans on a given fall Saturday, Zeb Noland approached his father’s car.
Less than six months into his first collegiate coaching job as a graduate assistant at South Carolina, Zeb, a former Iowa State and North Dakota State quarterback, still had a year of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, head coach Shane Beamer and Marcus Satterfield began discussing the idea of giving Zeb another shot at playing in recent days.
Zeb wanted to run it by his dad first.
“I said, ‘Son, if it’s something you really want to do, then go for it. What have you got to lose?’ ” Travis recounted of last week’s conversation. “Not very many people after they play the last down are given an opportunity to do it again.”
Three days after Zeb and Travis traded words outside Williams-Brice, reporters were surprised to see a green No. 25-jerseyed quarterback tossing passes along the sidelines on the South Carolina practice fields.
“Who the hell is number 25?” one writer queried.
“Zeb Noland,” another answered. “He’s a graduate assistant.”
A football family in Georgia
There isn’t much, if any, precedent for Zeb’s shift from graduate assistant to player.
The closest comp might be Adam Sandler’s character, Bobby Boucher, a hard-hitting linebacker from the 1998 comedy film “The Waterboy.” Sandler, who plays Boucher, spurns his mother’s warnings about the dangers of football and blossoms from waterboy to cult-hero.
Zeb, unlike Boucher, has a football pedigree.
Travis has spent the better part of three decades coaching high school football in Georgia after concluding his playing days at Appalachian State. Currently the head coach at Oconee County High School in Watkinsville, Georgia, he’s twice been a state runner-up, owns three region titles and boasts a career record with nearly two wins for every one loss.
Zeb’s youngest brother, Ben, is a wide receiver at Northern State — a Division II school in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Middle brother Abe also played college football as an undersized offensive lineman at Western Carolina before injuries derailed his career.
And then there’s Zeb.
A three-star recruit in the 2016 class, Zeb helped his father’s Oconee County team to a 9-3 record and its first region title since 2004 his senior season. He also twice earned all-region honors and was named the 2015 Region 8-3A Player of the Year.
Initially committed to Appalachian State, Zeb had been offered by Matt Campbell’s staff at Toledo. When Campbell accepted the head coaching job at Iowa State, Zeb was offered by the Cyclones and flipped his pledge in December of his senior year. He’d arrive on campus in January.
“You could really tell he played really good high school football,” former Iowa State quarterback Kyle Starcevich told The State. “He knew his stuff and he came in at a different level than most freshmen would.”
Success as a Cyclone, taking on Oklahoma
Stepping to the front of the team meeting room in the Long Family Football Operations Center, Beamer flipped on an old highlight reel from the Sept. 15, 2018 Iowa State-Oklahoma game.
Beamer, then an assistant under OU head coach Lincoln Riley, patrolled the Sooners’ sidelines that afternoon. Zeb served as the starting quarterback for the Cyclones.
“That (Oklahoma) squad that we had there in 2018 rolled into Ames, Iowa and had a shootout against Zeb Noland and the Iowa State Cyclones,” Beamer recounted Tuesday.
Traveling for games was already difficult given Travis’ coaching responsibilities in the fall. The distance between Watkinsville and Ames made it even less plausible.
While Zeb’s mother, Julie, looked on from the stands that afternoon, Travis watched on ABC back home in Georgia. Seated on his couch, a pregame shot of Zeb’s eyes caught his attention.
Travis can’t explain the exact look. He just knew. It came from watching Zeb begin quarterbacking at around 9 years old. It arose from having spent 24 years on the sidelines in the Peach State.
Zeb was locked in.
“He’s fixing to play pretty good,” Travis muttered. “... I can see it in his eyes.”
Dueling against future Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick Kyler Murray, Zeb completed 25 of 36 passes. His 360 yards set a career high.
While Murray and the Oklahoma offense provided just enough spark to eke out a 10-point win, Zeb made a mark — one Beamer still recalls vividly.
“I did my best,” Zeb said after the game according to the Des Moines Register. “I think I did good. I did the best I could to give my team the best opportunity to win.”
‘Oh s—, this dude is just as good.’
A torn left ACL during fall camp his freshman year initially slowed Zeb’s progression in Ames, but the Oklahoma game two years later gave a glimpse into what he could be at the college level.
After Iowa State starter Kyle Kempt was injured and then-freshman Brock Purdy — who’s now entering his fourth year as QB1 at Iowa State — wrestled away the starting job, Zeb transferred to North Dakota State.
Each day Travis and Zeb spent time on the phone. They’d break down coverages and dissect the NDSU playbook.
In the Bison’s quarterback meetings, Zeb attacked studying pass concepts and route combinations with ease. He had always studied at a breakneck pace.
During his time at Iowa State, Zeb raced to wrap his mind around the Cyclones’ offense — so much so that coaches said he’d sometimes forget to let the game come to him in the process.
“He was trying to eat the elephant in four bites,” former Iowa State passing game coordinator Jim Hofher quipped. “But that’s his nature: competitive and driven and loves the game.”
Zeb impressed in his early days on campus. His mind was sharp. His spiral was tight. He could take a hit.
The only problem? His arrival in Fargo coincided with future No. 3 NFL Draft overall pick Trey Lance.
“The first throwing session (when I got to campus) I’m seeing Trey Lance throw the ball and I’m like, ‘Oh s—, this guy is pretty good,’ ” former NDSU quarterback Logan Graetz told The State. “And then Zeb was up there and I was like ‘Oh s—, this dude is just as good.
“That’s the thing that people don’t understand,” Graetz continued. “Trey Lance is super good — like really good — but Zeb was just as talented.”
Backing up Lance for the 2019 season before he departed for the NFL, Zeb entered the 2020 spring season as the Bison’s starter after the FCS shifted its campaign from the fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zeb started seven games for NDSU this past spring, completing 51 of 100 passes for 721 yards and five touchdowns in the Bison’s run heavy-scheme.
The numbers weren’t quite there, but that fiery attitude that burned right beneath his mature exterior at Iowa State returned.
Before games, Zeb and the Bison’s fullbacks would headbutt one another as a motivational practice. Former NDSU quarterback Noah Sanders joked he tried his best to avoid them pregame.
“I don’t think you can get more fiery (than Zeb),” Sanders said through a laugh. “Sometimes he worried me a little bit. He’s definitely not a guy that’s going to take any crap, that’s for sure.”
As the year trickled toward its end, coaches in Fargo sided with sophomore quarterback Cam Miller in FCS playoff games against South Dakota State and Sam Houston State.
With an opportunity to join Beamer’s staff at South Carolina as a graduate assistant on tap, Zeb decided against returning for one more season at NDSU.
“When a guy comes in from a Power Five (program) who’s played, started, and for the buy-in we’ve gotten from Zeb over the last two years, I could never have asked what we’ve gotten from him,” NDSU head coach Matt Entz said in April per a local television station. “You would think he’s been here all five years.”
From North Dakota to Columbia, South Carolina
Racing into the interview room at the Long Family Football Operations Center on Tuesday, Beamer surprised reporters with an unexpected press conference to explain Zeb’s addition.
“This is not a situation where we were desperate for quarterbacks,” he said. “It’s not like I walked around the corner to the Budweiser distributorship and went to the loading dock and asked if any of those guys play high school quarterback; or went down to Five Points and was at a bar last night seeing if anybody was a high school quarterback. We’re not in that situation.”
Travis said his son has long wanted to get into coaching. South Carolina presented exactly that opportunity.
Zeb has spent the bulk of his time directing wideouts alongside receivers coach Justin Stepp since arriving in Columbia. He also also occasionally popped in and out of Satterfield’s quarterback meetings.
Among his other varying responsibilities, Zeb was tasked with drawing up Satterfield’s play designs in the online playbooks at South Carolina’s football facility.
“He already knows our offense and he’s been around the block a time or two,” Satterfield said Thursday. “He’s got the experience and he’s calloused up.”
“There’s a reason that his first gig as a college coach is in the SEC,” Sanders added. “The guy knows his stuff.”
With starting quarterback Luke Doty sidelined due to a sprained foot, the Gamecocks are in potential need of a new starter ahead of the Sept. 4 season opener against Eastern Illinois. FCS transfer Jason Brown has been in the mix. So have freshman Colten Gauthier and walk-on Connor Jordan.
Tuesday, Zeb joined that group.
“I told Zeb and I told the quarterbacks that he’s going to come in here and he’s going to compete like everyone else,” Beamer said. “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.”
Closing up the conversation with his father last Saturday, Zeb kept the chat short. He decided he’d suit up for one more season.
Travis revved the F-150’s engine, circled out of the lot and began the two-and-a-half hour trip back to Watkinsville — a far shorter commute than to Ames or Fargo.
Zeb headed off for a film session. This time, though, he wasn’t producing cut ups for South Carolina’s other quarterbacks. This session would be to his own benefit.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Who the hell is number 25?’: How a Gamecocks graduate assistant became a USC QB."
