In college football, the exit of a team’s senior quarterback would typically send that team spiraling into a rebuilding mode, tempering expectations for the ensuing season. Even more so when that quarterback is the winningest quarterback in school history, and led the team to three consecutive 11-win seasons and cemented himself into that program’s history.
What I’m trying to say is that Connor Shaw was great at South Carolina.
Quarterbacks like Shaw only come around so often, so how are South Carolina fans supposed to react when No. 14 is nowhere to be found on Saturdays?
Dylan Thompson is the heir apparent to Shaw and will be QB1 come fall. While Thompson has certainly had his opportunities to start, he has been underneath the shadow of Shaw for years, patiently waiting his turn.
He comes into the season already with a pair of 300-yard performances under his belt as well as a victory against Clemson, which is one more victory than former Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd could muster in four chances against South Carolina in the Battle of the Palmetto State.
Significant playing time paired with a little bit of recent history suggests that the Gamecocks have little to worry about when it comes to Thompson assuming quarterback duties.
Of all the teams that finished in the top 25 of the final AP poll in 2012, four teams were led by senior quarterbacks. So that means that those teams had to find some way to make up for the production they were losing at the quarterback position.
Perhaps the most notable replacement from last year was Florida State’s Jameis Winston, who took over for EJ Manuel after the Buffalo Bills drafted the Seminoles senior. Winston had a historic year, throwing for over 4,000 yards en route to a national championship as well as a Heisman Trophy.
Certainly Winston’s case will prove to be an outlier as time moves on, but if that’s what a redshirt freshman can do, what can a fifth-year senior do?
Of the four top-25 teams that came into the 2013 season replacing senior quarterbacks, the only team that did not finish last season in the top 25 was Kansas State, which had the bountiful task of replacing Collin Klein who accounted for 87 touchdowns in his time in Manhattan, KS.
The Wildcats followed up an 11-2 campaign in 2012 with an 8-5 record in 2013 with junior Jake Waters under center.
Oklahoma went about replacing veteran Landry Jones (who succeeded Sam Bradford back in the day. Crazy, right?) with a combination of Trevor Knight and Blake Bell. The Sooners fared much better in 2013 than they did in 2012, finishing with an 11-2 record and a BCS victory after they trounced Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
The final team that had the task of replacing a senior quarterback last season was the Vanderbilt Commodores. Vandy watched as senior Jordan Rodgers left the program, and was replaced with Austyn Carta-Samuels who led the team to a respectable 9-4 record as well as a finish at No. 24.
With the weapons surrounding Thompson, he is equipped to lead the Gamecocks as far as Shaw did, and perhaps even further. Thompson and the South Carolina offense is loaded with talent at the receiver position with the likes of Damiere Byrd, Shaq Roland and Nick Jones. It also doesn’t hurt to have second-team All-SEC tailback Mike Davis in the backfield. Davis burst onto the scene last season, rushing for 1,183 yards, which is the fourth-highest single-season rushing total in school history.
With the offense loaded with potential, the Gamecocks will now look to Thompson to be the glue that holds everything together, much like Shaw was.