Coach Bryan McClendon talks Dakereon Joyner and speculation of position change
March 20, 2019
South Carolina offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon has experience seeing a quarterback try to transition to a different position.
After the first spring that Will Muschamp’s staff was on campus, McClendon got quarterback Lorenzo Nunez in his wide receiver room. The athletic 6-foot-3 passer spent the season redshirting and departed soon after.
He’s now in charge of an offense that includes quarterback Dakereon Joyner, a dynamic dual-threat passer whose name has been floated outside the program as a possible position change candidate. Does he have the skills to possibly make that transition?
“I don’t know,” McClendon said. “Right now, we just want him to be the best quarterback he can be. So if it got to that point, then maybe. He has the tools to do different things. But right now we just want him to be the best quarterback he can be.”
Joyner is in the midst of a battle for the backup spot behind Jake Bentley. He managed to carve out the No. 3 spot last year behind veteran Michael Scarnecchia, and now he’s going against Jay Urich and four-star Ryan Hilinski to back up Bentley, a senior.
At 6-foot-1, 208 pounds, Joyner showed off his mobility at Fort Dorchester High School and, at points, when he’s played in college. He’s quick enough that he was used as a scout team receiver before the bowl game, running the jet sweeps that dynamic playmaker Olamide Zaccheaus did in Virginia’s offense.
At that size, he could project a move to receiver, safety or even running back possibly.
Back in 2016, McClendon made the point that quarterback speed is often a little different from wide receiver speed. At the time he’d just started working with Nunez, who played a good bit of quarterback his first year at Southeastern Louisiana State. Last season, Nunez threw seven passes, caught 15 and ran 39 times.
But any question of a move is being put to the side. Joyner is a quarterback, one who has improved a good bit since he was an early enrollee last season.
“He’s looking a lot better,” McClendon said. “Just a lot more comfortable with everything that he’s doing.
“He’s having a pretty good spring.”
March 20, 2019
South Carolina offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon has experience seeing a quarterback try to transition to a different position.
After the first spring that Will Muschamp’s staff was on campus, McClendon got quarterback Lorenzo Nunez in his wide receiver room. The athletic 6-foot-3 passer spent the season redshirting and departed soon after.
He’s now in charge of an offense that includes quarterback Dakereon Joyner, a dynamic dual-threat passer whose name has been floated outside the program as a possible position change candidate. Does he have the skills to possibly make that transition?
“I don’t know,” McClendon said. “Right now, we just want him to be the best quarterback he can be. So if it got to that point, then maybe. He has the tools to do different things. But right now we just want him to be the best quarterback he can be.”
Joyner is in the midst of a battle for the backup spot behind Jake Bentley. He managed to carve out the No. 3 spot last year behind veteran Michael Scarnecchia, and now he’s going against Jay Urich and four-star Ryan Hilinski to back up Bentley, a senior.
At 6-foot-1, 208 pounds, Joyner showed off his mobility at Fort Dorchester High School and, at points, when he’s played in college. He’s quick enough that he was used as a scout team receiver before the bowl game, running the jet sweeps that dynamic playmaker Olamide Zaccheaus did in Virginia’s offense.
At that size, he could project a move to receiver, safety or even running back possibly.
Back in 2016, McClendon made the point that quarterback speed is often a little different from wide receiver speed. At the time he’d just started working with Nunez, who played a good bit of quarterback his first year at Southeastern Louisiana State. Last season, Nunez threw seven passes, caught 15 and ran 39 times.
But any question of a move is being put to the side. Joyner is a quarterback, one who has improved a good bit since he was an early enrollee last season.
“He’s looking a lot better,” McClendon said. “Just a lot more comfortable with everything that he’s doing.
“He’s having a pretty good spring.”
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