Myrtle Beach QB Luke Doty meets Dan Werner
March 12, 2018
Nice to meet you
Earlier this month, South Carolina hosted 2020 quarterback Luke Doty (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) for the first time since the Gamecocks hired new quarterbacks coach Dan Werner. Doty called Werner before the visit to introduce himself to the first-year South Carolina assistant.
They met face-to-face a couple of days later.
“He’s just a great guy. He expects a lot out of the quarterbacks, but he’s also understanding and coaches them to do what he thinks that they can do,” Doty said. “I think that’s a great way to be.”
South Carolina offered Doty (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) last fall while Kurt Roper was still running the team’s offense and coaching the quarterbacks. The most recent trip to Columbia afforded Doty a shot to see the Gamecocks offense with Bryan McClendon at the helm.
“We sat in a couple of meetings and the coaches there, the intensity there is just so high and those coaches expect so much out of the guys and those guys live up to the standards that they set,” Doty said. “That’s definitely a great environment.”
Growing list of suitors
Doty’s offer sheet has added a few new lines in 2018: Miami, Wake Forest, Temple, Louisville, Virginia Tech and East Carolina. North Carolina and North Carolina State, along with South Carolina, offered last fall.
So far this year, he’s also visited North Carolina and Wake Forest. Trips to N.C. State and Virginia Tech are up next.
“Any offer is a great offer. It’s a chance to go play big-time college football at the highest level that there is. … They’re all being considered,” Doty said. “What we’re doing now is just kind of going around and seeing the real-world of college football, not the junior days where the red carpet is rolled out and stuff like that.
“We’re going into meetings and sitting down with the coaches and actually getting a feel of how they coach and how they teach and just what it’s like on a day-to-day basis at those programs.”
The slash season
As a sophomore, Doty moved in and out of Myrtle Beach High School’s starting quarterback job. Coach Mickey Wilson called him a “team player,” when asked how Doty handled the season.
“We were in a situation where we had a veteran quarterback [Lawson Cribb] who was a senior and knew our system really well and is actually going to play at Carnegie Mellon, so he was a really good player,” Wilson said. “He got hurt a little bit early on, so we had Luke at quarterback. We had him at receiver. He ended up playing some defensive back for us.
“He’s just such a good athlete that we felt like we had to get him on the field and I think during that time, he was great. He was a great teammate. He just wanted to be on the field and he wanted to win.”
Doty thinks the season will help in his development the next two years and beyond.
“I was put in a lot of different place and, going forward, I think that was important, just being the guy that I was last year,” he said. “I’m always willing to do whatever it takes to help my team win, help them progress and just kind of do whatever I can do to help. Going into last year, that was my approach.
“I think it’s going to help going forward, having played all those positions and getting exposure to running those routes, breaking on a ball and even being back there playing a little bit of quarterback. It’s just going to help me in my next two years and even going into college.”
More coach speak
Cribb isn’t the only quarterback Wilson has sent up to college.
Canadian Football League quarterback Everett Golson played at Notre Dame before finishing his college career at Florida State. Tyler Keane played for nearby Coastal Carolina. Drayton Arnold is now at Old Dominion.
Doty is up next.
“I think the neat thing about [Doty] is he has the ability to extend plays,” Wilson said. “What’s really positive — a lot of times when kids are as young as he is and they extend plays, they have a tendency just to run. He does a great job of and has done a great job of extending plays and continuing to look downfield and throw the ball downfield once he does get outside of the pocket, which is rare, especially at that young of age.”
When asked to compare Doty to Golson, “dynamic” was the first word Wilson used to draw a parallel.
“They were a little different in some ways. Luke is faster than Everett, if you were to compare the two at this age. He definitely was faster,” Wilson said. “Everett probably had a little stronger arm at this age, but they are, if you kind of look those guys and watch them play, I think the first word that jumps out is ‘dynamic,’ because they have the ability to extend plays, both with their arm and their feet. Anytime you’ve got a guy who can do that, it makes them special.”
March 12, 2018
Nice to meet you
Earlier this month, South Carolina hosted 2020 quarterback Luke Doty (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) for the first time since the Gamecocks hired new quarterbacks coach Dan Werner. Doty called Werner before the visit to introduce himself to the first-year South Carolina assistant.
They met face-to-face a couple of days later.
“He’s just a great guy. He expects a lot out of the quarterbacks, but he’s also understanding and coaches them to do what he thinks that they can do,” Doty said. “I think that’s a great way to be.”
South Carolina offered Doty (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) last fall while Kurt Roper was still running the team’s offense and coaching the quarterbacks. The most recent trip to Columbia afforded Doty a shot to see the Gamecocks offense with Bryan McClendon at the helm.
“We sat in a couple of meetings and the coaches there, the intensity there is just so high and those coaches expect so much out of the guys and those guys live up to the standards that they set,” Doty said. “That’s definitely a great environment.”
Growing list of suitors
Doty’s offer sheet has added a few new lines in 2018: Miami, Wake Forest, Temple, Louisville, Virginia Tech and East Carolina. North Carolina and North Carolina State, along with South Carolina, offered last fall.
So far this year, he’s also visited North Carolina and Wake Forest. Trips to N.C. State and Virginia Tech are up next.
“Any offer is a great offer. It’s a chance to go play big-time college football at the highest level that there is. … They’re all being considered,” Doty said. “What we’re doing now is just kind of going around and seeing the real-world of college football, not the junior days where the red carpet is rolled out and stuff like that.
“We’re going into meetings and sitting down with the coaches and actually getting a feel of how they coach and how they teach and just what it’s like on a day-to-day basis at those programs.”
The slash season
As a sophomore, Doty moved in and out of Myrtle Beach High School’s starting quarterback job. Coach Mickey Wilson called him a “team player,” when asked how Doty handled the season.
“We were in a situation where we had a veteran quarterback [Lawson Cribb] who was a senior and knew our system really well and is actually going to play at Carnegie Mellon, so he was a really good player,” Wilson said. “He got hurt a little bit early on, so we had Luke at quarterback. We had him at receiver. He ended up playing some defensive back for us.
“He’s just such a good athlete that we felt like we had to get him on the field and I think during that time, he was great. He was a great teammate. He just wanted to be on the field and he wanted to win.”
Doty thinks the season will help in his development the next two years and beyond.
“I was put in a lot of different place and, going forward, I think that was important, just being the guy that I was last year,” he said. “I’m always willing to do whatever it takes to help my team win, help them progress and just kind of do whatever I can do to help. Going into last year, that was my approach.
“I think it’s going to help going forward, having played all those positions and getting exposure to running those routes, breaking on a ball and even being back there playing a little bit of quarterback. It’s just going to help me in my next two years and even going into college.”
More coach speak
Cribb isn’t the only quarterback Wilson has sent up to college.
Canadian Football League quarterback Everett Golson played at Notre Dame before finishing his college career at Florida State. Tyler Keane played for nearby Coastal Carolina. Drayton Arnold is now at Old Dominion.
Doty is up next.
“I think the neat thing about [Doty] is he has the ability to extend plays,” Wilson said. “What’s really positive — a lot of times when kids are as young as he is and they extend plays, they have a tendency just to run. He does a great job of and has done a great job of extending plays and continuing to look downfield and throw the ball downfield once he does get outside of the pocket, which is rare, especially at that young of age.”
When asked to compare Doty to Golson, “dynamic” was the first word Wilson used to draw a parallel.
“They were a little different in some ways. Luke is faster than Everett, if you were to compare the two at this age. He definitely was faster,” Wilson said. “Everett probably had a little stronger arm at this age, but they are, if you kind of look those guys and watch them play, I think the first word that jumps out is ‘dynamic,’ because they have the ability to extend plays, both with their arm and their feet. Anytime you’ve got a guy who can do that, it makes them special.”