There’s no suspense at the top of South Carolina’s quarterback depth chart. The Gamecocks have their starter in LaNorris Sellers, and they’ve already settled on the man behind him: Cutter Woods.
“Cutter’s our guy,” Kendal Briles said at Shane Beamer’s media golf outing. “I think we have a clear No. 2 right now.”
That kind of certainty is rare this time of year, when teams usually keep the backup quarterback race open with the usual fall-camp caveats. Not here. Woods won the job in the middle of last season, and nothing since has changed the picture.
Briles said Woods has earned that spot by the way he works and prepares.
“He’s done a tremendous job preparing. He’s got the trust of the players and the coaching staff.
He’s had a great spring,” Briles said. “You know, he’s one of the hardest-working guys on the entire team and roster.
He studies football, and he’s a football junkie and an incredible kid.
“So we feel really confident about him if he was to get in the football game.”
Woods knows exactly what his role is. He said he heard the backup quarterback described as the Big Man on Campus before, but not lately. He’s comfortable being QB2, but not comfortable enough to relax.
“I guess halfway through last year, I kind of stepped into the backup role. But this year, like you said, I have to be ready anytime,” Woods said. “So I’m making sure that I’m just preparing as if, like you said, I’m one play away.”
Woods also said he hasn’t seen any major shift in the offense, even with Briles now overseeing the unit. He’s fully bought in to the system and pointed out that the quarterback room is sharing the load rather than splitting into separate packages.
“All the quarterbacks in the room are super talented. I would say we all have big arms,” he said. “And so it’s been pretty evenly spread across all of us.”
The 11,000-plus passing yards Woods brought from Westside High are part of the background, but the job now is about readiness, not résumé. He also changed his jersey number from 15 to 12, a number with significant meaning in South Carolina quarterback history.
One of the more unusual details in Woods’ summer is the high school connection that still hangs around the team. During the week of the Electric City Showdown, Westside alum Woods can end up near Brandon Cunningham, who played at T.L. Hanna, his school’s blood rival.
“Yeah, we talk about it a lot. In high school, we were around each other quite a bit, especially when the season comes around,” Woods said, claiming nobody’s ever had to separate the two the Saturday after the game. “He’s a pretty laid-back guy, and we get along really well.”
For now, Woods’ job is straightforward: travel to every game, stay ready, and be the first quarterback called if Sellers goes down. He said he welcomes that chance, whenever it comes.
“LaNorris is going to have a great season. And he’s going to tear it up,” he said.
“So I’m excited to watch that and be part of that. And hopefully step in whenever the team needs me and do the best I can.”
Briles also said there will still be a battle this month for the third-string quarterback spot, with redshirt junior Lucian Anderson and freshman Landon Duckworth competing for it. The fourth-string quarterback will likely dress for every game, too.
“We’ll see how it goes this fall camp between (redshirt junior Lucian Anderson) and (freshman Landon Duckworth),” he said. “Both those guys bring different skill sets to the table.
Lucian has got a little bit more experience, obviously, but Duck’s done a great job with his body, with his nutrition, with his strength. He’s just got to play more football at this level.”
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