In staying loyal, Luke Doty the ‘athlete’ has boosted his currency at South Carolina

Shane Beamer called Luke Doty just before spring practices were set to begin. Some paperwork needed clarification.

“Hey,” Beamer said. “We’re putting out a roster and we don’t know what to label.”

Doty had previously been listed as a quarterback, but he had mainly been working with the wide receivers. Those were two options. Or, Beamer said, they could list Doty as an athlete.

“Athlete,” Doty responded, according to his dad Bobby. “You could name me whatever but athlete works because I’ll play wherever you want me to play.”

“Athlete” is the perfect title for Doty, who represented the Gamecocks this week at the SEC Football Media Days in Dallas. Not for the actual label, but because it is so rare.

To look at Doty’s college career is to assume he’s transferred two or three times. It’s the nature of college football; If you get passed up, you transfer. If you’re asked to switch positions, you transfer. If you’re not seeing the field enough, you transfer.

That’s not to say transferring is all bad. For most, the goal of college football is to play. If transferring helps a kid do that, coaches will often support them. But that does not mean there is not an opportunity cost.

The evidence lies with Doty.

A former four-star quarterback from Myrtle Beach, Doty wasted no time with his recruitment, committing to South Carolina the summer before his junior year of high school.

“And he shut it down,” Bobby Doty said of his son’s recruitment. “Anybody who called, we were like, ‘Nope. Luke’s 100% in.’ And he’s never wavered. Never.”

He won a state title as a junior. Might have won another as a senior if he didn’t break his thumb. Then he enrolled at South Carolina in January 2020, just about two months before COVID-19 shut the world down.

If that beginning of a college career wasn’t rocky enough, the coach who brought Doty into the program was fired in the middle of the season. Will Muschamp first noticed Doty at a South Carolina camp years prior, complimenting the then-freshman Doty at being one of the only kids he had ever seen almost take over a camp and begin leading the other players through drills.

Even though Doty started two games at QB for the Gamecocks in 2020 and was favored to be the starter in 2021, his parents still had to have the conversation. Did he want to stay at South Carolina, to take a chance that the next coach will value him as much as Muschamp did?

“I wanna be here,” Doty told them. “I love being here and I wanna be here.”

Since then, Doty’s on-field career hasn’t deviated from the roller coaster. He was likely going to be the starter for Beamer in 2021, then suffered a mid-foot sprain two weeks into fall camp. He came back Week 3 and started four games … before reinjuring his foot in a game against Vanderbilt.

A season-ending surgery followed. Then the Gamecocks landed Spencer Rattler from Oklahoma, pushing Doty down the depth chart. He technically redshirted in 2022, playing in just five games. Then last year, with Rattler still on campus, Doty chose to stick around and mostly played wide receiver and took reps on special teams.

When things didn’t go as planned, Doty chose to change his role, not his setting.

“I get to go in and play ball,” Doty said. “I get to be around some of my best friends in the world every single day.”

Added his father: “There’s thousands of kids that want to be in his shoes. And, you know, he gets to play for the University of South Carolina.”

Taking advantage of NIL

There is something so innocent about Doty’s path. In a time when some fans have grown frustrated that their favorite players show no loyalty to the school they love, it’s hard to be a South Carolina fan and not think Doty is living the dream.

The opportunity cost of transferring is the currency lost. Not necessarily monetarily, but in a social type of way. There is a built-up value of being at the same place for an extended period. People learn your name. They hear your story. They get to know you, talk to you. Get to see if you’re a great kid.

To leave for another school is to empty out your social bank. To start over.

If you are like Rattler, it might not be as tough to build the fund back up. But others, even if they contribute at their new school, can just be a face.

Outside of quarterback LaNorris Sellers, it could be argued that no player on South Carolina’s roster is as well-known as Doty. Could he play more — or play quarterback — if he transferred? Probably. Would he have the same community value? Absolutely not.

In the past, there was no other choice than to stick it out. There was also no reward. These days, there is incentive — and Doty has taken advantage.

He has NIL deals with a Myrtle-Beach-based clothing company, Native Sons. Another with the upscale Columbia-based clothing store Granger Owings, which supplied him a suit for SEC Media Days in Dallas. Another deal with Goings Law Firm, the same place that signed DK Joyner to a deal last year. He has partnered with music festivals and teamed up with Connor Shaw to host a youth football camp in Myrtle Beach. And that’s all before considering that he has a deal with South Carolina’s collective, The Garnet Trust.

“I’ve built so many great friendships with with people around the state that whenever I’m done playing ball,” Doty said, “that I’ve got a great support system of businesses and people that I’m going to have in my corner for the rest of my life, and I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Which leads us to perhaps the next stage of Doty’s life. Granted, he still has two years of eligibility at South Carolina and, heck, why wouldn’t he take them? But after that, his goal is to coach.

He has football knowledge. He has the leadership. He has the people skills and the ability to articulate things. He has the passion for seeing others succeed. And, perhaps most helpful of all, he has the connections.

“All of (the coaches) pretty much agreed that’s what I need to be doing,” Doty said of coaching. “And I definitely want to continue to pursue that. It’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out, but I’m going to do my best to stay in the SEC. Try to stay at Carolina if I can.”