COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some of Shane Beamer’s best quotes in the last few weeks have dealt with the subject of quarterback Zeb Noland.
Beamer discussed the move Noland was making from graduate assistant coach to quarterback as that position was in need of some depth in the wake of the sprained foot suffered by Luke Doty.
“It’s not like I went down to Five Points last night and asked people at a bar if they played high school quarterback,” Beamer said two weeks ago.
At his first regular season news conference to preview the Eastern Illinois game, Beamer dropped a reference to the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” and the character “Uncle Rico” who bet his nephew he could throw a football over a mountain. The reference to the cult classic by Beamer is so everyone can understand that it was just earlier this year when Noland was running the offense for North Dakota State after three years in the Iowa State program.
“I know what the narrative may be out there,” Beamer said.
“Let’s forget about and lose the narrative of he hasn’t played a football game in two or three years and he was walking up and down the halls like Uncle Rico talking about what he did back in the day as a quarterback. He played quarterback a couple months ago or three months ago. He’s been a graduate assistant coach since June. He’s played in a college football game a hell of a lot more recently than anyone on our team. Is it a little bit unique? Yes, but it wasn’t like I said, that he played a couple years ago. He played a few months ago and has been a for basically two months as a graduate assistant.”
Beamer went on to say he had confidence in Noland and all of the quarterbacks.