South Carolina Football: Should Gamecock Fans Worry About the QB Battle?

South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier has always been known to play a little loose with his quarterbacks. 

He routinely swapped out signal-callers to try to find the hot hand during his magical run with Florida in the 1990s but has toned it down a bit since becoming the South Carolina head coach in 2005. 

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Midway through fall camp, the four-way battle for the top spot on the depth chart in Columbia doesn't appear to be breaking any time soon.

There was no separation between Perry Orth, Connor Mitch, Michael Scarnecchia and true freshman dual-threat Lorenzo Nunez during Saturday's scrimmage at Williams-Brice Stadium, and Spurrier doesn't appear happy with the progress of his quarterbacks.

"We’re too slow. We just too slow. Our quarterbacks don’t move their feet and fire the ball," Spurrier said according to Josh Kendall of The State. "The thing all quarterbacks have to do is get the ball out of their hands."

Player	Comp./Att.	Comp. %	Yds.	TDs	INTs
Connor Mitch	5-of-11	45.5	42	0	1
Perry Orth	3-of-6	50.0	42	1	1
Michael Scarnecchia	11-of-14	78.6	81	0	0
Lorenzo Nunez	5-of-8	62.5	25	0	1

Cause for concern? 

It certainly isn't ideal, because Spurrier and quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus would likely prefer one man to step to the forefront right now. 

Is it something that should send Gamecock fans scurrying to message boards and writing posts warning of impending doom? 

Hardly.

As David Caraviello of the Charleston Post and Courier noted, Mitch, who has six career passes and is the most experienced of the group, was the first man out on Saturday.

He's likely still the front-runner, but that's hardly settled after Saturday's scrimmage.

South Carolina's offense is loaded with moving parts and a lot of youth, so some struggles and growing pains early in fall camp should be expected.

With that said, though, the rubber should meet the road this week.

The Gamecocks are scheduled to scrimmage on Saturday morning, and if there's any week that should feel like a game week for the quarterbacks, it's this one.

Tyler Smith/Getty Images

According to Kendall, the coaching staff is sketching out a rough draft of the quarterback pecking order this week.

"We have to stop training four, we do know that, so we’ll start training two and a half, maybe three and a half," Spurrier said.

Now, though, shouldn't be the time to panic. The season opener against North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte is two weeks from Thursday, and as long as Spurrier and the staff settle on a primary signal-caller after Saturday's scrimmage, that's plenty of time to get the eventual winner prepared for the showdown with the Tar Heels.

Plan A was likely to have somebody step forward before this point in fall camp, but Plan B—which is where the Gamecocks are right now—won't derail the season.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93 XM 208.

Follow Barrett on Twitter: @BarrettSallee.