South Carolina QB Connor Mitch Will Lean on WR Pharoh Cooper

At this point during fall camp, it's safe to say that South Carolina's offense is a work in progress.

Progress was made on Tuesday, though, when head coach Steve Spurrier announced in an emailed statement that redshirt sophomore Connor Mitch will be his starting quarterback in 2015.

The timetable to name a starter in the four-man battle that included Mitch, junior Perry Orth, redshirt freshman Michael Scarnecchia and true freshman Lorenzo Nunez was a bit accelerated for the Gamecocks, because technically their game week starts on Friday, with the season-opener vs. North Carolina in Charlotte taking place Thursday, Sept. 3.

The beauty of South Carolina's offense this year is that Spurrier and new starter Mitch—who has six career passing attempts—have the ultimate safety net in star wide receiver Pharoh Cooper.

Cooper is the SEC's leading returning receiver after hauling in 69 passes for 1,136 yards and nine touchdowns for a Gamecock offense that, very quietly, finished second in the conference in passing a year ago, with 282.4 yards per game.

But it's not just outside where Cooper shines.

He rushed for 200 yards and two touchdowns, completed five of eight passes for two touchdowns and returned 15 punts for 75 yards a year ago.

"He can play receiver, shotgun, quarterback, throw, run," Spurrier said at SEC media days ."He's really an All-American type player."

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

He's not lying. In fact, he's likely to be an even bigger part of the offense in 2015 on a team that has a quarterback battle, shuffled some pieces around an offensive line and have to replace running back Mike Davis.

"Teams are going to be keying on me, so I'm going to have to get the ball a lot more out of the Wildcat position," Cooper said at SEC media days. "I'm still going to do the same things as last year and still could throw the ball. I'll probably be in the backfield more this year."

Special teams is included in that mix. As David Cloninger of The State notes, Cooper will return the majority of the punts this year.

Is that a risk for Spurrier? A little bit.

Any time you put your best player on special teams, you're running the risk of getting him hurt. But for this South Carolina team—with an abundance of offensive questions—having Cooper back there would be incredibly beneficial. After all, an extra 10 yards on a punt return is a first down that the offense doesn't have to worry about.

He's the ultimate equalizer.

It's not like he was a secret last year. Teams keyed on him and he still wound up on the coaches' first-team All-SEC team, and that was with Davis, a solid offensive line and veteran quarterback Dylan Thompson on the roster.

He's up for the challenge and will be the focal point of the new-look Gamecock offense. The combination of Cooper's versatility and Spurrier's creative play-calling will keep opposing defensive coordinators guessing all season.

He's a huge luxury for Mitch to have. With North Carolina, Georgia, UCF, Missouri and LSU all on the schedule before mid-October, expect a heavy dose of Cooper as Mitch settles into his new role as the starter.

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 SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.