The first week of the college football season is already off to a whacky start down in SEC country. A former graduate assistant will be suiting up for South Carolina this weekend.

Seriously.

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On Tuesday, South Carolina released its depth chart for a Week 1 game against Eastern Illinois. Former graduate assistant Zeb Noland will be the starting quarterback for the Gamecocks. He previously played at Iowa State and North Dakota State before taking a job as a grad assistant.

Noland was hired to be a graduate assistant on Shane Beamer’s staff at South Carolina. Because of a lack of scholarship quarterbacks, the Gamecocks staff decided to give the former Big 12 and FCS quarterback a shot to win the job.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Noland still has one year of eligibility remaining. Apparently, the staff will be putting it to use on Saturday.

Last year at North Dakota State, Noland threw for 721 yards and 5 touchdowns with 6 interceptions while completing 51% of his passes. He also accounted for 1 rushing touchdown.

In two seasons at Iowa State, Noland appeared in 9 games and threw for 1,255 yards and 6 touchdowns with just 2 picks. He completed 60% of his passes in those contests.