There’s a play Spencer Rattler’s private quarterbacks coach Mike Giovando says he’s watched a million times. It’s from the 2021 Red River Showdown, one of the last passes Rattler threw as the starter at Oklahoma. It should have been a simple completion three plays after a chunk gain on a flea-flicker had put OU into scoring territory. The concept was simple and offered Rattler two easy options to get a first down. Instead, he took matters into his own hands by trying to force a touchdown.
“I remember telling Spence, ‘I think you were hearing the noise; I think you were trying to make a spectacular play. I think you were trying to get everybody back on your side of things. They turned on you [in the game] against West Virginia. It didn’t matter,’” Giovando says. “And it was kind of funny. He’s like, ‘Yeah. You know what? I think I kind of feel what you’re saying. I was pressing and I wanted to make this big play.’
Giovando mused about how things may have played out had OU scored a touchdown on this drive. Instead the team kicked, Rattler fumbled on the next drive and Caleb Williams took over to lead the Sooners for the rest of the season.
“Who knows what would’ve happened? You may never come out in a game again. But because you’ve settled for a field goal in that drive and not a touchdown, the next mistake you made, you gave them a little bit of opportunity to say, ‘Yeah, let’s see if the other guy could get us going.’”
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Rattler says after that game, he knew it was in his best interest to move on after the season finished. In a way, that play informally started the chain of events that has led him to become South Carolina’s quarterback. As is normal with talented players in the transfer portal era, as he put his statement out on Twitter he was leaving OU, his phone was flooded with messages from schools across the country that wanted and needed him. He lists Ole Miss, UCLA, Arizona State, Nebraska, Pitt, Auburn, Missouri and Oregon among those that pushed the hardest.
But a previous relationship with head coach Shane Beamer (who was on the staff at Oklahoma when Rattler was a freshman) and the knowledge it was already the destination of his teammate, tight end Austin Stogner—the intended target of that errant Red River pass—meant South Carolina won out. Rattler did a Zoom with Gamecocks staffers from coaches to nutritionists, but arrived in South Carolina sight unseen and without an in-person visit with any of the staff (despite an attempt by Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield to link up with him in Norman, which became a missed connection due to an early flight out of town for the QB).
“God has me here for a reason,” Rattler says. “Maybe I wasn’t ready [for the NFL] last year. I’m kinda just going with the flow. When I hopped in the portal, it was, I could go to Ole Miss, I could go to Oregon, I could go to Auburn [and] I could run those types of offenses, but let’s really dive deep and see what’s gonna help me develop not just physically but mentally.”
South Carolina offered Rattler a different scheme fit and the ability to improve his education as a quarterback. Little things, like going under center and working in a passing game that offered more structure. He doesn’t count his experience in a more pro-style passing game at South Carolina as any better than the Air Raid system at Oklahoma, only different.
Giovando is excited about the structure presented by this system. Rattler operates under center (which changes his footwork) with more responsibilities handling protections. Even little things like managing multiple snap counts rather than just clapping his hands and getting the snap matter for his development.
“Now he’s at a school where he’s got to learn this extra stuff,” Giovando says. “He just went to a different class. He just had football 203. Now he is going to football 204.”
There is no doubt Rattler is blessed with a rare amount of arm talent. It showed up as expected in the 35–14 win in Week 1 over Georgia State in a throw that showcased truly elite ability.
But the pressing showed up, too, by his own admission, in a debut victory where Rattler graded the offense’s overall performance as “not too great.” Rattler finished 23-for-37 with an SEC-low QBR of 28.3 and threw two interceptions—including the below.
He took accountability for that play after the game, bringing it up unprompted during his postgame press conference.
“For me, I just wanted one throw back,” Rattler told reporters. “That one on third-and-2—I coulda just ran it. We had so much momentum. I was pressing, pressing, pressing; it was a throw I coulda made or just ran it for the first down. That’s the throw I want back the most.”
To this point in his career, that has often been the Spencer Rattler experience. The highs are as high as any signal-caller in the country, but the lows must be rooted out for Rattler and the Gamecocks to improve on 2021’s 7–6 record. He may have a better defense to complement him than at Oklahoma, but he doesn’t have the same level of offensive talent around him as he did in Norman. There will be more on his plate as this season goes on to be The Guy. Beamer says moving forward, Rattler’s still getting comfortable after a game of experience. Finding ways to run the ball better to help the quarterback will be a focus as well.
The noise Rattler hears is new in Columbia. There are no “we want Caleb” chants. There’s only the din of “Sandstorm” at Williams-Brice Stadium, which brought a smile to his face. Now, the SEC tests begin with stingy Arkansas and Georgia defenses in back-to-back weeks. Which parts of the full Spencer Rattler experience will come with it?
