There’s a play Spencer Rattler’s personal quarterbacks coach Mike Giovando says he’s watched a million instances. It’s from the 2021 Red River Showdown, one of many final passes Rattler threw because the starter at Oklahoma. It ought to have been a easy completion three performs after a chunk achieve on a flea-flicker had put OU into scoring territory. The idea was easy and provided Rattler two simple choices to get a first down. Instead, he took issues into his personal arms by making an attempt to power a landing.
“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.’”
Rattler introduced in November he was coming into the switch portal after three years at Oklahoma.
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Rattler says after that recreation, he knew it was in his finest curiosity to maneuver on after the season completed. In a manner, that play informally began the chain of occasions that has led him to turn into South Carolina’s quarterback. As is regular with gifted gamers within the switch portal period, as he put his assertion out on Twitter he was leaving OU, his telephone was flooded with messages from colleges throughout the nation that needed and wanted him. He lists Ole Miss, UCLA, Arizona State, Nebraska, Pitt, Auburn, Missouri and Oregon amongst those who pushed the toughest.
But a earlier relationship with head coach Shane Beamer (who was on the workers at Oklahoma when Rattler was a freshman) and the data it was already the vacation spot of his teammate, tight finish Austin Stogner—the supposed goal of that errant Red River cross—meant South Carolina received out. Rattler did a Zoom with Gamecocks staffers from coaches to nutritionists, however arrived in South Carolina sight unseen and with out an in-person go to with any of the workers (regardless of an try by Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield to link up with him in Norman, which turned a missed connection resulting from an early flight out of city 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 provided Rattler a totally different scheme match and the power to enhance his training as a quarterback. Little issues, like going below heart and dealing in a passing recreation that provided extra construction. He doesn’t depend his expertise in a extra pro-style passing recreation at South Carolina as any higher than the Air Raid system at Oklahoma, solely totally different.
Giovando is happy in regards to the construction introduced by this technique. Rattler operates below heart (which adjustments his footwork) with extra tasks dealing with protections. Even little issues like managing a number of snap counts reasonably than simply clapping his arms and getting the snap matter for his improvement.
“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 little doubt Rattler is blessed with a uncommon quantity of arm expertise. It confirmed up as anticipated within the 35–14 win in Week 1 over Georgia State in a throw that showcased really elite potential.
But the urgent confirmed up, too, by his personal admission, in a debut victory the place Rattler graded the offense’s total efficiency as “not too great.” Rattler completed 23-for-37 with an SEC-low QBR of 28.3 and threw two interceptions—together with the under.
He took accountability for that play after the sport, bringing it up unprompted throughout his postgame press convention.
“For me, I just wanted one throw back,” Rattler informed 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 level in his profession, that has typically been the Spencer Rattler expertise. The highs are as excessive as any signal-caller within the nation, however the lows have to be rooted out for Rattler and the Gamecocks to enhance on 2021’s 7–6 report. He might have a higher protection to enrich him than at Oklahoma, however he doesn’t have the identical stage of offensive expertise round him as he did in Norman. There can be extra on his plate as this season goes on to be The Guy. Beamer says transferring ahead, Rattler’s nonetheless getting snug after a recreation of expertise. Finding methods to run the ball higher to assist the quarterback can be a focus as properly.
The noise Rattler hears is new in Columbia. There are not any “we want Caleb” chants. There’s solely the din of “Sandstorm” at Williams-Brice Stadium, which introduced a smile to his face. Now, the SEC exams start with stingy Arkansas and Georgia defenses in back-to-back weeks. Which elements of the total Spencer Rattler expertise will come with it?
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