Kirby Smart previews facing 'elite' arm talent in Spencer Rattler

South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler is one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the country and Kirby Smart is not overlooking his talent ahead of Georgia’s matchup against the Gamecocks.

Rattler had his fair share of struggles early on in his career at Oklahoma, where he was tasked with taking over the QB job after the following lineage of players at the position: Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts. That’s two Heisman winners and three NFL starters in that group.

Oklahoma didn’t have the success with Rattler that they had with the others, eventually leading to his transfer to South Carolina. And after a decent start to last season, he finished with fury, lighting up AP-ranked rivals Tennessee and Clemson for a smidge less than 800 combined yards in a pair of victories.

In 2023, the Gamecock offensive line is off to a shaky start but Rattler has nonetheless been phenomenal. He was sacked NINE times in the season-opening loss vs. North Carolina but still rallied to toss for 353 yards while completing more than 75% of his passes.

Then, in Week 2, he lit up Furman and was on the bench for most of the second half after completing 25/27 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns. After such performances, Kirby Smart knows his defense will deal with an immense talent under center this weekend.

“Well, he’s got an elite arm, I can tell you that,” said Smart at this week’s press conference, complimenting the variety of passes Rattler can pull off.

“The throws he’s made, he can make the touch throws, deep vertical back shoulder throws. He’s throwing a couple field outs. He had to throw against Clemson last year on third and 10, that was a rope.”

Despite the nine sacks in the opener, Rattler has been able to elude even more takedowns because he’s slippery as a scrambler, according to Smart.

“So he’s very elusive, very accurate with the ball, hard to finish on. There’s a lot of people that miss tackles on him when they have an opportunity to try to get him down. So, a tremendous player, sees the whole field, and some of his best plays come off schedule. I mean, you know, somebody misses somebody or he scrambles and he hits you on the shot. He’s very dangerous.”

Luckily for Georgia, Kirby Smart’s defenses are always great in pass rush and have the athleticism to contain QBs as well as anyone. Whether they can against as talented and veteran a quarterback as Spencer Rattler remains to be seen.