Evaluating length of Spencer Rattler's leash in 2023

At one point, Spencer Rattler was one of the best quarterback recruits in the country. However, after struggling at Oklahoma he was surpassed by Caleb Williams and ultimately transferred to South Carolina where he re-established himself.

Despite this, On3’s JD PicKell had questions about how long of a leash Spencer Rattler is going to have on The Hard Count.

“The shortest leash, you’re starting to think about who would be a part of this list here,” PicKell said. “We talked about the new quarterbacks and the contenders. Man, this is a kind of interesting one, I think Spencer Rattler, I don’t know if his leash is short but people are forgetting what he did the first half of last season.”

“Like, the first half of last season for Spencer Rattler was not glamorous. Like, I think he threw like five touchdowns early in the year and had almost double-digit interceptions or close to it. The interception-to-touchdown ratio wasn’t pretty. I’ll leave it at that.”

In 2022, through South Carolina’s loss to Missouri at the end of October, Spencer Rattler had just a five-touchdown to nine-interception ratio. After that, something seemed to click, though, as he threw 13 touchdowns and just three interceptions in the Gamecocks’ final five games.

As PicKell explained, South Carolina can’t afford him to struggle again like he did to start the 2022 season. So, they could keep him on a short leash if he does.

“So, I don’t know if his leash is short, but I think he’s someone that you definitely keep a very close eye on just to say like, okay, what are you going to be? What are you going to be when we get into some of the meat of the schedule? I mean, that game against Georgia, I think is going to be very telling because a lot of your hopes about South Carolina are probably predicated on him picking up where he left off. So, I think, his leash is maybe relatively short.”

Shane Beamer on Spencer Rattler’s development

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer opened up about Spencer Rattler’s development, explaining that their relationship goes back to Oklahoma and since then he’s grown much more comfortable.

As Beamer explained, Rattler has dealt with a lot of adversity, which has helped him grow as a player and as a person.

“First and foremost comes from a great family. I think the biggest thing I’ve seen with him that’s grown is just his comfort level here is confidence in what we’re doing. Confidence in himself has continued to grow. Leadership, you know, I really feel like last year just, he hadn’t played a game at South Carolina and he was still learning what was going on and learning his teammates,” Beamer said.

“Now, I think he’s very comfortable. He’s very confident and his leadership skills have grown. I’m excited to see what he does and 2023 and he took a lot of crap [leading up to this].”