Setting expectations for Spencer Rattler in new offense

South Carolina has the luxury of bringing Spencer Rattler back for another season. Things were rocky at times last season, with Rattler throwing 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. But Rattler threw 10 of those touchdowns in the final three games of the year, having success against big-named teams in Tennessee, Clemson, and Notre Dame.

The goal for Shane Beamer is to replicate that production over the course of a 12-game schedule, even with a new offensive coordinator. Wes Mitchell of On3’s Gamecock Central believes South Carolina will stick to what they know with Rattler in 2023, setting the quarterback up for success.

“I think they’re trying to channel the Spencer Rattler we saw the final three games of last year,” Mitchell said when joining the On3 Roundtable. “For them, that was taking everything Spencer was most comfortable with and saying ‘we’re going to throw out all these extra packages, all these different personnel groupings.’ I don’t like the word simplify. It’s more like ‘let’s focus on what we do and what we do well.’ Just let Spencer go, play, and have his natural instinct, natural ability take over.”

One factor could shake things up, with a new offensive coordinator being on staff. Dowell Loggains is in Columbia after spending the past two years as the Arkansas tight ends coach. Mitchell believes some NFL philosophy could be added, along with what Loggains learned under Sam Pittman.

“They’re going to bring in some of what he learned at Arkansas,” Mitchell said. “There will be some NFL-type stuff as well.”

But for the most part, keeping the script relatively the same for Rattler is the plan. Based on how the season wrapped up, South Carolina wants to see those types of results throughout an entire season.

“If you look at this offense from last year and what I expect us to see early, I think it’s going to look very, very similar,” Mitchell said. “Maybe a little bit more uptempo. But for the most part, it’s going to be them trying to focus in on what we saw late last year… I think Gamecock fans have seen what they want to do and it was the final three games of last season.”

South Carolina took down top-10 ranked Tennessee and Clemson, practically ending both program’s College Football Playoff bids. The play of Rattler was a huge reason why, cleaning up on the turnovers and finally finding receivers in the end zone.

If Loggains is able to slightly implement his new ideas while keeping the premise the same for Rattler, expectations should be high for the former five-star prospect.