Juice Wells evaluates the play of quarterbacks behind Spencer Rattler

Spencer Rattler has already established himself as QB1 in Columbia, but what about the backup quarterbacks for South Carolina? Aside from Rattler, Tanner Bailey was the only other quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in the Gamecocks’ spring game. He threw that pass to wide receiver Antwane Wells, who spoke about the play following the spring game.

“So I never really got any reps with Tanner before so it was new, but on that play, they busted the coverage and I was like throw it up, and he threw it up and it was wide open,” Wells said.

Bailey was a four-star prospect out of Gordo high school in Alabama, where he was ranked the No. 347 overall player in the country and the No. 19 ranked quarterback in the 2022 class according to On3’s Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

He redshirted his freshman season at South Carolina, developing and progressing behind progress for when it’s his time to play under center for the Gamecocks. In the spring game, he found Wells on a 34-yard touchdown pass with 1:11 remaining in the second quarter to extend the Black Team’s lead to 17-0. The Black team would go on to fight off a Garnet team rally and win the spring scrimmage 19-17 in double overtime.

Wells’ connection with Bailey may be a new one, but his connection with Rattler is not, as he looks to build on a 2022 season where he was South Carolina’s leading receiver with 928 yards and six touchdown receptions.

Spencer Rattler evaluates the play of other South Carolina quarterbacks

South Carolina football held its annual Garnet and Black spring game last weekend, and it had a bit of a twist. Rather than lining up the first team offense vs. the first team defense or just straight up ones vs. twos, the Gamecock coaches in charge of each team actually got to draft the players to form their teams.

So, that meant a look at what the coaches really thought of the team. In specific, folks were interested to see which quarterbacks were taken first. Spencer Rattler, of course, was one of the picks, but the other was true freshman LaNorris Sellers. That was a bit of a surprise, but several other quarterbacks got to take snaps as well. Afterwards, Rattler was asked how he thought the room performed.

Here was his response:

“Yeah, the guys look good. Tanner (Bailey) played well, got a touchdown pass, had some other completions. I thought Luke (Doty) did what he could with his group. And then LaNorris Sellers, you know, a good young player, still learning, definitely athletic, can run around and make plays. But the guys look good.”

Next, the South Carolina QB1 was asked what he thought of the draft-style format of the game. To which he said:

“It was fun, you know it. But, you know, a different point of view of the spring game. I don’t think no other team did that, you know. So it definitely made it more competitive and it was just cool to be on a different team and just go in and help the coaches pick, you know, players to be on each team and stuff like that. So it was cool. It definitely made the game more competitive.”

On3’s Alex Weber contributed to this report