Shane Beamer reveals how he's tried to bring familiarity, Oklahoma concepts to offense for Spencer Rattler

South Carolina has had a brutal start to the season schedule-wise, already having faced No. 1 Georgia and No. 10 Arkansas. That’s made for a rough start for quarterback Spencer Rattler, the Oklahoma transfer who was supposed to breathe new life into the Gamecocks offense.

Rattler has gotten off to a shaky start to the season, throwing five interceptions and only two touchdown passes.

So are there ways that South Carolina coach Shane Beamer can make life easier on Rattler? After all, Beamer was the associate head coach at Oklahoma during Rattler’s freshman and sophomore seasons there. Perhaps adding elements of the Sooners’ offense at South Carolina?

Believe it or not, there are already plenty of those in the playbook.

“The fourth-down play (against Georgia) that was in question that’s been the story or whatever, that play is called ‘Sooner,'” Beamer explained. “We ran that play last year a bunch as well. We’ll have to change the name now, because I just said it in the press conference. But there’s plays in our offense that we had last year that came from Oklahoma that probably have an Oklahoma theme.

“I think I mentioned it last year, we have ‘CeeDee,’ we have ‘Kyler,’ we have ‘Sooner,’ we have ‘Boomer,’ I mean we have different plays that we brought from Oklahoma. But I think with Spencer coming in we’ve continued those. And some of those he got here and really didn’t like. The play that we called ‘Boomer’ last year he wasn’t a big fan of, and we aren’t running it right now.”

South Carolina collaborating with Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma influences helping

Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma was a different quarterback than what he’s shown at South Carolina so far in 2022. He threw for 4,514 yards and 39 touchdowns for the Sooners in 2020 and 2021.

Getting him back to that version of himself would be a monumental achievement for Beamer and his South Carolina staff and could seriously change the outlook for the 2022 season. So far it hasn’t happened.

Not for lack of effort, though.

Both Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield have worked to learn what Rattler is most comfortable with to figure out what they can install in the offense to aid in his progression.

“We’ve put in some things the last couple weeks that I know that he’s comfortable with,” Beamer said. “He’ll text me or text Sat or whatever. Each week you want your quarterback to have ownership in what you’re doing. So each week Spencer will go home or be there Sunday night, Monday night, tonight. He’ll watch video and he’ll text ideas to Sat and the offensive coaches, things that he likes. …

“He brought something to us this week that we haven’t done that he was doing at Oklahoma. There was a couple things last week that we put in. So we’re always referring back to that, things that he was comfortable with, because you certainly want to make that guy comfortable. And he’s done a great job, too, he does want it to be pro-style and things like that, but there’s a happy medium, as well. We’ve got to do what’s best for our football team, or our offensive football team, as well.”

South Carolina can’t completely reconstruct its offense with Oklahoma’s concepts

One thing Beamer was clear about in discussing the Oklahoma influence on South Carolina’s offensive playbook is that there can’t be wholesale attempts to simply replicate everything the Sooners do.

“This isn’t, OK, we’re going to do everything Spencer wants and marry our offense all of a sudden to what Spencer’s comfortable with,” Beamer said. “We’ve got an entire offense to worry about. But certainly you want your quarterback comfortable.”

More than slotting in a bunch of new plays to the playbook, Beamer and his staff have focused on the communication elements of the offense and working to get Rattler into a comfortable rhythm.

If he can do that — and easier opponents the next two weeks should help provide a better gauge on his progress — the Gamecocks should be fine.

Make no mistake about it, though. There are definitely some Oklahoma influences in South Carolina’s offense.

“There’s probably a little bit more than last year but it’s not a wholesale change,” Beamer said. “If anything I think we’ve gotten where it’s maybe a little bit more… maybe less wordy, more one-word calls, more just being able to kind of operate at the tempo that Spencer’s comfortable with as well.”