Everything Spencer Rattler and Mario Anderson said after beating Vanderbilt

How do you handle the wet conditions like that? 
Rattler: I had zero issues today with that. I feel like we were accurate, we were very efficient throwing the ball. We didn’t have any problems today with that.

On the long touchdown run what did you realize when you spun out of the tacklers?
Anderson: Really, my mind just went blank. We had second down, third down so we had to be able to convert (it was actually first down). So my mind was just to be able to run through somebody’s face like Coach Mo really teaches us and just be able to finish. They were depending on me, my teammates trusted me with that play and everything, so that was just the biggest thing, being able to finish.

On the touchdown pass to Boogie Huntley, what did you see?
Rattler: We knew it was gonna score. We repped it all week. We wanted to get him one since we got Tonka (Hemingway) one the other week, so we want to get Boogie one. I was happy. It was wide open. He made a great catch and had a good celebration.

With Juju McDowell done for the season how much faith do you have in the other running backs?
Anderson: For a guy like Djay Braswell to come in and do his thing, he’s matured a lot as the year went on. And the guys like (Bradley) Dunn and D.J. Twitty and stuff like that, we’ve got complete faith in everyone in the running back room. We all play the game for each other. So prayers up for Juju and DK, we’re going to finish the thing for those boys. 

What does it mean to you as a quarterback to see Xavier Legette hit 1,000 yards?
Rattler: It’s awesome. He’s our best weapon. He’s a guy that’s very dimensional. He put in the work and you know, like we said, we’re not surprised what he’s doing. He’s one of the best receivers in the country. And he’s putting it on display each and every week.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Kentucky football game]

When a game becomes a little bit lopsided what does it do for you guys going forward?
Rattler: I was talking to the guys before the game. We wanted to get a win today, we were talking about getting a win, but I was like, let’s win big today. We need to get a big win, really score a lot of points, play good complimentary football. The defense played amazing today. Forced a lot of three and outs, turnovers on downs, they put us in a great field position and had a great game for us

How satisfying is it to finally play a complete game in all three phases?
Rattler: It feels good. But we’re not complacent. Coach Beamer said the SEC schedule is a 12-round fight. That was round 10, and we’re on to round 11 now. It was good to get a pretty complete game. There’s some things we need to clean up. We’ll never not want to clean stuff up. But it was good to have a pretty complete game.

Spencer, do you feel like you’re playing the best you’ve ever played during this stretch?
Rattler: I feel like always in the month of November, I’ve played at a high level, no matter where I was at. Credit to my team, the o-line. I think we had zero sacks today, did a great job in protection. The receivers made great plays. Mario had some great runs. So it’s not just me,  you need everybody else to play 11-man football. We’re playing good on offense right now. I feel good right now. But like I said, round 11 next week, a big test here at home at night. It’s gonna be fun.

What can you take from today that you try and take the practice into the Kentucky game?
Anderson: The biggest thing I can say is just being able to execute every single thing that we do, being able to dominate everything that we do. Winning today starts early in the week for guys, practice-wise. We have to win today starting on Tuesday, and not only on Tuesday in practice, but coming back in the film room and winning the film room and studying and being a student of the game, not only just playing. So just being able to win the day each and every day, coming throughout the week, and coming out on top on Saturday is a good feeling. That’s just the biggest day I can take away from it, just execution.

[$1 for unlimited access to GamecockCentral’s content and community]

What was the key for the offensive line today? 
Rattler: It was an A+ game from them. I don’t think we had any sacks, they protected at a high level. They did an outstanding job. So credit to them. They worked their tails off every week. And very unfortunate to have a lot of guys go down in that room. But guys continue to step up and play hard and, and play good. So today was a testament to them. We’re gonna have another challenge next week. We’ll have to be on that same level.

What makes Josh Simon such a big weapon for you?
Rattler: Josh has really stepped up since Trey (Knox) has been banged up these last two weeks. His confidence is that high right now. Catch the ball, finish, he runs through tackles. He had a huge third down conversion later in that game in the third quarter that led us to a scoring drive and that was a credit to him. He made a good effort on that play by himself. Great in the run game. Great in the pass game. He’s doing a great job.

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!