What Spencer Rattler said about Mississippi State

South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon to preview the Gamecocks’ upcoming matchup with Mississippi State.

Below is a transcript of what Rattler had to say.

There is also an autoplay video above of Rattler’s press conference, just click the unmute button to hear what he had to say.

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On the offense vs. UGA after reviewing the tape…

We did a lot of great things offensively, left some stuff on the field shot ourselves in the foot. I just, it was exactly what we thought it was post-game, shot ourselves in the foot and it stings, but it’s in the past now.

On moving forward to Mississippi State…

Every game in the SEC is challenging, honestly, so we’re going to prepare the same way. We had a great week last week preparing. We’re going to have another great week this week and go out there on Saturday and hopefully set a tone, and get back on track.

On the development of freshmen like Tree Babalade…

I mean, just look at him. I mean, he physically, he’s a monster. You need guys that are big, strong, can move people and him and Trovon (Baugh), those two guys are big and, big-time guys out of high school, they got a different type of mindset. They want to do well and they’ve been doing great things. I mean, congrats to Tree for being, I saw he was freshman of the week, so that’s awesome for him. He’s got a bright future.

On the next step for the offense…

Get the run game going. I mean, if we can get that going, have a good balance, you know, we’ll be good. I know like right now, I think we’re like a top 10 passing offense in the country, very explosive offense, but if we can get that run game going. It’ll be good, really good.

On if you treat a true freshman’s mistake on the OL differently than other mistakes…

I could care less about Tree doing his false start. It was his first game. He played his butt off. I could care less about his false starts. You know, when we have a receiver false start or an older guy false start, that we don’t accept. Tree’s first game starting in a big-time environment and for him to not allow one sack, even a pressure, I feel like — he’s a dude.

[Win South Carolina-Mississippi State tickets]

On building rapport with the receivers with so many injuries…

Yeah, I think that stuff started building up the Furman game, Furman week. You saw Eddie Lewis come along, Omega Blake, he had a great game on Saturday. A few mental mistakes, but another young guy, he’ll clean it up. But yeah, really just trying to get these tight ends going. A lot of young guys getting better. Obviously, Nyck Harber, still working with him. I want to get him rolling, Tyshawn Russell, all these guys. So with Juice out, we’ve got to bring some new guys in, but we got enough people.

On how to get the running game going…

Good question, man. Just all of us on the same page o-line doing their job, me making the right read on the RPO, running back seeing it and going. Good question for Coach Mo (Hardesty), Coach D-Lo, they’ll give you a better in-depth answer.

On facing a 3-5-5 defense like Mississippi State runs…

I played against that in the Big 12 a little bit. I don’t think we’ve seen it here yet so far, maybe Arkansas last year, but they’ll do what they do, a lot of different exotic single dogs or crossfires and different coverages, mixing some stuff. But we just can’t make it easy for them to get to the quarterback and stop our run game. We got to be efficient throwing the ball and running the ball. I’m confident we’ll be fine going into the game, just got to keep working this week.

On the other wide receivers playing a lot with Juice out..

Yeah, it’s good for them to get experience, get some reps under their belt instead of just be thrown in the fire during the game. So I think that they’ve done a good job and they’ll keep getting better.

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On fast starts for the offense…

Good question. Coaching — Dowell has done a great job, got a great plan going into the game, attacking whatever team we’re playing. Georgia did some good stuff in the second half. Obviously, Kirby and those guys weren’t going to sit back and let us keep doing what we’re doing. They had a good plan. We tried to change some stuff too, but they just — it’s a good team, great team and we got to be better finishing out the game. Usually we’re good into the fourth quarter, but we’ll work on it.

On the tight ends…

Not surprised (about lack of receptions so far) because they do a lot of good stuff in the passing game blocking wise, we use them a lot, but we use them more on routes here. And I know Trey’s (Knox) a great player. He didn’t have the game he wanted on Saturday, but he works his butt off every day. Had a great day of practice today. He’s going to keep stacking days and he’s one of our top guys. That’s my guy. So I’m going to get him the rock, and Josh (Simon) too.

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