Spencer Rattler-Xavier Legette connection reaches new heights in Saturday's win
Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette couldn’t help but laugh. Rattler was asked why he couldn’t get the ball to his best receiver one more time to set a school record for most receiving yards in a single game.
“That one, the PI, I should have let it go. It slipped out of my hand, it was a duck. That would have been another touchdown and another 60 yards for him. We’ll make up for it these last three,” Rattler said.
In the end, Legette came up 16 yards short of breaking the record. But it really didn’t matter that much. It was a return to normalcy for the fifth-year receiver, who only had four catches for 40 yards in his last two games.
Now back and healthy, Legette caught nine passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-28 win over Jacksonville State on Saturday.
“He’ll be the first to tell you that he was not at his best last week the way he played,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “He came back this week and looked like the Xavier that we’ve been used to all season. And he showed it with the way he made plays.”
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For Rattler, his best weapon coming back put him in a position to play better. The last two weeks had been a struggle for him, but he threw for 399 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the win.
Rattler became the latest quarterback to join the 10,000 passing yards club.
“It means a lot. Somebody – I think one of the announcers told me, you need 260 to get 10,000 passing yards career before the game. I was kind of like, damn, why’d you have to tell me that,” Rattler said.
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“I’m proud of myself, but proud of the team for obviously helping. It’s not just me. Legette made so many big plays, going for 217 helped a lot. The o-line blocked their butts off today and I had a lot of time to throw the ball. We made big plays, had a lot of explosives, so it makes it easy.”
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Six of Rattler’s completions to Legette went for 15 or more yards. The two connected for three 40-yard plays, including a 65-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“Dowell (Loggains) does a great job of dialing (Legette) up,” Rattler said. He showed up big time today. He’s a freak, man. You put it up, he’s going to go score. He puts the work in every day at practice, and it shows up on game day. You can rely on him no matter what.”
It’s been a great year for Legette, who’s now up to 50 catches for 973 yards and five touchdowns this year. Saturday was his fifth game with more than 100 receiving yards. He had never reached 100 yards in a college game before this year.
“If they give him the ball on the end around, he’s going to take it 100 yards, touchdown. He just runs so hard,” Tonka Hemingway said. “Sometimes, we just thud. Sometimes we’re just scared to thud him because he’s moving so fast and he might fall or something. He practices hard like that all the time.”
