South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler gets last laugh in upset win over Kentucky
South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler won’t say it — not directly anyways — but there’s vindication in nights like Saturday’s 24-14 win over No. 13 Kentucky.
The one-time Oklahoma castoff assuredly had enough time before South Carolina’s 7:39 p.m. kickoff to soak in OU’s 49-0 undressing by archrival Texas at the Cotton Bowl. That’s part of why Rattler’s grin crested wider than the Grinch as he sat behind the makeshift interview room in the belly of Kroger Field at 11:23 p.m.
The rest? That came from leading the Gamecocks to their first ranked win under head coach Shane Beamer following the best 30-minute stretch of the QB’s brief USC career.
“You guys saw the score today of that (Oklahoma) game,” Rattler said, tongue in cheek, before turning his focus back to his new team. “We got a big win. It was a pretty good day, I guess.”
Rattler, as he and Shane Beamer will tell you, took his lumps early in the game Saturday. He looked the part of a quarterback confounded by the Southeastern Conference’s second-best pass defense.
He completed six of his first nine throws, but the pocket presence that had improved in dominant wins over Charlotte and S.C. State disappeared.
Rattler was rocked in the first quarter by Kentucky Tyrell Ajian, fumbling on the Wildcats’ 21-yard line on a play he should’ve seen coming. His similarly befuddling interception in the second quarter stalled out a once-promising drive and drew comment from Beamer during his halftime interview with ESPN sideline reporter Cole Cubelic.
“That last interception he tried to throw it up and let (Austin) Stogner go up and make a play,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to give him a ball he can go up and make a play on.”
The internet was awash with calls to bench Rattler. The conversation matriculated down press row at Kroger Field. Rattler was out of sorts — and looked it.
But Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield never wilted or flinched. They doubled down on Rattler. Beamer said as much postgame.
“No — he wasn’t playing that badly,” he explained, almost laughing. “Never even came up. ... (The conversation) was, ‘How do we finish drives when we get in plus territory?’ We needed to find some throws that he could go execute.”
The Gamecocks did just that, keeping things simple. They leaned on a handful of timing and shorter rhythm throws to get Rattler in a groove. It worked.
Rattler completed his final seven passes of the night. He connected on 8 of his 10 second-half throws, recording 128 of his 177 passing yards in that span. The 42-yard screen pass he hit to Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr. gave South Carolina a third-quarter lead. The 16-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 32-yard Mitch Jeter field goal gifted the Gamecocks some much-needed breathing room.
“He was more conservative (in the second half),” Wells said of Rattler. “He wasn’t going to take any more risky throws. ... He sat back there and was actually seeing things.”
Saturday played out eerily parallel to Rattler’s college career thus far. There was the bad: mind-numbing interceptions, calls for him to be benched, the outside ire. There was the good: completing his final seven passes, connecting for six of his nine passes on third down.
It all amounted to the first win over a ranked opponent in the Beamer era against a squad in Kentucky that South Carolina had lost to in seven of their last eight meetings.
Still, Rattler isn’t so much a robot behind the podium as he is a player who’s spent the better part of his young adult life under a microscope. Every so often, though, those layers get peeled back. You get a glimpse inside the golden-armed but long-maligned signal-caller’s true feelings.
There was a joy Rattler found in seeing his old squad get turned upside down on national television. It was made even better by his own navigating of a top 15 opponent half a continent away.
“It’s not lost on me either that Oklahoma played Texas today on Dallas, and that was the game last year that Spencer got benched and lost his starting quarterback job,” Beamer said. “I told him on Tuesday, ‘This is gonna be one heck of a story when you go to Lexington on Saturday night and get this win for us.’ ”
Rattler had every reason to smirk just before midnight on Saturday — even if he won’t ever truly verbalize the quiet part.
Message received. Loud and clear.
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 8:30 AM.
