South Carolina football senior Quarterback Spencer Rattler, who was put on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award just last week, was not selected as a preseason watch list nominee for the Davey O’Brien Award on Tuesday. Rattler was chosen for inclusion as a preseason watch list member last season.
Rattler has had an up-and-down career, but the former 5-star quarterback is as talented as any quarterback in college football and has NFL scouts drooling over his abilities and lamenting the fact that he pulled his name out of NFL Draft consideration last year.
If the South Carolina football signal-caller can put it all together in 2023, the Gamecocks will be a dangerous bunch, and there is plenty of evidence suggesting he can do just that, no matter what the Davey O’Brien Foundation might think.
Rattler’s comfort level in Loggains’ scheme appears much greater than the mess he played in last year under Marcus Satterfield, and as #7 has shown throughout his career, when he is comfortable, he can make plays.
Against Tennessee and Clemson last season, Rattler had two of his best games of the year (including one of the best performances in college football history against Tennessee), and the “much simpler” approach taken in those contests has been talked about extensively since those big Gamecock victories.
Loggains appears committed to a simple offensive system, and South Carolina football fans can’t wait to see what Rattler can accomplish while playing free and comfortably.
Rattler also returns his top target Juice Wells, one of the best receivers in the country. Newcomers at tight end in Trey Knox (a Mackey Award watch list selection) and Josh Simon could be big contributors, and freshman receiver Nyck Harbor is a unicorn who has Olympic speed despite being 6’5″ and 240 pounds.
The Gamecocks will play a difficult schedule in 2023, but if Spencer Rattler can perform like he is capable, the upward trajectory established under Shane Beamer will continue propelling the South Carolina football program up the mountain that is the college football hierarchy.
No Gamecock has ever won the Davey O’Brien Award. Only Todd Ellis, Steve Taneyhill, Connor Shaw, Jake Bentley, and Spencer Rattler (2022) have made the preseason watch list from USC in the award’s 50-year history.
Rattler shouldn’t have been viewed as one of the favorites for the award, but considering 35 quarterbacks made the list (including Clemson’s Cade Klubnik who has just two career starts and has thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes), Rattler deserved a nomination at minimum.
Hopefully for Rattler and South Carolina football fans, the disrespectful omission will serve as additional motivation for Rattler heading into his final season in Columbia.