South Carolina football has a mixed bag of expectations for the 2023 season. Much of the variance in these expectations comes from the Gamecocks’ inconsistency in 2022.
Will this season’s team look more like the one that lost in ugly fashion to Missouri and Florida last fall, or will it resemble something close to the one that dismantled playoff-hopeful Tennessee and completed the orange hush with a road victory over rival Clemson?
Much of South Carolina football’s success, at least on offense, hinges upon the arm (and decision-making) of quarterback Spencer Rattler. Sure, the Gamecocks have a brand new offensive coordinator, and the running back room is an unproven unit, but Rattler has demonstrated the ability, when he is “on,” to carry a team even without a quality coordinator or running game.
Last year’s games against Tennessee and Clemson were under the direction of long-embattled offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield (now at Nebraska) and without much of a rushing attack.
By all accounts, Rattler has had a very good offseason, and there have been many non-Gamecock affiliated outlets that have climbed aboard the Spencer Rattler hype train.
The latest group to give some love to the South Carolina signal-caller is the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Selection Committee. On Tuesday, Rattler was chosen as a member of the preseason watch list for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, one of three major quarterback awards given to the nation’s top quarterback each season.
Earlier this summer, Rattler was selected to the preseason watch list for the Manning Award but was left off of the list for the Davey O’Brien Award.
There is not always an overlap between the winners of each of the three quarterbacking awards. Last season, for example, three quarterbacks brought home hardware as TCU’s Max Duggan won the Davey O’Brien and Manning Awards, but Georgia’s Stetson Bennett secured the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Oh, yeah, and Southern Cal’s Caleb Williams won the Heisman Trophy.
The entire list of preseason nominees for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award can be found here.