It has been since 1980 that a South Carolina football player hoisted the Heisman Trophy. George Rogers was college football’s premier player that season, and despite some moderate consideration for USC greats like Sterling Sharpe, Alshon Jeffery, Marcus Lattimore, Connor Shaw, and Jadeveon Clowney, no Gamecock has been a serious contender for the award since Rogers.
This year, the Gamecocks have a senior leader who could be forcing himself into the Heisman conversation.
Quarterback Spencer Rattler is the most important player for South Carolina football on-field success in 2023. The gunslinging signal-caller has as much talent as almost any other quarterback in the country, and if he is “on,” #7 can lead the Gamecocks to victory over any team in the country. Last year’s games against Tennessee and Clemson proved that point.
However, “on” was not an apt descriptor for much of his 2022 campaign. South Carolina football fans are hoping that replacing Marcus Satterfield with Dowell Loggains as offensive coordinator will solve most of the issues that limited their starting quarterback’s effectiveness last fall.
So far, that’s exactly what has happened for Spencer Rattler and the Gamecocks.
The South Carolina football captain has been elite so far in 2023, going 55-66 for 698 yards, with 4 total touchdowns, and no turnovers despite poor offensive line play, including an SEC Offensive Player of the Week award in week 2.
Some national outlets have started buying into the Spencer Rattler hype after his tremendous start to the 2023 campaign.
According to several betting outlets, he opened the offseason with the 15th-best odds to win college football’s most prestigious award but fell off considerably this summer. Rattler was not even included by some sportsbooks when they opened the 2023 season betting odds in the preseason.
In updated betting lines, however, Rattler has moved back into the top-30 nationally in Heisman Trophy odds according to both DraftKings (+15000) and Fan Duel (+12000), and his odds are even better according to VegasInsider (+10000).
If the future NFL Draft pick spends most of this fall looking like the player he has the first two weeks of the season, those odds will only move more in his favor as the season moves along.