Spencer Rattler offers first remarks about future, what’s next with South Carolina

Quarterback Spencer Rattler is still weighing options for his football future.

“My focus right right now is just finishing out this last game or two and we’ll go from there,” Rattler told reporters at Tuesday’s weekly South Carolina media session.

The former Oklahoma quarterback is in his first year at USC following his transfer from Norman in December. He has two years of college eligibility remaining, but could opt to enter the NFL Draft following the season.

“(I didn’t want to) back down from competition,” Rattler said of what he wanted to improve on over the course of the 2022 season. “I could’ve gone to the Pac-12 or something like that. There are defenses here (in the Southeastern Conference) that get you better as a player. I wanted to come here and win a lot big games, which we have been doing. And we’ve still got games to finish out.”

Rattler was perceived as a possible No. 1 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft before an up-and-down season at OU that saw him eventually benched for five-star freshman Caleb Williams.

The Arizona native had his best game in his brief South Carolina tenure last week in the upset win over then-No. 5 Tennessee. Rattler completed 30 of 37 passes for 438 yards and set a school record with six passing touchdowns in the contest.

He was named the Maxwell Award player of the week, Walter Camp co-offensive player of the week and Southeastern Conference co-offensive player of the week.

Rattler has completed 66.9% of his 311 passes for 2,406 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions — seven picks of which came over the first five games of the season.

So, what would an NFL team would get in Rattler?

“They’re getting a fantastic human being, first of all,” head coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday. “They’re getting a great teammate. They would be getting a guy that works really, really hard during the week to be his very best on Saturday.

“... They would be getting a guy with just unbelievable talent. He made some — I don’t even know what the word is — amazing throws on Saturday night. He really did. You go back and watch the tape and you’re even more amazed by it. He’s got great talent and those NFL teams see that. I don’t know when it’ll be, but certainly when he chooses to go to the next level, he’s got a football future in front of him.”

South Carolina wraps up the regular season this Saturday against Clemson. The Gamecocks (7-4) will then learn their bowl fate on Dec. 4.