Everything Dowell Loggains said about Spencer Rattler
It’s been a really good start to the season for South Carolina’s quarterback Spencer Rattler, and Dowell Loggains got the chance again to speak on his abilities.
The Gamecocks’ quarterback is on pace for one of the more prolific passing seasons in program history and Loggains shed some light on his start Wednesday. Here’s what he had to say.
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On trusting Rattler with the South Caroilna offense:
“The line I always tell Spencer–it’s biblical–to much is given much is required. He’s earned my trust. Some days with him you feel like Superman as a playcaller. Call anything and he’ll make it right. He’s spaghetti sauce. He’ll cover up anything. He gets you out of bad plays and into good plays. I can’t speak enough through the first four weeks what he’s meant to me and my confidence as a play caller, my confidence in this offense.
You can take more risks. You’re not sitting there at midnight asking yourself, ‘What if they do this? What if they do that?’ You’re like, I bet we can teach Spencer if he sees this to get to that. That doesn’t happen very often. He’s had a really good four weeks. It’s just four weeks, though. This is the first quarter of the season.
Now we’re entering the second quarter…He’s done a nice job through four weeks. He has to continue to progress and get better. He deserves a lot of the credit he’s getting–he deserves all of it–and the accolades. But it still comes down to work and preparation. It’s every day. Every day is an interview in this conference.”
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On Rattler running the ball
“I feel like when he’s vibing he’s excited. You can see when he’s having fun. But it’s like, ‘Hey, take care of the ball, take care of your body, get what you can and get down.’ We don’t need to take unnecessary hits. At that moment, he wanted to win the game so badly. He was playing one play at a time. That mindset and seeing the big picture, taking care of the football and his body cause he’s very important to us. There are times when you need to do that stuff. But there’s part of it where you know when the journey is over and get down.”
On Rattler improvising and running late
“It was an RPO and he turned it into a zone read. I understand why he did it, and it’s playing above the Xs and Os…That’s why I call him spaghetti sauce. He had a read on the play and saw a weakness in the defense and improvised. He played above the Xs and Os. that’s spencer. That’s not play call, that’s play design. That’s not anything other than Spencer being a really talented player. He makes play calls better. That’s what you want in a quarterback. There are very few guys who can do it on Sundays and few guys on Saturdays who can do it like he does.”
On what Rattler can improve on for South Carolina
“The way he’s seeing the field, I don’t want to be super critical of him. But there’s an urgency we have to have as a coach to not let people relax. I still think he can improve. he’s played really good football. He’s played four really good games. You’re careful to give credit in losses. You have to guard against it. He’s getting accolades and praise outside cause of the way he’s playing.
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But you have to understand what got you to this point. You have to stay intense and hungry and continue to work and do the things that have allowed you to play with your preparation to this point. To me, it’s a brand new week. It’s awesome you played great through four games. You’ve played super impressive. But that doesn’t matter now. We’ve built confidence, sure. Everyone in that (South Carolina) locker room knows who our quarterback is and how talented he is. But we have a ton of work to do this week to play well.
I don’t want him to lose that edge and that momentum he’s created. It’s a long season. We’re just a quarter through it. I know he’s locked in on that. I don’t want to go into details but it’s stretching our dorps, making good decisions with the football, knowing when to throw it away, when to scramble and when the journey is over. There are situational things he’s improving on. He is. He’s seeing things and learning things for the first time. I’m really happy with where he’s at but we’re just starting with this thing. The preparation and hard work has to continue.”
On trusting Rattler with the South Carolina offense
“It started in spring ball when I first got here… I’m very guarded about giving too many compliments. This position is really hard. When you see him able to handle the burden of a bad play or a play call that’s not ideal for the coverage and to be able to check and get through a progression. All of a sudden you feel that as a coach. That touchdown to Legette–the long one–he’s number three in the progression. That means he’s going one, two, three. Very few people can get to number three in a progression.
Most people are going one, maybe two then take off running. He’s sitting in there, staring things down. He Georgia play where we had the drop, that’s number three in the progression. You’re sitting in there, staring it down in the pocket and making accurate throws. If this isn’t open, he’ll get to three. The way plays are built, you go through a pure progression play it’s one, two, three, four. Sometimes it’s a progression with an option where it’s one, two, three but if it’s quarters (coverage) you can do this. When they start seeing this stuff and they understand defenses so well and they’re saying, ‘It’s quarters so that’s why I did that.’ It’s like wow he’s starting to see things really well. That is where the trust is built.
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It’s not like he made a great throw. All of us can watch him throw. My wife can go out there and watch him throw one-on-one. He’s got every club in his bag. He’s got every nab throw, he knows when to back shoulder and knows when to throw it over a top. But when you watch get to three and four in the progression, scramble up and find the check down? The throw to Mario (Anderson), he’s going through a progression and gets hit on his right shoulder and checks the ball down to Mario on the right side. That’s a huge play no one is talking about. That leads to points. Some quarterbacks their eyes go down, collapse in the pocket and they panic. When you see that, that builds trust.
If you’re seeing that and executing that and not getting rattled in the pocket, whatever we call is going to be good. If one’s not open, he’ll get to two or three and keep his eyes downfield. That’s when you start to have a lot of confidence as a play caller. The other thing he does, it lets everyone know there are five viable options on this play…It’s not like 7-on-7 where it’s one-two and take off scrambling. As a player and coach, that’s where the confidence is built. Confidence is built from demonstrated ability.”
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