Shane Beamer was sick and tired of the narrative surrounding Spencer Rattler during the NFL Draft. His two-year starting quarterback at South Carolina drew a lot of criticism for his attitude and slipped out of the third round in a year where the position is at a premium.
The head coach shut down all of the chatter ahead of Day 3 on Saturday morning.
Rattler, the No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2019, has been subject to a lot of scrutiny throughout his football career— dating back to his time on QB1: Beyond The Lights. A not-so-flattering clip from the Netflix series has haunted him for years and his attitude toward Caleb Williams at Oklahoma did not help.
However, people change.
It seems like forever ago that Rattler was benched for the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner in Norman. His time with the Gamecocks should be the focus. He made a conscious effort to grow as a leader and learned how to deal with the haters in Columbia.
Althoug his team did not win as many games as it might have hoped, Rattler displayed maturity. There was never any character concerns during his two years at South Carolina. If anything, it was the opposite. The 23-year-old received a lot of praise for his temperament and mentality.
Despite all of this, ESPN’s Pete Thamel said that NFL teams are hesitant — in part because of his size and speed, but mostly because of who he was, not necessarily who he is.
It’s interesting, I talked to scouts tonight about why we haven’t heard Spencer Rattler’s name yet, one is there’s really no middle class of quarterbacks anymore. This is the third time in the last seven years we’ve not heard a quarterback’s name in the second round.
And then it comes to down to Spencer Rattler’s tangibles and intangibles. No one questions Spencer Rattler’s arm, but he’s just 6 feet tall and he runs a [4.5]-flat 40. And then there’s the intangibles about Rattler, especially going back to his days at Oklahoma when he lost the job to Caleb Williams.
There’s questions about his work ethic, questions about his attitude and you have to ask the question if you draft him: Can you trust him to come in and be a backup?
— Pete Thamel
Beamer, who recruited Spencer Rattler to the SEC and coached him for two years, went scorched earth on the chatter about his quarterback at the tail end of the third round.
Such a tired , lazy narrative. And bullcrap
None of the NFL teams that called me said that….And any team that thinks that clearly hasn’t done their research
He dealt w adversity at OU in a class way , came to SC , was a great player and was voted by his TEAMMATES as a captain …TWO YEARS IN A ROW
He’s a great person , great player and some team is getting a future starter [on Day 3]
— @CoachSBeamer on X
Beamer knows Rattler better than anybody at this point in his career and will never not speak his mind. Mic drop!