Marcus Satterfield jokes that maybe he was too blunt.
Satterfield spoke to Spencer Rattler the first time he talked to him, even though he had been criticized as South Carolina's offensive coach.
The same Spencer Rattler who was one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal and the same Spencer Rattler who was benched at Oklahoma last season.
You're pissed and I'm pissed. Satterfield told Rattler that they should come together and play pissed off.
Satterfield was only getting started after having to shuffle through four quarterbacks last season.
People think you don't do anything. You know what? Satterfield told Rattler that people think he sucks as well. Let's use that.
As soon as Satterfield got off the phone, he thought, "I hope I didn't offend him."
Clearly, he did not. Less than two weeks later, Rattler committed to South Carolina, a huge offseason win for head coach Shane Beamer and the team, and he has reveled in the challenge of helping the Gamecocks capitalize on their late-season momentum from a year ago, when they gutted out seven wins,
The annual Garnet and Black spring game will be held at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday. The SEC Network and the ESPYS are included.
RattIer said that a lot of guys don't get another chance to start over.
I found the right place whenAnywhere was going to be better.
Rattler had a lot of people interested in him. Arizona State, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pittsburgh and UCLA were interested. He said Kiffin flew to Arizona to meet him. Rattler did a virtual tour of the campus, but he didn't visit it.
Rattler said that he knew he could trust the way Beamer rides with his players because he was an assistant at Oklahoma.
You can feel it here, this community, this city, these fans. We are on the rise.
Rattler loved Satterfield and the familiarity with Beamer was a big factor in his decision.
Rattler said that he and his new offensive coach clicked. I love it because I am the same way.
The ace in the hole in landing Rattler might have been Austin Stogner, who transferred to South Carolina from Oklahoma and took his visit to Columbia right after the regular season ended.
Stogner called Rattler, who already knew he was leaving Oklahoma, after his visit.
This place is going to be special. Rattler recalled a conversation he had with Stogner, a former four-star recruit who was heavily pursued in the portal and visited Ohio State and Iowa State. This is where I needed to be.
Rattler, who has already landed an NIL deal with a local car dealership, is aware of the expectations. The South Carolina fan base is hungry for a return to national relevancy after the team finished in the top 10 in the final polls for three straight seasons under Steve Spurrier.
The team is looking for a difference-maker at the most important position on the field after entering last season without a single healthy quarterback who had started an SEC game. After Noland was injured in Week 3, the team turned to Doty, who was a graduate assistant coach. They played receiver-turned-quarterback Dakereon Joyner in the 38-21 win over North Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Bowl after starting quarterback Jason Brown was injured.
You better have a guy at that position if you want to be successful. You don't have a chance if you don't have a quarterback. Having a guy like Spencer in here who has started double-digit college games, has won a conference championship and has been through the fires is a great feeling, and then to have a guy who is as talented as Spencer is even better.
Rattler is one of the highest-ranked players to ever step foot on South Carolina's campus, and the kind of player Satterfield and the Gamecocks could use. They were ranked 95th in passing offense and tied for 104th in scoring offense. The only two SEC teams with less than 100 pass plays of 10 yards or longer were South Carolina and Commodores.
We didn't have anyone like Spencer last year. Jaheim Bell, a junior tight end/H-back who has been out this spring with an injury but will line up any number of places this fall, said a lot of teams don't. We couldn't really make those throws last year.
You can say "We got us one" if you watch him on the field.
The RATTLER-OKLAHOMA break-up seemed inevitable as the season progressed, as it might have been a year ago. During a narrow 16-13 victory over West Virginia in late September, Rattler faced boos from the home fans in Norman and chants of "We want Caleb". He was painted as a bad teammate.
"All that was foreign to me, and I was there with him for two years," said Beamer, the Sooners' assistant head coach for offense and tight ends. He was benched for a short time against Texas in 2020 and then came back out in the second half and led us to a four-overtime win and did not lose a game the rest of the season.
The Spencer was prepared to be the starter in the spring of 2019. Whatever he was made out to be or whatever the narrative was, I saw who he was.
Stogner says that Rattler went back into the game against Texas to throw the 2-point conversion pass to tie the score in the Sooners 55-48 win. Rattler was benched just before halftime after throwing an pick-six and losing a ball. Williams came off the bench to spark the OU comeback against the Longhorns, then guided the Sooners to three more wins before they lost two of their last three games.
Stogner said that the facts of what happened with Spencer look a little different than what people think. He won a conference championship, which is the kind of thing most teams would kill for from their quarterback. How quickly they turned on him is crazy.
For anyone to say that he was a bad teammate doesn't make sense to me. I guess he was such a bad teammate that one of his teammates wanted to play with him at South Carolina.
Stogner and Rattler talked on their cellphones with their fathers to tell Beamer that they were going to South Carolina. When he got the call, he was watching Monday Night Football.
The first thing Beamer asked was, "Are y'all serious?".
Realizing they were, Beamer put the phone down and ran outside to yell.
Stogner said that he was so excited when he was told that his son was crying, that he was laughing.
As the season wound down in Norman, Rattler and Stogner had little to laugh about. Stogner said that nobody in the locker room knew that Riley was leaving for USC after the Sooners lost to Oklahoma State. The news broke the next day.
It was weird that Coach Riley never addressed the LSU rumors. Stogner said that it became a distraction for the last game. He kept it a secret. He said it all happened in 12 hours.
It was time for both of us to leave even if Riley stayed, and I don't know how Spencer could have handled things any better. He was competing in practice and trying to get better. It's funny how a 21-year-old handles it better than some of the fans out there.
Rattler doesn't spend a lot of time looking back or trying to figure out how things went so badly at OU. He chooses his words carefully, but it is clear that a few scars remain.
Rattler said that the toxicity of last season was out of his control. I can tell you that we were perfect at the time I was benched. We won a championship the year before and were going to win another. I could go on and on.
We had a great summer and then the season started and we didn't play up to par. I feel like we were not given enough time to bond. We lost two games and didn't win another championship because of the quicktriggers.
It was out of my control. I gave my all for my teammates and the real coaches.
The perception that Rattler could be a problem in the locker room stems from his high school days when he was featured in a series.
A lot of people like to criticize me because of a reality TV show when I was a teenager, Rattler said. I was never a bad teammate.
During his time in the transfer portal, Beamer never talked to Riley about Rattler.
I did not need to because I had no reservations about bringing him into the program.
The new teammates at South Carolina were watching closely when he arrived. He was texting with a few of them. Rattler and Bell were both recruited by Oklahoma.
Bell said they went to Five Guys to eat after he arrived.
Bell called Beamer before he made the final push for Rattler and Stogner, who will arrive in May after graduating from OU with a degree in marketing. It was brief.
Bell told his coach to bring them on.
Smith and Rattler have been at it on the practice field. There has been some banter between the two.
I have gotten him a couple of times, but I am not going to lie. Smith, a second-team All-SEC selection a year ago, said he has gotten him a couple times. You like the swagger. You can see him getting it back. He will make a good throw down the field.
Rattler's family is very close. His parents live in the Phoenix area. Rattler has had a girlfriend since high school and his sister plays beach volleyball at Missouri State University. Mike and Susan have already booked their flights for the games.
Rattler's quarterbacks coach has been the same since he was 11. Mike Giovando has 20 Division I quarterbacks under his care and said Rattler has become even more determined since his reset at South Carolina.
A lot of guys want to take the month of May off, but not Spencer. He knows what kind of auditioning he will get this coming season, and he is fired up.
In a text message, Mike Rattler said that he and his wife have decided not to do any interviews at this time, but that they are excited for the team and looking forward to seeing what they can do.
Rattler racked up 4,595 passing yards, 40 touchdown and 12 interceptions at Oklahoma, and his teammates, especially the ones he will be throwing to, are also.
Senior receiver Josh Vann made up his mind before Rattler arrived that he was going to block out everything he had heard about the new quarterback.
Vann said that he was going to rely on his own eyes and ears.
It was about the fifth practice of spring that Vann knew it was going to be a different game.
Vann said that he was thrown a pass and it went through four people. Having the talent to throw the ball says more than having the composure to do it.
The Rattler doesn't need a lot of room to get rid of the ball.
Rattler was attracted to the pro-style offense of the South Carolina. He was in the shotgun most of the time at Oklahoma, but this spring he has been under center 70% of the time. Rattler said he has learned a lot more about reading defenses than he ever did at Oklahoma.
Rattler said he was comfortable out there and learning more about football.
Satterfield was impressed by the way Rattler set the tone in the quarterback meeting room and the way he was willing to coach the younger guys. Rattler keeps three notebooks, one for team meetings, one for position meetings and one for his own thoughts.
Satterfield said that it would be easy for him to ignore the walk-ons in our room. He has been amazing for our entire room.
Rattler is in a protective bubble of being perfect. He has yet to throw an pick or overthrow an open receiver on a key third-down play for the Gamecocks, and a daunting start to the 2020 season awaits with a trip to Arkansas in Week 2 and a home game against defending national champion Georgia in Week 3.
Even so, there is a buzz around Columbia, especially given the way Beamer found a way to squeeze out seven wins in his first season, and it has only grown louder as South Carolina fans anticipate Rattler's debut on Sept. 3 against Georgia State.
You can stroll through the Five Points bar district in Columbia, or even other towns scattered throughout the state, and you will see people wearing aBeamer/Rattler shirt.
Rattler said that he never expected to be in South Carolina, but that he was excited to see what would happen.
He is not the only one.
Vann said that he could have gone anywhere. They call it the "Shane Train," a train that is definitely going forward, no back steps, no backups, and no brakes.
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