COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gamecocks quarterback Spencer Rattler has been selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 2024 NFL Draft, the start of the next chapter in his playing career.
Rattler was taken Saturday with the 15th pick in the fifth round of the draft, which is being held this year in Detroit.
It's the latest turn in the quarterback's somewhat circuitous path to the NFL, taking him from his home in Arizona, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and now Louisiana.
Rattler came out of high school as one of the top (or depending which ranking you look at, the top) signal-calling prospects in America in 2019. Growing up near Phoenix, Arizona he was a a can't miss recruit, breaking the state's all-time passing yards record. He was even featured in the Netflix series called "QB 1: Beyond the Lights" which profiled top quarterback in high school football.
He chose to play for Coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, a team with an explosive offense known for turning quarterbacks into NFL-ready prospects. After redshirting for a year, he threw for 3,021 yards and 28 touchdowns as a freshman for Oklahoma in 2021.
In 2022, he seemed poised to take college football by storm and was a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate. But he struggled in some early games, leading to him being replaced on the field by Caleb Williams, who at the time was a freshman at Oklahoma. (And who, incidentally, was the number one overall pick in this year's draft after transferring to Southern Cal).
After Riley left to become the head coach at Southern Cal, Rattler entered the transfer portal and came to play for the South Carolina Gamecocks. It was a reteaming with Coach Shane Beamer, who'd been an an assistant with the Sooners and had helped recruit Rattler to Oklahoma.
In just two years in Columbia, he passed for 6,212 yards, fifth all-time in Carolina history. He also ranks first in Gamecock history in career completion percentage (.675), fifth in completions (523), and ninth in passing touchdowns (37).
He also led the team to two signature wins in 2022: a 63-38 thrashing of then number five Tennessee, who'd been one of the top teams in the country all year long, and a 31-30 win over arch-rival and number seven Clemson, ending the Gamecocks nine-game losing streak to the Tigers.
In his final year with the Gamecocks, Rattler had 3,186 passing yards and 19 touchdowns, including a 399-yard performance against Mississippi State where he made multiple big plays with wide receiver Xavier Legette, who was picked in the first round of this year's draft.
