Dowell Loggains Dishes On Spencer Rattler's Growing Football Mind
The journey of Spencer Rattler has been unlike most quarterbacks of his caliber at the collegiate level. From his promising 2020 season leading Oklahoma to a Big 12 Championship to being benched in 2021 for then Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams, from his slow start last Fall to leading the Gamecocks to back-to-back wins over Top 10 programs, the Arizona native has endured a lot of highs and lows.
One of the benefits of Rattler's journey has been the different offensive systems he's now seen, having soaked up the knowledge of offensive guru Lincoln Riley, dealt with the complexities of Marcus Satterfield's pro-style offense, and now is learning from new offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who has 16 years of NFL experience. On Wednesday afternoon, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains spoke with media about how much leeway Spencer Rattler has regarding his control over the offense and talked in detail about how Spencer being forced to a certain degree to adapt to new offenses has helped him over time.
"We wanted to introduce some concepts in Spring ball and figure out what he likes," Dowell explained. "He does have advantages; he's played in three different offensive systems, and that's advantageous [when] learning [about] football. It's not always advantageous to having success on the field, but your football mind has grown every time you play in a new system," Loggains said.
One of the things that the Gamecocks' new offensive play-caller has emphasized to Rattler is the importance of having everybody on the same page and making sure that protections and routes tie in with what he's trying to accomplish. His growth of knowledge in Loggains' offense has helped Spencer in terms of his communication pre-snap, according to Dowell.
"In the classroom is one thing. I can get us in the right play in the classroom, but now all of the sudden, the bullets are flying, and it's live, and you've got a pass rush, and they're disguising. Can you check plays there? And for right now, [Rattler's] doing an awful lot at the line of scrimmage, and that's because he's earned that right, and we've filled his toolbox, and the more he can handle, the more we'll give him."
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