Ate Em Up Winner vs. SC State

After posting the winner for the Kentucky game, I realized I missed picking someone for the SC State game. I'm going to blame it on the weird hurricane schedule and not me just letting it slip my mind or because I was pissed I didn't get to watch the 2nd half live.

For some reason we've put up 50 points in back to back games, but there wasn't a lot of "buzz" about it. I know, "we should have beaten them like that." Yeah, we should, but we very rarely do, and to have 2 back to back like that should, at the very least, be enjoyed.

Since it's been a week since the game took place, I went back and rewatched (most of) it.

Almost instantly, the player that stood out to me was QB1 #7 Spencer Rattler.

I know, "BuT hE tHrEw TwO pIcKs" (yes, I said picks instead of interceptions so I didn't have to keep thinking which letters to capitalize).

Correct! On his stat sheet it's going to show 2 interceptions, but neither of those were on him. Were they 100% perfect balls? No. We're they 100% catchable balls? Yes! If you asked everyone involved, including Leggett, I'd put money on every single person would say those balls should have been caught.

Spencer had a helluva game, and I think it's because of those 2 plays that people aren't giving him the recognition that he really deserves.

He hit Brooks on the deep ball (still a hair under-thrown but you can tell he's dialing it in), had a couple of really nice throws on the run, dropped it over some DBs in zone on multiple passes, and he tucked it and took off a few times to pick up yards, first downs, and even ran for a TD.

I believe this was the game that it clicked for Rattler at SC. What do I have to go on? Absolutely nothing but my eye test.

To me, it just looked like he settled a little more and he made his reads/decisions a split second quicker.

And being able to see the future and what he did at Kentucky ... it really looks like he's starting to have fun again.

If asked, I'm sure he'd tell you he's always loved the game and all this, but I can tell you from personal experience. When you've been playing really well consistently for a period of time, maybe you had a bad game but nothing outrageous, and the coach pulls you and you lose your job. It eats at you like nothing on this planet and you start to question every little piece of your game.

Against SC State, I saw a little extra pep. Against Kentucky I saw some swagger back in his step. He started running down the field after a big play, started fist pumping, and couldn't keep the smile off his face after the Stog TD pass.

I think Spencer Rattler is about to take the step that we've all expected to see this season, and when we look back at when it started to spark ... I'm going to look at the SC State game, because he ATE EM UP!