How quarterback Spencer Rattler shined at South Carolina’s Pro Day

Spencer Rattler heaved the ball to the moon. It was like he was aiming for a target that wasn’t there, loading up for a 65-yard heave that forced every head in the building to arch.

Then it dropped like an arrow into the breadbasket of receiver Eddie Lewis, who shuffled his feet and fell backward into the end zone. During South Carolina’s on-campus Pro Day on Tuesday, Rattler threw the ball over 60 times in front of NFL scouts and personnel. You could argue that no pass was prettier than this one.

“I looked around when he did it and people’s eyes were like (massive),” said Mike Giovando, Rattler’s longtime quarterback coach. “If you tell me he ain’t one of the top two, three throwers in the draft, you’re crazy.”

For Rattler, Tuesday was like a play. It had been rehearsed, run through. Every throw, every motion staged out and practiced for weeks. Giovando, who’s been working with Rattler for over a decade, was not just in attendance. He ran Rattler and the Gamecocks’ pass catchers through the script like Steven Spielberg.

He knew how everything was supposed to look and, yet, he stood on the sidelines after Pro Day wrapped up still shaking his head in awe.

“He was deadly accurate today,” Giovando told The State. “He was letting those go from the 35 (yard line), so you’re talking 65 (yards) on a dime ... He just has great control of the ball. If he wants to touch it in there, jump shot it in there, if he wants to rip in in there, (he can).”

Rattler showcased just about every throw an NFL quarterback needs to make. Screen passes. Hitches. Ten-yard out routes. Twenty-yard out routes. Crossers. Fifty-yard go balls. Deep fades to the end-zone. Red-zone jump balls. Crossing routes two yards from the goal line. Throws on the run. Throws after escaping invisible pressure.

And it felt like Rattler never missed. If a ball was incomplete, it was probably dropped. On the deep balls, which he went 0 for 3 on at the NFL Combine, Rattler looked like a machine. And while some might scoff at that notion, given the lack of any defenders, Giovando argued accuracy can be more difficult in a mostly-empty building with few bodies to measure depth-perception. Rattler, he said, was throwing to spots — and nailing them.

“He’s even better when there’s defenders,” Giovando said. “You just get a better feel for where that ball needs to go.”

Rattler has had a busy two-and-a-half months going through this draft process. His training began just after Christmas on high school fields in Arizona with Giovando. It continued at the Exos training facility in the desert with Gamecocks receiver Xavier Legette.

And it included a stop at the Reese’s Senior Bowl, where he won the game’s MVP with a stellar performance, continued to the NFL Combine two weeks ago and marched on to Tuesday’s Pro Day.

“Going to the Senior Bowl, I had my mind set on just creating relationships with those guys. Accomplished that,” Rattler said. “Wanted to get quarterback of the week and MVP of the game. Accomplished that. Wanted to go to the combine and show we could spin it with anybody. Feel like we did that.”

At the moment, most mock drafts have Rattler slotted as a late third round, early fourth round selection.

Rattler noted throughout the past few months that he’s probably met with every NFL team. But things will get a little more serious over the next few weeks. With the draft a month and a half away, Rattler will fly to a few NFL facilities for interviews, and some teams will fly to Arizona to meet with him.

On Tuesday night, Giovando said, Rattler is flying to Atlanta for a Wednesday meeting with the Falcons. Next week, he’ll fly back to his home in Arizona and meet with the Cardinals. The Denver Broncos will head to the Grand Canyon State soon after for an in-person meeting with Rattler. And April will bring much of the same.

“I’m interested to talk with as many (teams) as I can,” Rattler said.

And for the team that selects the former Gamecock, Giovando has a message: He’s gonna work his way onto the field — and stay there.

“When they get him, they’re gonna get a starter,” Giovando said. “And if he has to go sit behind a vet for a year or two or whatever it takes, a lot of the great ones did it.”