Rattler, who was benched at OU for eventual No. 1 pick Caleb Williams — coincidentally during the next year’s iteration of the Red River rivalry — went on to pull off more heroics at South Carolina. In the words of Beamer, “He came here and did a lot of things in his first season as a starter that had never been done before.”

That includes becoming the first Gamecocks QB to beat Texas A&M, and the first to win back-to-back games against top-10 opponents.

That’s what the Saints are hoping for today and this upcoming Thursday night when New Orleans hosts the Broncos in Week 7. To the public, it was a mild surprise when head coach Dennis Allen made this decision, considering Jake Haener began the season as the backup QB to Carr.

Yet, Rattler impressed in the spring, leaving New Orleans thinking it’d gotten a steal in the fifth round. It was more of the same in the preseason for Rattler, who boasts significant upside. Allen described this past week of practice as a positive one, and Rattler could give the offense an added dimension with his running ability.

“He has a no-flinch mentality,” Allen said. “That’s what we saw a lot of in training camp as he grew each week and ultimately some of the reps we saw in preseason reflected that.”

Beamer saw plenty of that at South Carolina, noting two more examples.

In 2022, his team lost, 38-6, to Florida, a particularly brutal game. All Rattler did was throw six TDs for a stunning upset of No. 5 Tennessee the following week.

“Very few QBs can flush a bad week from the week before and truly go into the next week thinking and believing they’re going to throw for six TDs and his team will score 63 points,” Beamer said. “He played out of his mind.”

Against rival Clemson the next week, Rattler threw an early pick-six to Tigers star linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., now with the Eagles.

“He jogs off and winks at me,” Beamer said, laughing. “Like, ‘My bad.’ He knew he made a mistake. He came back and made some big-time throws, leading us to victory.”