Think about the road for Spencer Rattler, and how this thing has unraveled over the years.

And how it may not be over just yet.

High school star, freshman college star, benched, transferred and rock bottom.

And all the way back up.

“We’re going to win the game in the second half because of (Rattler),” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said at halftime of Saturday’s Clemson game.

And the Gamecocks did it — behind Rattler, their embattled yet suddenly hot quarterback, a few defensive stops and a team that willed itself to snap Clemson’s 7-game winning streak in the bitter rivalry.

Now what?

Now what for Rattler, who 2 years ago was projected as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft — but instead sat on the bench in 2021 at Oklahoma after getting pulled one month into the season?

He arrived at South Carolina and talked about how Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley didn’t believe in him, and how this staff at South Carolina was different. Beamer stuck with Rattler through 2 months of shaky play, and never pulled him.

Does Rattler now pay back South Carolina by playing 1 more season of college football?

“He’s not a 1st-round pick. He’s not a Day 2 pick,” an NFL scout told me Saturday afternoon after the Gamecocks’ win.

So if you’re not selected in the first 3 rounds of the draft, why come out?

“He can come out, and he’ll get picked in the 6th or 7th round and maybe he can make a team,” the scout said. “Or he goes back and tries to work his way back.”

To be fair to Rattler, South Carolina hasn’t been complete on the offensive line for most of the season. They’ve dealt with numerous injuries, had to play multiple players at different positions and only recently got healthy.

Protection has been, at times, terrible. He was sacked 24 times going into the Clemson game and was pressured and harassed twice as many times.

It’s no coincidence that when the line got healthy, Rattler began to play like the guy projected to be the No. 1 overall pick. He began to make big throws in big moments — and South Carolina went from losing by 32 to an average Florida team, to back-to-back wins over top-10 teams for the first time in school history.

Let me say that again: the first time in school history.

But this game, this biggest win of the season because of recruiting (high school and transfer portal) implications, began with Rattler throwing a pick-6 and included another interception in the end zone. He was also sacked 3 times.

That’s when Beamer, whose team had outplayed Clemson in the first half and trailed by 9 because of those mistakes, declared during a halftime interview on ESPN that South Carolina would win because of Rattler. Not despite him.

So after South Carolina scored in the 3rd quarter to close to 2 points down, and Clemson responded with a big scoring drive to move it back to 9 late in the 3rd, Rattler made a statement: a perfectly thrown deep ball to Antwane Wells Jr., that sucked the life from Death Valley.

This wasn’t the same South Carolina. It wasn’t the same Rattler.

The defense got sticky, and Clemson got conservative, and the next thing you knew, Rattler led another drive (4-for-4, 38 yards) that ended with the eventual game-winning field goal.

Over the next 8 minutes, Clemson went 3-and-out, 2 plays and an interception, and 5-and-out — and never got the ball again after Antonio Williams fumbled a punt return with 2 minutes to play.

“I told them after we stunk it up in Gainesville 2 weeks ago, ‘You have a chance these next 2 weeks to completely change everything with this program,'” Beamer said. “And damn if they didn’t.”

Beamer could have easily been speaking about Rattler.

After 10 games, he had 6 TDs and 7 INTs and the Gamecocks were limping away from Gainesville with the look of a team careening toward a 6-6 season.

Then Rattler accounted for 9 TDs (8 pass) against Tennessee and Clemson, and the offense found itself. The defense rallied because the offense emerged from a season-long funk, and instead of talking about if Beamer needed to find another quarterback in the transfer portal, we’ve now moved to can Beamer convince Rattler to stay?

The former 5-star recruit still isn’t a finished product, still makes game-changing mistakes and needs more than 2 strong games to show NFL scouts that he not only has elite arm talent (he does), but that he understands the nuances of the position.

“He’s like one of those mustangs that can’t be broken. The arm strength, the athletic ability,” another NFL scout told me after the Clemson win. “He bails way too early on plays because he believes he’s better off-schedule. He’s not. He makes plays, sure, but a majority of his mistakes are off-schedule. His mechanics are all over the place. That can be coached out (of him). But I’m not sure how much investment you’re going to have (in the NFL), opposed to a guy you can draft who gets it.”

When Rattler arrived in Columbia in January, Beamer said the Gamecocks hadn’t seen a quarterback with this talent and ability roll through Columbia in years. South Carolina’s rebuilt offense would revolve around Rattler, and his ability to make big plays.

It took Rattler 10 games to figure it out, and Beamer never backed away from him.

Will he pay back South Carolina in 2023?

“He’s a helluva football player,” Beamer said. “I’m so glad he’s our quarterback.”

But for how much longer?