New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler is in a tight battle with Tyler Shough for the starting job. But that’s not the first time he’s competed for being the QB1 of a team. Way before entering the draft, he battled it out with the Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in Oklahoma, but eventually lost.
Spencer Rattler Shows Maturity but Irked Over Having Lost Oklahoma’s QB1 Role to Caleb Williams
A record-setter with over 11,000 passing yards for Pinnacle High School, Rattler was a five-star prospect in the 2019 recruiting class. He, however, rose to prominence the following year, completing 67.4% of his passes.
The former Oklahoma quarterback threw for over 3,000 yards and 28 touchdowns as he led the Sooners to a Big 12 Championship in 2020. Meanwhile, he set program records for yards per completion and yards per attempt on his way to FWAA Freshman All-American honors.
As a result of his redshirt freshman performances, Rattler was guaranteed the QB1 role, but Williams, another highest-rated quarterback prospect of the class, joined the Sooners that offseason. While Rattler retained his job, he failed to live up to the expectations, and after five narrow wins, he was benched while trailing against Texas.
Williams led the Sooners to a 21-point comeback win at the Cotton Bowl, and Rattler reclaimed his starting job. But the Saints quarterback considers it history, and though he looked partly irked by it and began rattling off some of his stats from that season, the 24-year-old ended with, “God has a plan for everybody.”
“I mean, what happened at Oklahoma, you know, it’s like ancient history at this point,” said Rattler on the Rich Eisen Show. “At the time, we were coming off a Big 12 Championship on a 16-game win streak. And we were rolling. I think we led the conference in touchdowns, completion percentage, and yeah, whatever happened happened. But, you know, like I said earlier, everybody has their own story. You know, God has a plan for everybody, and that’s just how mine went.”
Williams had been fighting hard and beating him out in the practices, and his comeback win in the Cotton Bowl just shifted the entire narrative among the coaches. Rattler, meanwhile, transferred to South Carolina, reuniting with former Oklahoma assistant head coach and tight ends coach Shane Beamer. And in two years with the Gamecocks, he completed 539 of 798 attempts (67.5%) for 6,212 yards, 37 scores, and 20 picks.
The inconsistency that plagued Rattler at Oklahoma never quite left his game, and he never rose back to the Round 1 projections that many assigned to him ahead of 2021.
Nonetheless, he quietly matured and developed as a passer in his two years at South Carolina, earning a Senior Bowl invite in the process before slipping to the Saints at 150th overall.
Meanwhile, Williams transferred to the USC Trojans after that season and went on to win the Heisman Trophy. He impressed in his third year as well and was eventually picked No. 1 overall by the Bears.