Spencer Rattler, the former starting quarterback at Oklahoma, announced on social media Monday that he is transferring to South Carolina.
Rattler entered the 2021 college football season as a Heisman Trophy favorite and ended it stuck on the bench behind freshman Caleb Williams, so a transfer always seemed in the offing.
Rattler, who burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2020 with a 3,031-yard passing season that included 28 touchdown passes, got off to a slower start in 2021.
Williams was promoted during the Sooners’ dramatic 55-48 comeback win vs. Texas in the Red River Shootout on Oct. 9 and never relinquished the job.
For the season, Williams completed 62.5 percent of his passes with 1,670 yards, 18 touchdowns and four interceptions. Rattler finished at 74.9 percent for 1,483 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Williams, however, was the bigger threat on the ground, running for 408 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Rattler rushed for just 77 yards on 43 carries (1.8 ypc).
Oklahoma finished 10-2 and out of the Big 12 championship game for the first time since it was reinstituted in 2017.
Some speculation mounted that Rattler might end up at Southern California, where his former head coach, Lincoln Riley, went in a surprising move earlier this month. The Trojans had been Rattler’s runner-up choice coming out of high school.
But he’ll now join a different coach, Shane Beamer, who was on the Oklahoma staff when Rattler’s collegiate career began. Beamer, fresh off a 6-6 debut season as the head coach for the Gamecocks, coached at Oklahoma from 2018-20.
Oklahoma tight end Austin Stogner also announced Monday that he is transferring to South Carolina. He had 14 catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns this year.
