Can Oklahoma football’s Heisman tradition continue with Spencer Rattler?

Spencer Rattler hasn’t started a game for the Oklahoma Sooners yet, but he’s already in a great position to carry out his school’s Heisman Trophy tradition.

For the Oklahoma Sooners, Spencer Rattler‘s got next.

No Power 5 program has been more closely associated with quarterbacking excellence than Oklahoma this century. Since 2000, the Sooners have had four signal-callers take home the Heisman Trophy to Norman. For the last four college football seasons, the Sooners have sent their quarterback to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

With Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts all on their rookie contracts in the NFL, Rattler will now have his turn to be the next great Oklahoma quarterback. Rattler is a former five-star recruit out of Phoenix and the No. 1 pro-style passer in his graduating class. He spent 2019 backing up Hurts and familiarizing himself with the offense he’ll run under Lincoln Riley.

Though Rattler only has only attempted 11 passes in three college games, he has the fourth-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy in 2020. According to William Hill US, only Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields, Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Georgia Bulldogs graduate transfer quarterback Jamie Newman had better odds of winning it than Rattler.

As you can see, the bulk of the college football players with at least +2800 or better odds to win the Heisman are quarterbacks. Yes, a pair of running backs in Clemson’s Travis Etienne and Chuba Hubbard of the Oklahoma State Cowboys crack this list, but we all know how quarterback-centric the trophy has become. We’d be foolish to rule out Rattler, despite his limited sample size.

In Riley’s first year as the Sooners head coach, he helped Mayfield take home the 2017 Heisman Trophy. After he went on to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns, his backup Murray helped OU repeat by winning the Heisman in his only year as the Sooners’ starter.

Once Murray went No. 1 overall to the Arizona Cardinals, Riley opted to dip into the transfer market again, this time getting that one last year of precious eligibility out of Hurts, who had starred previously at Alabama. Though he didn’t win the Heisman, Hurts finished as runner-up and parlayed that into being a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.

So you can clearly see Rattler is about to be the heir to Oklahoma throne of quarterbacking greatness. With at least two more years before he can even think about turning pro, there’s no reason to doubt Rattler won’t expand on the rich Oklahoma quarterbacking legacy ahead of him. Should the Sooners win the Big 12 again, look for him to make the trek to New York in December.

Should Rattler be the favorite to win the Heisman in 2020?

Absolutely not.

Fields was a finalist last year at Ohio State and Lawrence will absolutely be there on his Clemson legacy alone. Unless Rattler puts up 2019 Joe Burrow numbers, the Heisman isn’t going to him. However, one would think he’d be the favorite in 2021, as Fields and Lawrence will be in the NFL by that point.

To think Rattler will do enough in 12 or 13 games to convince Heisman voters the trophy belongs to him and not Fields or Lawrence is a bit farfetched. But just getting to New York in December helps set up his coronation to bring yet another Heisman back to Norman in 2021 right in time for Christmas.

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