Lincoln Riley in no rush to name starting QB, but we know it’s Spencer Rattler
By John Buhler
Lincoln Riley will name Spencer Rattler his starting quarterback soon.
Lincoln Riley has yet to name a starting quarterback, but he’s going to pick Spencer Rattler.
The Oklahoma Sooners head football coach has another College Football Playoff berth on his mind and the surest way for it to happen is name Rattler his starter. Rattler is a talented redshirt freshman from Arizona who backed up Jalen Hurts last year along with Tanner Mordecai. True freshman Chandler Morris may end up being redshirted this year in his first season in Norman.
Lincoln Riley: “Very positive” at QB. Weighing how they perform, lead, and gauge how they’ll handle abnormality of the season. (He'd normally name the starter next week based on past schedules). #Sooners
— Ryan Aber (@ryaber) August 25, 2020
Is Lincoln Riley really trying to trip up the Missouri State Bears here?
Oklahoma has cemented itself as QBU for a reason. Since 2000, for Sooners quarterbacks have won the Heisman Trophy (Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray) and two others have been finalists for it (Josh Heupel, Hurts). Rattler stands a chance to be the fourth different Sooners quarterback to get to New York in the last four years. Will he be able to do it?
The Sooners are the favorite to win the Big 12 for the sixth year in a row. Though the Texas Longhorns, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Iowa State Cyclones will be formidable challengers, the Sooners have Rattler and they don’t. If Riley would prefer to start Mordecai or even Morris over Rattler vs. the Missouri State Bears, the Sooners would still win.
Oklahoma opens Big 12 play a few weeks later vs. the Kansas State Wildcats. Though the Sooners should be the considerably better team over the Wildcats, keep in mind that K-State handing OU its only Big 12 loss a season ago. That was Chris Klieman’s first year in Manhattan. He has big shoe to fill replacing a legend in Bill Snyder, but we all saw what he did at North Dakota State.
So we should expect for Rattler to go out and dominate Kansas State in his first Big 12 start. As a prospect coming out of high school, he was about as promising as Murray, more promising than Hurts and considerably more promising than Mayfield. Unlike those three men before him, Rattler didn’t have to transfer to win the Oklahoma starting job. He has a shot to be better than Mayfield.
As Riley waits to name a starter, there is no reason to panic, as it will be Rattler going away.
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