Spencer Rattler Named Oklahoma Starting QB over Tanner Mordecai

Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley announced Tuesday that Spencer Rattler will be the team's starting quarterback for the upcoming season.

"Spencer has played very well and certainly very deserving of it," Riley said, via Dave Wilson of ESPN.

Redshirt sophomore Tanner Mordecai was also competing for the starting spot, but an injury suffered in training camp hurt his chances.

"He ended up missing about 70 to 75 percent of fall camp, which obviously severely limited his true opportunities to really go play his best ball and have a shot at it," Riley added. "But that's football."

Rattler enters the season as a redshirt freshman after appearing in just three games last year, finishing 7-of-11 for 81 yards and a touchdown. Much of his production came in a blowout win over FCS team South Dakota.

Despite the limited experience, the Arizona native came to Oklahoma with high expectations as the No. 1 pro-style quarterback and No. 11 overall player in the 2019 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

He set a state record in high school with 11,083 career passing yards to go with 116 touchdowns in four years.

Rattler will be the fourth different starting quarterback in four years for Riley as head coach of the Sooners, joining Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.

Mayfield and Murray each won the Heisman Trophy before becoming the first overall pick in the NFL draft. Hurts was second in the Heisman voting behind only LSU's Joe Burrow last year and was as second-round pick in April's draft.

The offense has ranked no worse than sixth in points per game in any of the last three years.

Rattler should produce big numbers once the season begins on Sept. 12 against Missouri State.