Having Rattler, Williams ‘a great problem’ for OU
NORMAN — Two days after freshman quarterback Caleb Williams helped lead OU to a wild 55-48 come-from-behind victory over Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said he wasn’t sure whether or not he would publicly declare a starter ahead of Saturday’s game against TCU.
“I still haven’t made that decision yet,” Riley said Monday on the Big 12 media teleconference. “Just like any position, I think we’ll look at the game plan
versus TCU, continue to evaluate these guys as they practice and go with who helps us the most.
“Feel like we have two guys in the room that are really good players and who we can win with, so we’ll keep eval (uating) it and keep trying to put the best people on the field that help us win and move the ball and score points.”
Spencer Rattler entered the season as the Heisman Trophy favorite, according to oddsmakers, and had plenty of buzz to be the No. 1 pick in next spring’s NFL Draft.
Now Riley is faced with the decision between Rattler and Williams, a true freshman who was the top dual-threat quarterback in the 2021 class.
“I’m not looking at this as a hindrance. I’m looking at it like I’ve got two really good players in that room that are both high-level quarterbacks. I think it’s a great problem to have.”
It’s a position Riley hasn’t been in for quite awhile.
He hasn’t made or seriously considered a midseason quarterback change during his time at OU as the Sooners have gone through Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and now Spencer Rattler.
There was the short-term benching of Rattler in last season’s Red River Showdown, but that lasted less than a quarter and Rattler returned to lead the Sooners to victory.
This time around, the backup stuck around and led OU to one of its biggest comebacks of all-time.
With Rattler in the game, the Sooners averaged 5.1 yards per play and turned the ball over twice.
With Williams in, OU averaged nearly 9.9 yards per play.
In 2012, Riley’s third season as East Carolina’s offensive coordinator, he made a quarterback change early in the season, lifting Rio Johnson for Shane Carden in the second half of the second game of that season.
Carden held onto the job for the rest of that season and two more. Johnson eventually left the team late in that season.
“I think we just kinda go back to who we are as a program,” Riley said. “It’s about competition. We know throughout the year you’re gonna need a lot of guys — all sides of the ball, all positions — to contribute to be able to win. They other day was a good example. The Kansas State game was a good example. We had both of those guys do good things. I think it’s that simple.”
Riley has stoked quarterback competition in preseason camps even when the ultimate answer seemed clear — Murray vs. Austin Kendall in 2018, Hurts vs. Tanner Mordecai in 2019 and Rattler vs. Mordecai last season.
“There are differences,” Riley said when asked if those were different than navigating a quarterback battle during the season.
“I don’t know harder, easier, I don’t know exactly how to compare that. There are differences, but I think our expectations, our standard of play remains the same.”
TCU coach Gary Patterson said he expected to have his hands full whichever quarterback Riley picked.
“(Riley’s) gonna put you in mismatches anyway, so you got to really prepare all for it,” Patterson said. “But I think you’ve got to look at, you know, obviously they were doing it with the quarterback run game so that becomes a bigger part of probably their offense (with Williams). But you got to prepare for Oklahoma, not just for the quarterback. They’ve got good players everywhere.”