Former OU quarterback Spencer Rattler officially enters transfer portal

Spencer Rattler has officially entered the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz confirmed. After announcing his intention to do so in a tweet Monday, the now former Oklahoma quarterback has made the move.

“Sooner Nation: Thank you for allowing me to be a student-athlete at this prestigious institution,” Rattler wrote. “Thank you to every teammate and coach these last three seasons. We won several games together and made memories that I will cherish forever. Special thanks to my family and friends for your support. Thank God for the game of football. It’s the ultimate team sport and brings people and communities together unlike anything else. At this time, I would like to announce that I have decided to enter the transfer portal to continue my academic and athletic career. Thank you again, Oklahoma. I will miss you.”

Rattler, a redshirt sophomore who was in his second year as the Oklahoma starter, has had a disappointing year at the helm. He was first benched and replaced by Caleb Williams against Texas, with the Sooners down 35-17 with 6:36 left in the first half. Riley made the change after a Rattler fumble, his second turnover of the Red River Showdown.

Williams ultimately led one of the most iconic comebacks in recent college football memory and the largest comeback Oklahoma has ever mounted in the 117-year history of the Red River Rivalry. 

Since his benching against Texas, Rattler has appeared in just three games, serving as a change-of-pace option behind Williams, the freshman. He’s completed 10 of his 12 passes for 112 passing yards and one touchdown in very limited snaps against Texas Tech, Baylor and Iowa State. In the Baylor game, after Williams got off to a sluggish start, Oklahoma fans began chanting for Rattler in hopes that Riley would make the change.

On the year, Rattler was 140-for-187 with 1,483 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions, completing 74.9 percent of his passes. In 2020, he was named CBS Sports’ freshman of the year, hence the Heisman hype entering this season. His stats paled in comparison to last year, when he posted 3,031 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions, while completing 68 percent of his passes in the abbreviated 2020 season.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona, Rattler was a consensus five-star recruit and the No. 1 quarterback in the 2019 recruiting class. He served as the backup to Jalen Hurts his freshman season, before taking over as starter in 2020, then being benched in 2021.

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be  contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.

On3’s Ashton Pollard and Simon Gibbs contributed to this report.