Kirk Herbstreit reacts to Spencer Rattler getting booed by Oklahoma fans

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit stated that he had never seen a situation like he witnessed in Norman Saturday night, when Oklahoma starting quarterback Spencer Rattler was booed by Sooner fans and chants for the backup quarterback, Caleb Williams, were heard throughout the stadium.

“Rattler throws a pick, and he hadn’t been playing necessarily up to his own standard coming into the game,” Herbstreit said on the ESPN College Football Podcast. “So there was already a little bit of angst in Norman, if you listen to the call-in shows, coming into the game. And here he throws a pick and guy is booed off the field and the chants of ‘We Want Caleb’…they’re raining down on top of Spencer and the entire team. That’s unprecedented. I’ve been around this game for a long time whether a player or a broadcast. I’ve never seen a guy that was a preseason Heisman frontrunner. Not on his own team, the nation…Could be a top pick. And fourth game in, he has to hear ‘We want Caleb.'”

Herbstreit and co-host Matt Barrie chalked up the boos to NIL, stating that fans believe they are entitled to boo players now that players are getting paid for a living.

“They’re corporations now,” Barrie said. “With corporations guess what happens? Hype. And guess what happens when you don’t live up to the hype? You let people down externally, And guess what happens when you let people down externally? You get booed.”

Through four games this season, Spencer Rattler has thrown for 1,017 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions, completing over 74% of his passes. Though Rattler has been efficient, Oklahoma has struggled to score relative to previous years. Save for a 76-0 win over Western Carolina in week two, Oklahoma has won every game of the 2021 season by just one score.

Last season, with Spencer Rattler as starter, the Oklahoma offense averaged 43.0 points a game. In the last two games of the season, the Sooners are averaging just 19.5 points.

Rattler got off to a slow start to the 2020 season as well, but turned it around by the end of the season, leading to high expectations for Rattler’s 2021 season. Oklahoma still hasn’t lost a game and September isn’t over yet. There’s still time for Spencer Rattler to turn it around and live up to the lofty expectations that were set for him this offseason.

“