Oklahoma Sooners QB Caleb Williams Admits He And Spencer Rattler ‘Weren’t Best Friends’

When the 2021 football season started, Oklahoma fans did not expect Caleb Williams to end the year as the starting quarterback and Spencer Rattler in the NCAA transfer portal. But fast forward to today and Williams is the future for the Sooners, while Rattler has transferred to South Carolina. Via The Podcast On The Prairie, Williams discussed his relationship with Rattler, admitting the two might not have been overly close.

“We weren’t best friends, I can say that,” Williams said. “We weren’t best friends, but we didn’t hate each other either. There’s a bunch of other guys that I’m not best friends with, and I don’t hate them either on the team. Everybody always tried to make a thing out of nothing throughout the whole season. There was nothing to be made from it. There’s guys that you meet all the time, or women that you meet all the time, that you’re not best friends with and won’t be best friends with, but you don’t hate them, you don’t envy them, you don’t do none of that. I’m happy that he is now at SC with (head) coach (Shane) Beamer.”

Rattler started the year as the Sooners’ starting quarterback, but the team made the switch to Williams — a five-star, true freshman quarterback — in the middle of a rivalry game with Texas. Williams led Oklahoma to a comeback in that game and went on to throw for 1,670 yards, 18 touchdowns and just four interceptions on the year.

Throughout the season, former Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley — who later departed for USC — went back to Rattler in certain situations. But Rattler could not seem to find the same success as Williams at the position. That led to Rattler entering his name into the transfer portal, in a move that many expected for months.

“I wasn’t gonna talk trash about him, I wasn’t going to diss him, I wasn’t gonna make him out to be something that he isn’t or like I said trash him,” Williams added. “That wasn’t my purpose. My purpose was to come here to work. The only thing I told (former head coach Lincoln) Riley was like give me a chance, and I didn’t want anything else except for a chance. He said I can’t promise you anything but a chance, and that’s all. I didn’t ask for anything else. And so, if I didn’t beat him out, then so be it. That’s his spot. But if I did, that’s my spot. That’s simply how it goes in my head.”

Oklahoma has since hired former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables as Riley’s replacement. He is expected to start Williams in the fall of 2022.