Caleb Williams Explains Why He Was 'Angry' When He Didn't Immediately Start Over Spencer Rattler At Oklahoma

Andrew Lyon | Apr 21, 2024

Oklahoma's Caleb Williams (13) and Spencer Rattler (7) warm up before a game back in 2021 / BRYAN TERRY/USA TODAY NETWORK / USA

Former USC QB and likely No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft Caleb Williams is used to making waves on social media, and his latest comments about his quarterback roulette with former South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler during their time at Oklahoma will likely have that effect in the Gamecock fanbase. In a recent appearance on The Pivot with former NFL defensive back Ryan Clark and other retired NFL players, Williams talked about his biggest moments of adversity. He pointed to not immediately winning the starting job over Rattler in Norman as one of them. Somewhat perplexed, Clark asked Caleb to elaborate, leading to an interesting in-depth response.

"Cause I was best in the country -- I told people before I went there that I was going to start, and play, and beat [Spencer] out. I thought I'd beat him out in [the] Spring and he's projected No. 1 and all of that. So he started for six games, and so I prepared, I kept preparing. Lincoln [Riley] told me 'Keep going,'" Williams recalled. "I came to him and asked him, 'How do I do it? How, how do I beat this dude out?' Because he never let me get reps with the first team. He never let me give reps with, you know, the older guys and things like that. So I took advantage of my reps I got after I put my head down. And at a certain point, I felt like, you know, I beat him out," Caleb lamented. "At the time, I was so angry, so frustrated because that wasn't what I wanted to hear because I felt like I was the best -- But when I got my shot. Yeah, nothing else was going to happen other than me being the guy."

One can respect the confidence Williams clearly has in his own abilities. Heck, it's a big reason why Rattler himself will hear his name called, likely on Day 2 of the NFL Draft later this week, but if one wanted to dissect every piece of this answer, this could also be interpreted as Caleb feeling as if the cards were being unfairly stacked against him and that Rattler only held onto the job because he was the incumbent. It didn't matter for that season, but one has to wonder how No. 7 feels about those comments.

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