Rattler Named to Davey O'Brien Award Watch List

FORT WORTH, Texas – University of South Carolina junior quarterback Spencer Rattler has been named to the 2022 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Preseason Watch List, it was announced this morning (Tuesday, July 18) by the Davey O’Brien Foundation. Rattler is one of 35 top returning quarterbacks on the watch list.

Compiled by a subset of the Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee, this year’s list was selected based on career player performance and expectations heading into the 2022 college football season. All nominees are required to have previously started at least one game at an NCAA Division I institution.

Rattler is a 6-1, 215-pound quarterback who enrolled at South Carolina for the spring semester. He played in 23 games over the past three seasons at Oklahoma under head coach Lincoln Riley, posting a 15-2 record as a starter. He completed 70.1 percent of his passes (361-for-515) for 4,595 yards with 40 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He threw for a career-high 387 yards against Kansas State in 2020 and tossed a career-high five touchdowns against Western Carolina in 2021. Rattler had three other games with four TD passes and threw at least one touchdown pass in 16 of his 17 career starts.

The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award. The 46th Annual Davey O’Brien Awards Dinner honoring the winner will be held Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, at The Fort Worth Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

The official Davey O’Brien Midseason Watch List will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 18, and will contain all active quarterbacks from the Preseason Watch List, all players honored as a weekly Great 8 recipient through the season’s first seven weeks and any additional quarterbacks approved by the selection subcommittee.

The Midseason Watch List will then be pared down to the 35-player Davey O’Brien QB Class of 2022 on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Fan voting on social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) will again play a role in the semifinalist, finalist and winner voting totals when combined with the national selection committee’s ballots. Voting will begin on Oct. 25.

Sixteen semifinalists selected from the QB Class will be named on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The Foundation will announce the three finalists two weeks later (Monday, Nov. 21). The 2022 Davey O’Brien Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 8, during The Home Depot College Football Awards.

About the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award

The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award. The Davey O’Brien Award honors candidates who exemplify Davey O’Brien’s enduring character while exhibiting teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership in both academics and athletics. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the Davey O’Brien Foundation has awarded more than $1.2 million in scholarships and university grants to help high school and college athletes transform leadership on the field into leadership in life. For more information, visit www.DaveyOBrien.org.

Previous Davey O’Brien Award winners include: Jim McMahon (BYU, 1981), Todd Blackledge (Penn State, 1982), Steve Young (BYU, 1983), Doug Flutie (Boston College, 1984), Chuck Long (Iowa, 1985), Vinny Testaverde (Miami, 1986), Don McPherson (Syracuse, 1987), Troy Aikman (UCLA, 1988), Andre Ware (Houston, 1989), Ty Detmer (BYU, 1990-91), Gino Torretta (Miami, 1992), Charlie Ward (Florida State, 1993), Kerry Collins (Penn State, 1994), Danny Wuerffel (Florida, 1995-96), Peyton Manning (Tennessee, 1997), Michael Bishop (Kansas State, 1998), Joe Hamilton (Georgia Tech, 1999), Chris Weinke (Florida State, 2000), Eric Crouch (Nebraska, 2001), Brad Banks (Iowa, 2002), Jason White (Oklahoma, 2003-04), Vince Young (Texas, 2005), Troy Smith (Ohio State, 2006), Tim Tebow (Florida, 2007), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma, 2008), Colt McCoy (Texas, 2009), Cam Newton (Auburn, 2010), Robert Griffin III (Baylor, 2011), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M, 2012), Jameis Winston (Florida State, 2013), Marcus Mariota (Oregon, 2014), Deshaun Watson (Clemson, 2015-16), Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma, 2017), Kyler Murray (Oklahoma, 2018), Joe Burrow (LSU, 2019), Mac Jones (Alabama, 2020) and Bryce Young (Alabama, 2021).