College football transfer quarterback Spencer Sanders picks Ole Miss: Here's what you need to know
Ole Miss is about to have a very full and talented quarterback room after college football transfer Spencer Sanders announced he will commit to the Rebels for the 2023 season.
ESPN college football insider said that Sanders told him he intends to suit up for Ole Miss this coming fall.
Sanders joins presumptive starter Jaxson Dart and 5-star LSU transfer quarterback Walker Howard, who recently pledged to the program.
Spencer Sanders career
A former four-star prospect following a decorated career at Denton Ryan High in Texas, Sanders went 31-12 as starter, including a 12-2 effort in the 2021 season when Oklahoma State finished literal inches away from winning the Big 12 Championship Game.
Sanders sustained a shoulder injury during his senior campaign and missed some time, after which his statistical production declined somewhat.
In all, the quarterback finished with 9.553 yards and ran for 1,956 while accounting for 85 all-purpose touchdowns, throwing 40 interceptions.
Sanders, a former four-year starter for the Cowboys, has one year of eligibility remaining after the NCAA granted a pandemic waiver.
What it means for Ole Miss
Sanders' arrival in Oxford presents arguably the most interesting quarterback competition in college football coming into the 2023 season.
Dart, himself a transfer from USC the previous offseason, was the Rebels' full-time starter last fall and helped lead the team to a perfect 7-0 record going into the LSU game on Oct. 22.
Ole Miss lost that game, 45-20, and then five of its last six in a late season tailspin, failing to surpass 30 points on offense in any of those losses and Dart dipped under 60 percent passing in three of them.
It can't exactly be the strongest vote of confidence Dart ever received that his coach was actively looking for quarterbacks in the transfer portal, or especially that he signed two to add to the rotation.
Dart was a 62.4 percent passer for the Rebels this past season, compiling 2,974 yards in the air, averaging 8.2 yards per pass, scoring 20 touchdowns, and throwing 11 interceptions.
Dart could elect to enter the transfer portal himself in future or stay at the school and prove he deserves the job against Sanders and Howard.
College football transfer portal
The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.
A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office. Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.
The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.
The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.
Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.
Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him. And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.
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