Spencer Sanders (born December 15, 1999) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who plays college football for Ole Miss. He previously played for the

Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National Col ...

before transferring in 2023.

Early life and high school

Sanders grew up in

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...

and attended

Billy Ryan High School Billy Ryan High School (Ryan or RHS) is a public high school located in east Denton, Texas. It is the second high school of the Denton Independent School District and classified as a 5A school by the UIL. The original building for the school ...

. He passed for 3,288 yards and 35 touchdowns along with 1,099 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground in his junior season before tearing his ACL. Rated a four-star recruit, Sanders committed to play college football at Oklahoma State during his junior year over offers from Colorado, Ole Miss, North Carolina, Penn State and Texas A&M. As a senior, Sanders threw for 3,845 yards and 54 touchdowns and ran for 1,380 yards and 16 touchdowns and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year, the Associated Press Player of the Year, and Texas Mr. Football.

College career

Oklahoma State

Sanders

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman season. After competing with Dru Brown throughout spring practice and summer training camp, Sanders was named the Cowboys starting quarterback just before the season opener. Sanders was named the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

Newcomer of the Week for week 2 after throwing for 250 yards and three touchdowns on 12 of 18 passing with 51 yards rushing in slightly more than one half of play against

McNeese State McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. ...

. Sanders was named the Newcomer of the Week a second time after completing nine of 12 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another 88 yards in a 34–27 win against TCU. The following game against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Sanders suffered a torn ligament in his throwing hand, ending his redshirt freshman season. He threw for 2,065 yards with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while rushing for 625 yards and two touchdowns and was named the conference Offensive Freshman of the Year. Sanders suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter of 2020 season opening game against

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

and missed the following game. He finished the season with 2,007 passing yards with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Sanders was named the MVP of the

2020 Cheez-It Bowl The 2020 Cheez-It Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 29, 2020, with kickoff at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST on ESPN College Football, ESPN. It was the 31st edition of the Cheez-It Bowl (2020–2022), Cheez-It Bowl, ...

after passing for 305 yards and four touchdowns in a 37–34 win against the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

. Sanders missed the opener of his redshirt junior season against

Missouri State Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

after he tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. He passed for 214 yards and one touchdown and 93 yards and another touchdown in Oklahoma State's 37–33

rivalry game Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry can extend to both ...

victory against Oklahoma. Sanders was named first team All-Big 12 after completing 243 of 392 pass attempts for 2,839 yards and 20 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions and 668 rushing yards with six touchdowns. On December 5, 2022, it was reported by multiple sources that Sanders intended to enter the transfer portal.

Ole Miss

On January 19, 2023, Sanders transferred to Ole Miss.

Statistics

References

External links

Oklahoma State Cowboys bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Spencer 1999 births Living people American football quarterbacks Oklahoma State Cowboys football players Players of American football from Denton, Texas Ole Miss Rebels football players