Oklahoma Quarterback Situation Looks Strong Next Few Seasons
By Chip Rouse
Veteran Baker Mayfield is back at Oklahoma quarterback in 2016, but what does the position look like beyond that?
It probably goes without saying that the best teams in college football are the ones who have outstanding quarterback play. That is the one position on the team, other than the center, who touches the ball on virtually every offensive play.
The quarterback is in the best position of anyone to make things happen on the field, sometimes by calling the right play in the event of an audible or a play that necessitates changing at the line of scrimmage or by successfully executing a third- or fourth-down pass play or touchdown pass.
Oklahoma has been the beneficiary of outstanding quarterback play throughout much of Bob Stoops’ 17 seasons as head coach at Oklahoma.
As testament to that fact, OU has produced two Heisman Trophy winners at the quarterback position in Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008), plus a third, Josh Heupel, who finished as the Heisman runner-up in 2000 but led the Sooners to their seventh national championship over Florida State and that season’s Heisman winner, Chris Weinke.
Baker Mayfield came along at just the right time for the Sooners. OU struggled with finding consistency at the position ever since Landry Jones left after the 2012 season.
Jones, who had an up-and-down four-year career as the Sooners’ starting quarterback. In fairness, however, he had a very tough act to follow in coming in as the replacement to Sam Bradford. Jones did end his career at Oklahoma, though, as the career passing leader at OU and the Big 12, throwing for over 16,000 yards in his four collegiate seasons.
The two years after Jones left the program, Blake Bell, Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas all started games at the position, but none of the three was more than merely serviceable at the position. Knight had the one truly outstanding game in OU’s Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in early 2014, but never experienced the same level of success in any game thereafter.
Bell graduated in 2015 and was drafted by the NFL San Francisco 49ers as a tight end, the position he played in his final season at Oklahoma. Both Knight and Thomas left the program after last season: Knight transferring to Texas A&M and Thomas deciding to give up football to focus solely on baseball at OU.
That leaves Mayfield, freshman Austin Kendall and redshirt freshman walk-on Chris Robison filling out the depth chart at quarterback for the 2016 season. All three, plus Texas A&M quarterback transfer Kyler Murray, saw action in the annual spring game last month, but Murray will not be eligible to play until the 2017 season, when he will be a junior.
Mayfield transferred to Oklahoma after his 2013 freshman season at Texas Tech, where he was a walk-on and began the season his freshman year as the team’s starting QB. Because of the NCAA transfer rule, Mayfield had to sit out the 2014 season.
Mayfield beat out Knight for the starting QB job to begin the 2015 season, and as the season progressed he left no doubt that Stoops and the OU coaches had picked the right man for the job. Mayfield led the Big 12 in passing efficiency and completion percentage and was third in the country in the former and fourth in the latter category.
A Texas native who grew up in Austin, right in the backyard of the Texas Longhorns but has always been an Oklahoma football fan, Mayfield passed for 4,105 yards and 41 touchdowns in a stellar 2015 season for the Sooners that was capped off by a College Football Playoff appearance.
Mayfield is an excellent passer – and, of course, it helps greatly to have a sure-handed target like Sterling Shepard on the receiving end, as he did all of last season – but he can beat you with his legs as well (405 rushing yards in 2015) and is outstanding keeping plays alive.
There is no question Mayfield will be the starter for the Sooners in 2016. And he should be even better with a year under his belt in offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid offense. The bigger question is who will back him up in the event of an injury? Right now, that would appear to be Kendall, who has yet to take his first snap in a Football Bowl Subdivision game.
Kendall had a good outing in the annual Red-White spring game (8 of 17 passing for 52 yards) and is already on campus at OU. Rated by ESPN as the No. 7 quarterback in the 2016 class and No. 162 overall in the ESPN 300, the North Carolina native had offers from a number of top college programs, including Clemson, Florida, Tennessee and Auburn.
Mayfield is expected to hand over the Sooner quarterback duties in 2017 to Murray, who will provide a dual threat at the position (think Trevor Knight, but with even better passing and running ability). He looked sharp in the OU spring game, completing 6 of 10 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 34 yards on seven carries.
Murray was rated a five-star prospect coming out of high school in Allen, Texas, and was named the National Gatorade Player of the Year. He led his high school team to three straight state championships and never lost a game in high school.
Looking a little further out in the future, Oklahoma has a 2017 verbal commitment from Chris Robison, a 6-2 quarterback out of Mesquite, Texas. Robison is one of 10 four-star prospects who have committed to the Sooners’ 2017 recruiting class, currently ranked by Scout.com as the nation’s second best class.
So the quarterback position looks solid for the Sooners for the next few years, and that is a very good sign for Sooner football fans.