Trevor Knight May Be Down, But Don’t Count Him Out Just Yet

Two seasons ago, the Sooners were in a similar quarterback situation to the one they are in currently. Head coach Bob Stoops wasn’t willing to declare a starting QB until right before the season opener. There is a common connection to then and now: Trevor Knight.

Sooner fans will recall that in August of 2013, nearly everyone was of the opinion that fan-favorite Blake Bell would win the starting quarterback job to begin that season. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the season home-opener against the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Stoops surprised most everybody by elevating the redshirt freshman Knight to the starter role.

Now flash forward to the present. That same quarterback dilemma exists as OU prepares for the opening of the fall practice schedule on Thursday, leading up to the start of the 2015 season. This time around, though, it is Knight in competition with newcomer Baker Mayfield, who started seven games as a freshman walk-on in 2013 at Texas Tech.

Oct 11, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Trevor Knight (9) celebrates after a score against the Texas Longhorns during the Red River showdown at the Cotton Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

With the Sooners’ new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley bringing with him an “Air Raid”-type offense – strikingly similar, incidentally, to the one Mike Leech and Bob Stoops introduced when Stoops became the 21st head coach in Oklahoma’s esteemed football history – it has become pretty much a foregone conclusion that Mayfield would draw the starting nod. After all, that is the same offense Mayfield operated in as the starter at Texas Tech, and one in the same that Riley had a contributing hand in as a former assistant coach for the Red Raiders.

If you are wondering why Mayfield isn’t still at Tech, it’s because he lost the starting job after suffering a leg injury midway through the season and was replaced by another true freshman, Davis Webb. After the season, Mayfield elected to transfer and landed at OU.

Quick on his feet and possessing good speed for a quarterback, Knight offered the Sooners something they haven’t had at quarterback since Stoops arrived at OU: a dual-threat quarterback. He earned the starting job over Bell in his redshirt freshman year two seasons ago, but was injured early in the season and was far from impressive in the starter’s role.

Knight lost his starting job to Bell, but came back to lead the Sooners to victories in their final three games of the regular season that year, including impressive road wins over Kansas State and in-state rival Oklahoma State. And then came the MVP performance, connecting on four TD bombs against mighty Alabama in the Sooners’ shocking BCS Sugar Bowl victory. His 32-of-44 passing for 348 yards and 4 long touchdowns may have been the best game ever for an Oklahoma quarterback.

After the out-of-his-shoes game against Alabama, there wasn’t any question who was going to be the starting Sooner QB the next season. In the offseason, Blake Bell also conceded the job, switching positions to tight end.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the same Trevor Knight in 2014 as the one who ended the 2013 campaign on such an impressive note. Knight struggled in the passing department for much of the 2014 season, completing only 57 percent of his 179 pass attempts. His 14 touchdown tosses were half as many as Landry Jones threw in his first season as the Sooners quarterback (2009).

Mayfield’s past familiarity with offensive coordinator Riley’s new offense and Knight’s mostly pedestrian stats from the 2014 season are two big factors that favor Mayfield to win the starter’s job this season.

Oct 11, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Trevor Knight (9) scrambles against Texas Longhorns defensive end Naashon Hughes (40) during the Red River showdown at the Cotton Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

While Mayfield appears to be the favorite at this time, there are some things that could play in Knight’s favor. Besides surprising everyone by winning the starter’s job two seasons back, Knight’s first two seasons are strikingly similar statistically to another Big 12 quarterback who followed up two not-so-spectacular seasons with a junior campaign that earned him a fourth-place finish in the Heisman Trophy balloting and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.

We’re speaking specifically about TCU’s Trevone Boykin. Sports columnist Berry Tramel of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman has written a thought-provoking article in Tuesday’s editions of that newspaper comparing the first two seasons of both Knight and Boykin, and the similarities and styles of the two players are hauntingly striking.

Here is some of what Tramel uncovered in his research on the subject:

• Knight and Boykin both made 15 quarterback starts in their first two seasons after redshirting.
• Boykin completed 58.1 percent of his pass attempts in his first two college seasons, with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 22/17. Knight’s combined passing stats in his first two seasons are a 57.3 completion rate and a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 23/17.
• TCU changed it offense in Boykin’s junior season, with new co-offensive coordinators Sunny Cumbie (a Texas Tech alum) and Doug Meacham going with an Air Raid attack. Stoops is doing the same at Oklahoma this season in Knight’s third year, bringing in Riley.
• Boykin’s numbers in 2013 in the new system were off-the-charts when compared with his first two seasons at quarterback for TCU: 61 percent completion rate, 3,901 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions.

Many a quarterback has thrived in the Air Raid offense. Boykin, as a recent example, turned around his entire career in that system. So, as the thinking goes, why couldn’t OU’s Knight?

The beauty of the Air Raid offense, and one of the reasons teams are highly successful with it, is its relative simplicity.

“Here’s the play, let’s go make it happen,” Knight has said in describing the new OU offense for this season. “It’s a different type of reading progression. And you still get to pitch the ball around. You get into rhythm, and once you get into rhythm, you play better, you throw the ball better.”

It’s still uncertain who is going to get the ball when the season kicks off a month from now, but if we’ve learned anything from the past, it’s not to underestimate Trevor Knight.