Oklahoma football: It’s official; Kyler Murray named starting QB

It’s now official. No. 1 Kyler Murray wins the No. 1 job as the starting quarterback for Oklahoma football to begin the 2018 season.

It perhaps the biggest non-surprise of the preseason, head coach Lincoln Riley informed reporters on Wednesday that Murray had won the starter’s job over redshirt sophomore Austin Kendall.

“It was a really great competition between Austin and him, one that we carried on longer than maybe even we expected because of how well both guys played,” Riley said. “There weren’t a lot of differentiating factors…in the end, Kyler was just a little bit ahead.”

Very few who closely follow Oklahoma football doubted that Murray would be the starter, despite repeated statements by Riley that the competition for the job of replacing Heisman Trophy quarterback and three-year-starter Baker Mayfield was close and it was too close to call until now.

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One complicating factor is that Murray is not likely to play football at OU beyond this season, even though he will have one more season of eligibility after 2018. Murray, a dual-sport athlete at Oklahoma in both football and basketball, was the No. 9 overall draft selection in this year’s MLB Draft, the top pick of the Oakland Athletics.

He signed a $4.6 million contract with the A’s this spring and is expected to pursue his professional baseball career after this college football season.

Murray may be the first true dual-threat quarterback to start at Oklahoma since the days of the Wishbone offense. He showed off his running ability in OU final regular-season game against West Virginia a year ago. On the very first play from scrimmage, he took off on a 66-yard run that ended on the Mountaineers’ four-yard line. Running back Rodney Anderson took it in for the quick score on the next play.

The former Texas A&M transfer and Gatorade National Player of the Year in high school in Allen, Texas, played in seven games last season backing up Mayfield and rushed for 142 yards on 14 attempts for an average of 10.1 yards per carry. He also was 18 out of 21 in the passing column, including three touchdowns.

Now that we’ve had the blinding-flash-of-the-obvious declaration from Riley on the quarterback situation, Murray can continue taking reps with the No. 1 offensive unit and, with nine days to go before the start of the season, seriously begin getting ready for the season opener against Florida Atlantic.