Oklahoma football: Sooner QBs on perpetual Heisman watch
By Chip Rouse
The best college football teams are typically the end product of outstanding quarterback play, and Oklahoma football is no exception.
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Ever wonder why it is that when the discussion rolls around every year about the best teams in college football virtually the same names keeping coming up every season? For the past two decades, not to mention the better part of the past half century, Oklahoma football has been one of those teams that always seems to be in the conversation.
Three of the Sooners best teams in the past 15 seasons were led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks. Jason White commandeered a 12-2 OU team in 2003 that lost the LSU in the BCS National Championship game. Sam Bradford was at the quarterback controls in 2008 when a 12-2 Sooner squad played for the national championship against Tim Tebow and Florida, and Baker Mayfield led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff for the second time in three seasons.
Mayfield was a Heisman finalist all three seasons he was at Oklahoma, and White was a Heisman finalist again in 2004, along with freshman teammate Adrian Peterson.
In addition to the three OU quarterbacks who won the Heisman, Josh Heupel was runner-up to Florida State’s Chris Weinke in 2000, the year the Sooners won their seventh and most recent national championship. And Landry Jones. the Big 12 and Oklahoma career passing leader (with 16,646 yards and 123 touchdowns) was a preseason Heisman watch candidate while at OU.
Oklahoma has a new starting quarterback in 2018 for the first time in three seasons. Kyler Murray is at the controls this season, taking over for Mayfield, arguably the best Sooner QB of all-time.
Those are some huge shoes to fill, but Murray, a dual-sport star who already has a Major League Baseball contract, has stepped in and picked right up where Mayfield left off, leading the high-scoring Oklahoma offense. The Sooners are averaging 567.5 yards of offense through two games.
Largely because of the OU football pedigree, Murray was a preseason Heisman watch candidate for the 2018 season, but after strong showings in both of his 2018 starts, the Sooner QB is catching some serious national attention in the Heisman race.
Murray has moved into fourth place in the ESPN Heisman Watch Experts Poll for Week 2, just ahead of Alabama’s sensational sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovaiola. West Virginia QB Will Grier leads the voting through two games, followed by defensive tackle Ed Oliver of Houston and Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor.
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This is not an official Heisman vote and it is still very early in the season, but it shows the current interest being generated for Oklahoma and the next man up at quarterback for the Sooners, who have seemingly become a regular fixture in the annual chase for college football’s most prized individual award.