Oklahoma football: What we learned from the OU spring game
The Oklahoma football 2019 spring game is in the books with Jalen Hurts‘ White team taking a 35-14 victory over Tanner Mordecai‘s Red squad.
It can be hard to judge success in a spring game, as one side’s success comes at the expense of their teammates, but there were plenty of reasons to be excited for the Sooners going forward. Here are the main takeaways from the game.
Jalen Hurts has taken over this offense
There will be a lot of lip service from the OU camp going into the summer stating the quarterback battle is still ongoing, but judging by what we saw Friday night it’s Jalen Hurts’ job to lose.
Hurts looked to be in command throughout the day 11-of-14 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown. He connected on third downs, hit the deep ball and most importantly he looked completely comfortable making all the throws and decisions in the Lincoln Riley brand of the air raid.
Hurts found Trejan Bridges on a back-shoulder throw to convert a third-and-19 on the Sooners’ first drive. Bridges would later flash his open field ability on a tunnel screen, going 22 yards to set up a first-and-goal. One play later Hurts made one of the most impressive throws of the night by leading the entire defense to the left with his eyes before delivering a perfect pass to Kennedy Brooks out of the backfield for a touchdown. On the next drive Hurts delivered a frozen rope across the field to his left, hitting freshman Austin Stogner for a big gain on first down. On his last drive he hooked up with Bridges again on a long pass that went all the way down to the one yard line.
Not many were doubting his arm strength and accuracy, the real question was how far has he come in learning this offense. The answers were obvious. He threw guys open and allowed his talented receivers to make plays in contested situations. This is all without being able to use one of his best weapons in his ability to break tackles in the open field. Wearing a blue jersey Hurts was immediately down as soon as he was touched by the defense. It is fun to imagine what this OU offense is going to look like with the new wrinkle of a quarterback power running game added in.