Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Refuting a silly hot take on Lincoln Riley

By Christopher Dukes

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: Head Coach Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma Sooners during warm ups before the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: Head Coach Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma Sooners during warm ups before the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Engel believes the Sooners were a one-man show the past four years. This, of course, conveniently negates a Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, two running backs that are now in the NFL in Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine, two NFL wide receivers in Sterling Shephard and Biletnikoff Award winner Dede Westbrook plus a ton of other talent that – if listed – would make this article too long for anyone to read.

He wasn’t done running the Sooners through the ringer though. He also went on to disparage Jalen Hurts, a former SEC Offensive Player of the Year and national title winner, as “not good enough”.

"Quarterback Jalen Hurts is, by all accounts, a wonderful young man who will forever have the entire state of Alabama to lean on for a free meal, or hopefully, if he needs it, a job. He is simply not good enough to do for the Sooners what Riley needs…… Hurts is a good player who needs players around him whereas guys like Baker and Kyler were better than everyone else; Baker and Kyler could make a series, or a game, 1-on-11 and win."

First, Jalen Hurts lost the starting job because of all the things Tua Tagovailoa did right, not because of anything he necessarily did wrong. There are plenty of reasons to believe that Hurts has improved his game since he was pulled at halftime of the 2018 national title game. Case in point, a furious rally against Georgia in last year’s SEC championship game when he came in for an injured – and at that time innefective – Tagovailoa and engineered one of the greatest comebacks in SEC title game history.

Also, just like Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield weren’t one-man offenses, neither will Jalen Hurts have to be. The anticipated Sooners starting quarterback will have an All American candidate center in Creed Humphrey directly ahead of him, along with a potential Biletnikoff winner in CeeDee Lamb catching passes. There’s also a potential Mackey Award winner lined up at tight end in Grant Calcaterra. That’s still leaving out a host of four-star talent battling it out for the right to start alongside Humphrey on the offensive line, two potential 1,000-yard rushers in Kennedy Brooks and Trey Sermon and quite possibly the most raw receiving talent ever assembled in one recruiting class in Theo Wease, Trejan Bridges and Jadon Haselwood.

Hurts won’t have to do it alone. Not by a long shot. Is this team as talented on offense as some of his Alabama squads? It’s hard to jude until we see it in action, there’s a healthy argument that it  looks that way on paper.

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