Oklahoma football: Sooner QB battle has moved to the backup

College football’s worst kept secret was finally revealed on Monday when Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley broke the news that Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts would be the Sooners’ starting quarterback in the season opener against Houston.

For whatever reason, the OU head coach followed form in waiting until a week or so before the opening game of the season to officially name a starting quarterback. He did the same thing with Kyler Murray last season, as did his predecessor, Bob Stoops, before declaring that Baker Mayfield had beaten out Trevor Knight for the quarterback job in 2015

The fact that the veteran Hurts will be the one under center — or should we say, in the shotgun — and at the controls of the pride of Oklahoma (and, no, I am not talking about the Sooner marching band, but rather the nation’s No. 1 offense), does not classify as news in my book. It would have been news — big news, at that — if sophomore Tanner Mordecai or five-star freshman prospect Spencer Rattler would have won the starting nod.

Come on, was there really any way that Hurts wasn’t going to be the Oklahoma starting quarterback when the season kicks off for the Sooners a dozen days from now? We’re talking about a quarterback who has played in the last three College Football Playoff championship games, started at quarterback for Alabama in the Crimson Tide’s 2018 national championship win over Georgia, and started 28 games at QB for Nick Saban, arguably the best coach in college football, accounting for 5,600 passing yards and a total of 71 touchdowns.

Barring injury, how are you not, if you’re Riley, going to go with that over two quarterback challengers who between them have only thrown four collegiate passes?

O.K., now that the big announcement is behind us, we can focus on the real quarterback competition taking place in the Sooners’ preseason training camp.

With a year under his belt in Riley’s Air Raid offensive system, Mordecai has a leg up on the highly touted QB prospect Rattler as this point in time. According to Riley, however, the two are much closer than you might expect, given that Rattler was not around for spring practice and did not arrive on campus until this summer.

The consensus No. 1 quarterback in the 2019 class nationwide, Rattler is clearly the QB the Sooners are looking to as the heir to Hurts. Rattler’s physical skills are good enough to he could probably have an immediate impact, but with the opportunity he has behind Hurts to become more familiar and comfortable with the mental aspects of playing the position at the college level (reading defenses and making good quarterback decisions) will make him that muchhttp://s better when he ultimately gets the starting opportunity.

Mordecai, a former four-star prospect, per Rivals, from Waco, Texas, was No. 3 on the depth chart at QB last season behind Murray and Austin Kendall. Mordecai saw action in mop-up duty in OU’s first two games last season, completing two of four passes for 37 yards. He spent most of the season, however, manning the quarterback position on the Sooners’ practice squad, where he was named scout team player of the year on offense.

With word that Hurts was transferring to Oklahoma for his final season, Kendall, a one-time four-star prospect, swiftly entered his name in the transfer portal and left OU to play his football closer to his North Carolina home, at West Virginia.

As things look now, Oklahoma will likely enter the season with Mordecai in the No. 2 spot and primary backup to Hurts. Under NCAA rules, Rattler could play in up to four games in the 2019 season and still be eligible for a redshirt. I don’t see the Sooners going that route, though, choosing instead to groom Rattler with situational action throughout the season as preparation to take over the starting role beginning next season.

If he decides to stick around, Mordecai will be the designated No. 2 again. at least for one more season. in 2020. The following year, Brock Vandagriff, the No. 1 QB prospect in the country in the 2021 class, out of Georgia, is currently committed to Lincoln Riley and the Sooners.