Oklahoma football head coach Lincoln Riley called Houston quarterback D’Eriq King one of the top-five quarterbacks in college football.
Riley got to see King in action live and in person in the Sooners’ season opener this season against Houston. The senior quarterback, who set an American Athletic Conference record accounting for 50 touchdowns last season, got off to a slow start against the Sooners, but once he got going, he was difficult to contain.
King threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, accounting for 270 of the Cougars’ 408 yards of offense, albeit in a losing effort as the Sooners rolled to a 49-31 victory.
On Monday this week, following a gut-wrenching 38-31 road loss to Tulane last Thursday in the AAC opener for both teams, King made the surprise announcement that he was going to redshirt for the remainder of this season.
Last week’s loss to Tulane was devastating for King and his teammates. The Cougars had led by 21 points before Tulane mounted its come-from-behind rally. The loss dropped Houston to 1-3, its worst start since 2012.
It’s fairly clear that the bad start had something to do with King’s decision to take advantage of the new NCAA rule that allows players to appear in up to four games in a season without having to apply redshirt status, which allows for an extra year of eligibility.
By going this route, King is assured of one more season of eligibility and is allowed to continue work out with the Houston team while he prepares for next season.
He strongly contends that he plans to stay at Houston and play for the Cougars next season.
"“I’m staying here,” King told reporters, including Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle, “If I wanted to leave Houston and go somewhere else, I could’ve. It’s what I want to do. It’s the best opportunity for me.”"
In reality, however, there is nothing that would prevent him from changing his mind and entering the transfer portal, which would enable him to play elsewhere next season — like at Oklahoma — as a graduate transfer.
Riley really likes King, and Oklahoma has a recent history of attracting high-caliber quarterbacks who began their career somewhere else but elected to transfer and finish their career at Oklahoma
"“There aren’t five quarterbacks in the country better than (D’Eriq King), and that may be too many. He’s fantastic,” Riley said in his postgame interview with the media after the Houston game."
Who wouldn’t want to come to Oklahoma as a quarterback, given the opportunity. All you have to do is look at the track record of the last three quarterbacks to start for OU, all of whom transferred in: Back-to-back Hesiman winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray; both players were selected No, 1 overall in consecutive NFL Drafts; four consecutive Big 12 championships and 12 overall, and appearances in three of the last five College Football Playoffs.
Plus the chance to play for Lincoln Riley, who is 26-4 as the head coach at Oklahoma and is the architect behind the best offense in college football each of the past two seasons.
This season, former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts is the player behind the wheel of OU’s Ferrari offense, and his three-game start has been well documented.
It’s hard to imagine that King’s dual-threat status — like Hurts and Murray before him — wouldn’t be a ideal fit in Oklahoma’s Air Raid offense.
But would the Houston quarterback consider transferring to Oklahoma? Would OU even be interested in such a development?
First of all, I don’t believe King would be interested in coming to OU, knowing that the Sooners are well stocked at the quarterback position and he would have to beat out Tanner Mordecai, who was in close competition all spring and in fall training camp with Hurts for the starter’s role this season. And there is also five-star recruit Spencer Rattler, the No. 1 quarterback prospect nationally in the 2019 class.
I would imagine King will ultimately conclude, if he hasn’t already (and he says he has), that his prospects are better staying where he is, or perhaps going somewhere other than Oklahoma. To be perfectly honest, that’s how I would expect Oklahoma to weigh in on this purely hypothetical situation, as well