Oklahoma football: Kyler Murray was highly gratifying gift to the Sooners
By Chip Rouse
We’ve all heard the life expression that sometimes “it’s better to be lucky than smart.” That expression could easily be applied to Oklahoma football’s recent run of success at the quarterback spot.
I know, I know, Lincoln Riley has had a great deal to do with the Sooners’ claim to fame as the new “Quarterback U” in college football, but his hiring had nothing to do with luck, rather brilliant decision making on the part of then-head coach Bob Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione.
Anyway, anyhow, since Riley arrived in Norman ahead of the 2015 college football season, Oklahoma has been blessed with a succession of outstanding quarterbacks. To that point, in the three years Riley has been the head coach of the Sooners, two different Oklahoma quarterbacks have won the Heisman Trophy in back-to-back years, and a third was voted Heisman runner-up.
One of those two Heisman winners was Kyler Murray, who today (Aug. 7) celebrates his 23rd birthday. He wore the No. 1 Oklahoma jersey, was No. 1 in the hearts and minds of Sooner football fans, and in the eyes of the Heisman voters in the 2018 season was college football’s No. 1 player that season.
Where the lucky part comes into play for Riley and the Sooners is that none of the last three Oklahoma starting quarterbacks, each of whom was a Heisman finalist, started his college career at OU. All three transferred into the Sooner program from other schools.
Murray was a highly recruited, consensus five-star talent out of Allen High School in Allen, Texas. He led his high school to three straight state titles and was named the 2014 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year.
A dual-sport star in both football and baseball, Murray ended up following in his father’s footsteps, signing with Texas A&M, where his father, Kevin, was a star quarterback in the mid-1980s. Kyler did, however, make a recruiting visit to OU in the fall of 2014, but that was before Riley had joined the Sooner coaching staff as offensive coordinator.
Murray played in eight games his freshman season at Texas A&M and started in three of them. He was in competition there with sophomore Kyle Allen, another No. 1 quarterback recruit. Despite sharing the quarterbacking duties as a freshman, Murray was second on the team with 335 rushing yards and 1,021 yards of total offense.
Former Sooner QB and Heisman-winner Kyler Murray turned 23 on Aug. 7.
After the 2015 season, Murray and Allen both ended up leaving the A&M program reportedly over concerns about the future direction of the offense and trust issues between the quarterbacks and the coaching staff.
Regardless of the reason, A&M’s loss became Oklahoma’s huge gain because Murray elected to take his talents to Oklahoma, where it was agreed he would play football and baseball.
Baker Mayfield was preparing for his second season at OU when Murray arrived on campus in Norman. Murray was able to practice with the Sooners but was ineligible to play in games in the 2016 season because of NCAA transfer rules. Murray quarterbacked the Oklahoma practice squad that season, just as Mayfield had done two years before him.
Murray served as Mayfield’s backup in the 2017 season, but did see action in seven games. He completed 18 of 21 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns in his brief appearances, but that offered a glimpse of Murray’s dynamic ability and what Sooner fans could look forward to the following season.
In his first career start for Oklahoma, a late-season game against West Virginia, Murray broke off a 66-yard run from scrimmage on the Sooners’ opening possession of the game.
Murray was electric from the opening snap of the 2018 season. He finished the the season with 4,361 passing yards and 1,001 rushing yards for and nation-leading 5,362 yards of total offense. He became the first FBS player to average at least 300 passing yards and 60 rushing yards per game for an entire season. He and former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson are the only players in FBS history to record at least 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a single season.
In addition to winning the Heisman Trophy, beating out Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Murray was named College Football Player of the Year by the Associated Press and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. He also won the Davey O’Brien Award for the 2018 season as the nation’s best college quarterback.
Murray moved on to the NFL last season as the No, 1 overall selection of the Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft. Football wasn’t his only professional opportunity. He also was the first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics, the No. 9 player selected overall, in the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft.
Murray ultimately chose football over baseball and immediately became the starting quarterback of the NFL Cardinals. Murray did well enough his rookie season to be named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Jalen Hurts, who played in three consecutive national championship games for Alabama, followed Murray as the third Sooner starting quarterback in as many seasons to come to Oklahoma via the transfer route
This season, Oklahoma will break the mold by starting a quarterback who was one of theirs from the beginning. Spencer Rattler was the No. 1 quarterback nationally in the 2019 class and one of four five-star prospects who signed with the Sooners in that class. He will get his turn in the saddle as the Sooner starter in the 2020 season. the fourth different starter at the QB position in as many seasons.