Kyler Murray’s Top 8 plays as an Oklahoma Sooner – Heisman celebration

How often have you heard that someone was ‘amazing’ or ‘unbelievable’? Tune into any random college football game, and you’ll hear an announcer say, ‘That kid’s a special player.’ We, the college football viewership, seem desensitized to terms used to describe greatness. Kyler Murray displayed greatness.

Don’t take this following statement the wrong way… brace yourself. Not all Heisman Trophy winners are special.

WOW! How could he say that?! – Let me explain.

All Heisman Trophy winners go down in college football history as great players. They all go down in history as having excellent individual seasons. But they are not all created equal, and they are not all ‘special.’ Let’s take a second to re-sensitize our brains to the term great. Let’s really take a second to think about a player or two who was truly special.

Are Mark Engram (2009 Heisman winner) and Reggie Bush (2005 Heisman winner) equal? Will Pat Sullivan (1971 Heisman winner) be remembered by Auburn fans like Cam Newton (2010 Heisman winner) will be recognized? I played college football and was nowhere near any awards list, believe me. I respect each Heisman winner; in fact, it’s my favorite award in sports. However, there’s a difference between excellent, great, and special players.

Kyler was special.

During Kyler’s 2018 Heisman campaign, he displayed a level of athleticism and amazement, the likes of which have never been seen before and haven’t been seen since. Every week, Kyler made plays with his feet, his arm, and his mind that left Sooner Nation in disbelief.

2018 Awards and Statistics

In 2018, Kyler became Oklahoma’s seventh Heisman Trophy winner. He also received the Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Year Award, Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, Big 12 First-Team (duh), Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week five times (league record), the Manning Award, the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. He was named as an AP First team All-American.

Kyler became the first college football player ever to average 300 passing yards and 60 rushing yards per game. He was the second player ever to record 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a single season (Deshaun Watson is the other). He set the OU single-season record for total yards (5,362), points responsible for (362), yards per completion (16.8), and yards per pass attempt (11.6 – also a CFB record). I could keep going, but you get the point.

Kyler finished 2018 with 4,361 passing yards – 42 passing touchdowns – 1,001 rushing yards – 13 rushing touchdowns –

Kyler Murray was truly special. These are the top eight plays of Kyler’s 2018 Heisman Trophy season. They will be listed in the order they occurred during the year.