Murray intends to finish strong

NORM A N, OKL A . » Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray pulled off an impressive triple play during a brutal 30-hour stretch in April.

On a Friday night, he played center field for the Sooners’ baseball team. The next day, he played quarterback in the football team’s spring game. After that, he played another baseball game Saturday night.

It was a mental and physical grind for Murray, but his dedication to both sports has paid off. Two months later, the Oakland A’s selected him in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. He chose to continue playing football , and after posting one of the most impressive statistical seasons in FBS history, he was named a Heisman Trophy finalist on Monday.

Murray easily could have quit football after being drafted, but his reason for returning offers a window into his mentality. After a disappointing freshman season at Texas A&M in 2015, he transferred to Oklahoma. He sat out a year because of transfer rules, then waited last season behind Heisman winner Baker Mayfield. Murray’s sudden rise in baseball left him facing the possibility that his last significant football memories would come from the rough year at Texas A&M.

He wasn’t having it.

“I’ve been playing this game my whole life,” he said. “To leave this game with a bad taste in my mouth after my freshman year at A&M is just not who I am. I’ve worked my whole life for this, and we’re here. So for me, leaving after getting drafted was never an option. And they (the A’s) knew that.”