Familiar face
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NORMAN — The featured fight Friday night in Morgantown is obvious: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia with a berth in the Big 12 title game on the line. But there will be an unmissable undercard bout decided throughout the night with Heisman Trophy implications.
Kyler Murray vs. Will Grier — perhaps the only two players with any chance of snatching the trophy from Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa by season’s end.
Tagovailoa has 1/4 odds to win the Heisman, according to Bovada. Murray is next at 9/2 followed by Grier at 12/1.
Oklahoma and West Virginia have launched Heisman campaign
websites for their quarterbacks. On Monday, they were both announced as finalists for the Maxwell Award. Murray is also a finalist for the Davey O’Brien Award.
Murray would be the seventh Sooner to win the Heisman. Grier would be the first Mountaineer.
“Do I feel like I’m deserving? Of course,” Murray said. “But at the same time, I just have to go out there and play my game.”
As Murray fielded questions about Heisman hype Monday afternoon in the east-side suites of Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, five statues of former Sooners who won the award could be seen out of the windows, across the street in OU’s Heisman Park.
“I walk by them every day,” Murray said. “It would be nice to put one up.”
Murray and Grier, a pair of former SEC quarterbacks who transferred to the Big 12, first met during the recruiting process and through quarterback camps.
Grier’s first scholarship offer came from East Carolina, then coached by OU defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill with Lincoln Riley as his offensive coordinator.
Murray, Grier and former Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen were the three transfer quarterbacks Riley targeted in recruiting after the 2015 season.
“Heisman Trophies go to great players on great teams,” Riley said. “I
think if you asked either Kyler Murray or Will Grier right now what they care more about, I promise you they just wanna win.”
A win will be had by one on Friday, and so too could a defining Heisman moment.