Murray’s baseball teammates celebrating his football success
NEW YORK — When Jake Irvin boarded the Oklahoma baseball team’s bus after a 5-2 loss at Dallas Baptist on Feb. 7, he didn’t expect to find Kyler Murray with a flabbergasted look on his face.
Murray had a solid game, going 1 for 4 with a solo home run that was one of the longest hit by the Sooners all season.
But when Irvin, Oklahoma’s star pitcher, got to his seat just behind Murray, he found his teammate’s head down. Murray turned toward Irvin.
“We are we losing to a team like that?” Murray asked Irvin.
Irvin knew how good of a baseball player Murray was — good enough to convince the Oakland A’s to take him with the No. 9 overall pick in last summer’s Major League Baseball Draft — but that was a defining moment for Irvin’s opinion of Murray’s drive.
“All right, this dude’s all in,” Irvin remembers thinking. “At the beginning of the season there’s questions — he’s going to be playing football, firstrounder, where’s his head going to be at all season? There was just no question that he was all in for us.”
It’s moments like that, that have Irvin and his former Oklahoma baseball teammates cheering on Murray as he heads to New York for Saturday’s Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Murray is one of three finalists. After last weekend’s performance in the Big 12 Championship Game against Texas, Murray is the favorite to take home the trophy over Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins.
Murray showed his competitive spirit to Irvin early last season.
For Cade Harris, Murray made his biggest impression later.
By the time the postseason rolled around, Murray’s status as a high draft pick was sealed.
In the Sooners’ first game in the Big 12 Tournament, Murray suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out of the rest of the tournament.
But instead of worrying about his football future, entering the summer in competition for starting quarterback spot with Austin Kendall, Murray battled to get back on the baseball field in the regional.
“It showed that his goals were the same as the team’s goals,” Harris said. “He could’ve easily been like, ‘No, I’m not going to play and risk my future.’
“He just brings a winning culture to wherever he’s at. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as competitive as anything that they do. It’s just ridiculous.”
Irvin and Harris will be rooting for their teammate Saturday.
“It’s just been really exciting for everybody because we knew how important football is to Kyler,” Irvin said. “Just insanely happy for him. It’s been a lot of fun for us to watch him succeed and to watch OU succeed.”