One More Year?
NFL guru Gil Brandt said he wouldn’t be shocked if quarterback Kyler Murray returned to the Sooners next season instead of playing pro baseball.
A tweet from former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt sent Oklahoma fans into a frenzy last Thursday.
"Two things I wouldn't be shocked if they happened in 2019," Brandt tweeted. "1. Kliff Kingsbury was an NFL head coach. 2. Kyler Murray returned to OU."
Brandt's first improbable prediction came true Tuesday afternoon when the Arizona Cardinals hired Kingsbury, the former Texas Tech coach. As for the second? "I hate to throw wild guesses out there because I think that's the worst thing we do today," Brandt told The Oklahoman. "And so when I put something up on my Twitter account, I really think it has an above average chance of happening."
Brandt, 85, worked in the Cowboys organization from 1960-89. He said he knows Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley as well as anybody in the business.
Brandt said he talked with Riley three times last week, but that any insight into Murray's looming decision is his own. He didn't hear it from Riley.
"No, no, no, no, no way at all," Brandt said. "The only thing that Lincoln will tell me is that the boy really loves football."
Murray has three possible paths: Fulfill his baseball contract with the Oakland Athletics and give up football, declare for the NFL draft and pay back his baseball signing bonus ... Or the third option: Return to OU and try to win a national championship and another Heisman Trophy.
Door No. 3 seems like the least likely scenario, but Brandt believes it's the only path for Murray to keep playing two sports.
Murray could report to the A's in spring training and play a year in the minor leagues to get a better feel of where his baseball future lies. He could then return to Norman by late August for the start of the 2019 season, his last year of eligibility.
"By going back to college for a year he increases his knowledge and it helps him understand the nuances of the defense," Brandt said. "In his case I think he could probably go back a week beforehand and do it. It's just a hunch. It's just a feel is what it is."