How OU’s 2019 QB battle is shaping up
NORMAN — Now that Kyler Murray is officially out of the picture to be Oklahoma’s 2019 quarterback — barring an unexpected change of heart before Thursday — the Sooners’ quarterback picture for next season is, well, not very clear.
With Friday’s final day to enroll for the semester looming, there’s plenty of up in the air over not only who will start for the Sooners next year but who will be on the roster in the spring, much less the fall.
The most likely candidates to be the starter when Oklahoma opens the season Aug. 31 against Houston aren’t even assured of being on the team.
Oklahoma remains in the running for Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts, who went on a whirlwind stretch of visits over the weekend, which included Maryland, Oklahoma and Miami.
Maryland’s 247sports site reported Tuesday that Hurts would likely choose between the Sooners and Terrapins.
If Hurts comes to Oklahoma, he would be the presumed starter after spending two seasons as the Crimson Tide’s start-
ing quarterback before being supplanted by Tua Tagovailoa this season.
Austin Kendall, the Sooners’ backup quarterback in both 2016 and 2018, also remains in play.
Kendall was the presumed front-runner to be the starter next season until Oklahoma started its pursuit of Hurts.
It was that move that started Kendall on the path to a transfer, with the redshirt junior-to-be putting his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal late last week.
But Kendall could return to Oklahoma if Hurts decides to go elsewhere — though the longer Hurts’ decision drags out, the less likely Kendall’s return becomes.
Kendall is an attractive option on the transfer market for two reasons — he’d be eligible immediately as a graduate transfer and because he has two years of eligibility remaining.
Because of the timing crunch, there remains a chance that the Sooners both lose out on Hurts and lose Kendall to transfer.
If that happens, Oklahoma’s options thin considerably. Tanner Mordecai could be the Sooners’ only scholarship quarterback on campus in the spring.
As a true freshman this season, Mordecai played in two games — preserving his redshirt status — throwing just four passes, completing two, for 37 yards.
Then there’s Spencer Rattler, the five-star true freshman who is the No. 1 quarterback in the 2019 class, according to Rivals.com.
Rattler is thought to be the quarterback of the future but it could be difficult for him to win the job in the fall because he won’t arrive in Norman until June.
But on signing day, coach Lincoln Riley didn’t dismiss the possibility.
“I think he’s got the mentality to come in and compete early,” Riley said then. “As Spencer knows, we’ve got other really good quarterbacks on this roster, and there’s gonna be competition like there’s always been. But any of these guys we’ve signed — we don’t sign or recruit many of these guys if we think they’re two or three years down the line of being capable of doing it.
“Now being capable is one thing; going and doing it is another.”