Will Lincoln Riley let Jalen Hurts run?
Lincoln Riley takes pride in his quarterbacks' ability. If you don't notice during the
season, you can't miss that pride shining through at the Heisman Trophy ceremony every December.
But Riley also takes pride in his quarterbacks' AVAILability.
Riley arrived as Bob Stoops' offensive coordinator in January 2015, and injured quarterbacks had become the norm for the Sooners. Four times in two years, injuries had caused a quarterback shuffle in the Trevor Knight/Blake Bell/ Cody Thomas tango.
Four glorious seasons and two Heismans later, OU still hasn't had to start a backup
quarterback under Riley, for health reasons.
Which brings Riley to his 2019 quandary. Riley on Monday named Jalen Hurts the Sooners' starting quarterback against Houston, but Hurts' presence puts Riley in conflict. Ability vs. availability.
Despite the rampant optimism that Riley is the ultimate quarterback whisperer and can transform Hurts into an elite passer, the truth remains that Hurts is an exquisite runner. Not a scrambler like Baker Mayfield, a Houdini in evading the rush. Not a speedster like Kyler Murray, who could dart for yardage in the open field and slide to safety before opposing ruffians could do him harm.
Hurts is a bonafide football runner. Put him at Southern Cal in the `70s, he would have been an I formation tailback. Put him at OU in the `80s, he would have been a wishbone fullback. A rock solid, agile runner with good speed, good instincts and ruggedness to break a tackle or two.
The signature play of Hurts' Alabama career was a 30-yard touchdown run, out of scramble mode, with 2:07 left in the 2016 national championship game, which gave the Crimson Tide a 31-28 lead on Clemson. That's the game Bama lost 35-31 on Deshaun Watson's last-snap TD pass.
For the Sooner offense to hum like it did under Mayfield and Murray, Hurts must be a running threat. Sure, Riley can sprinkle magic dust and turn Hurts into a better passer. But a Heisman-caliber passer? An overall-No. 1-draft-pick passer? Not bloody likely. Hurts' greatest effectiveness will come by keeping defenses honest with the threat of the quarterback run.
But Riley is slow to commit.
“It's been a long time since we've had a quarterback miss a game in this offense,” Riley said, perhaps thinking back to East Carolina days and surely to Texas Tech, too. The Red Raider quarterbacks always answered the call in the Mike Leach era.
“And not only has that been great for our teams, it's been a big selling point to recruits. You have to be fortunate, guys got to take care of their bodies, but you've also got to be smart about it too, and we've always kind of tried to walk that line.”
Riley's apprehension is understandable. Coaches don't like to expose their quarterbacks. Those shotgun option plays that have become all the rage work because quarterbacks keep the ball far from the grasp of angry defenders. They run into open space, and if the space collapses, they fall as often as they're tackled.
Not Hurts. He's listed at 219 pounds, roughly the same size as burly tailback Trey Sermon. At Bama, Hurts occasionally bounced off SEC linebackers and side-stepped SEC linemen. He's not predisposed to look for safe ground as soon as he starts running.
Even Alabama coach Nick Saban, who did NOT turn Hurts into a passing wizard, wanted Hurts to throw more and run less in those two Tuscaloosa seasons, 2016 and 2017.
In the 2018 Bama spring game, Saban famously was caught on a microphone bemoaning Hurts' tendency to take off and run.
“I mean, the third-team QB can move the team right down the field throwing the ball,” Saban griped.
In those two Alabama seasons before losing the job to Tua Tagovailoa, Hurts carried 301 times on nonsacks and gained 2,055 yards. That's almost seven yards a carry.
If Hurts can make most of the throws — cut him some slack on the deep ball; he's no Mayfield or Murray — WITH the running threat that paralyzes defenses, then OU again will have quarterbacking that is the envy of most every team in America.
“I think Coach Riley has really good intentions; really good intentions with really bad intentions,” Hurts said at OU Media Day with some of the sleight-of-mouth he's displayed in his seven months on campus. “I think that's what we want as a team, we want bad intentions.”
Those bad intentions are most easily obtained by loosening the reins on Hurts' running, even if it makes Riley wince.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.