Jalen Hurts is getting ready to play the biggest game of his life this Sunday in Glendale, Arizona. Hurts and his Philadelphia Eagles are preparing for Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hurts was coached by Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, and Dan Enos before he got to Oklahoma. However, in 2019, Lincoln Riley accelerated Hurts’ developmental process and gave him a first-rate education on becoming a running quarterback. The Eagles have clearly tapped into the strengths of Hurts’ skill set the way Riley did at OU.
We went into our Riley Files archives with Oklahoma insider Kegan Reneau. We dug up some key insights about Riley and Hurts from their 2019 season with the Sooners:
There is certainly a lot to explore:
“I do think he gave Kyler Murray the freedom to do what he wants. It was really the final three (Jalen Hurts, Spencer Rattler, Caleb Williams). I mentioned this on the first episode: What Lincoln Riley should be remembered for most was that he recognized who his offensive players were, what their best strengths were, and was able to make the most out of ’em,” Reneau said. “In 2019 with Jalen Hurts, after the Kansas state loss, it was proven at that point that Oklahoma’s vertical passing game wasn’t what it needed to be, that he didn’t have the quarterback that necessarily had those kinds of qualities to do those things.
“He changed the offense. He turned into a triple option, running offense, essentially like something you see from the 1980s and the shotgun.”
[mm-video type=video id=01grv9mwsrgrve2b8y0z playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01grv9mwsrgrve2b8y0z/01grv9mwsrgrve2b8y0z-a11dd4c237c655a837c2b4468388ecf1.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696091687]