Tag: Tanner Mordecai

Lincoln Riley discusses 2020 football season implications, Oklahoma quarterback competition

Here is what Lincoln Riley had to say about being ready to play a 2020 football season and the pending quarterback competition

With the impact of the coronavirus taking out spring football for all of college football, Oklahoma is in the same peculiar situation as everyone else.

Lincoln Riley hasn’t been content with how the playing field hasn’t been even across all of college football in terms of the communication between the coaching staff and players. The Sooners had plenty of position battles to start to work through during spring football and Alex Grinch continuing to revamp the Oklahoma defense in year two.

Riley made a two-week hiatus from talking to the media on Wednesday, going on Oklahoma play-by-play voice Toby Rowland’s radio show for an 11-minute segment discussing everything from the last two weeks.

Here is what Oklahoma’s head coach had to say about being ready to play a 2020 football season and the pending quarterback competition

ON THE 2020 FOOTBALL SEASON AND IF A TEAM CAN GET READY WITH LOSING THE SPRING:

“It’s going to be predetermined to our nation’s response to this virus and how seriously people take it and one, do we all take the steps to not only protect ourselves, but more importantly protect each other. Hopefully our nation will continue to get more serious about this and respond in a positive way. If that happens and we’re able to train our guys over the summer like we normally do, we get quite a few practices—we get 20 plus practices in fall camp, that’s enough to get a team ready to play. Now, are our guys going to have develop as much or are some of the guys going to miss spring football—of course. That’s a key time to develop guys, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily from a health standpoint or safety, any of that, I don’t know that it’s necessary to get somebody actually just ready to play football. I think with 20 plus practices and if we are able to get them on campus here some in the summer to train them, get them physically ready for camp, 20 plus practices in Aug., then we’ll be ready to play football. And by that time, I think the nation will need that.”

ON THE LOSS OF TIME FOR THE QUARTERBACK COMPETITION

“Honestly it is a lot better than if it were last year. For a lot of reasons with our football team. Obviously defensively. From an offensive line perspective with just how crazy and inexperienced we were last year. Our quarterbacks … your correct, neither one of them have played a ton of snaps at the college level, but I wasn’t going to be able help that through spring practice and fall camp anyway. That’s not going to change until we play games. The thing that is different this year is these guys have both been in our system now for awhile. They have been in our program now for awhile and you could tell. Even in the one day at practice that we got, I felt like we had two experienced guys out there and we do in my mind. They know what we’re doing. They know how to run our stuff. Now, can they obviously get better and are the reps beneficial to them? Of course they are. They are beneficial to anybody. But these guys will be ready to play. I’ll be excited to get them back and get back to work with them, but I know they are two pretty driven guys that will be getting a lot of work while they are outside of here.”

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What Lincoln Riley said about the quarterback battle between Spencer Rattler, Tanner Mordecai

Another quarterback battle. This time around it is between Lincoln Riley’s prized recruit and the quarterback he recruited before him.

Another spring, another quarterback battle.

It was Baker Mayfield, Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas in Lincoln Riley’s first year. Then Kyler Murray and Austin Kendall three years later, Jalen Hurts and Tanner Mordecai the next and now Spencer Rattler and Mordecai.

Times have changed, but Riley hasn’t. He holds all the cards to the quarterback battle between his prized quarterback recruit and one of the best quarterbacks from the state of Texas in the 2018 recruiting class. Though many have already named Rattler the starter, Riley hasn’t budged an inch off of the upcoming quarterback race.

Oklahoma’s head ball coach met with the media for the first time this spring on Monday. Here is what Riley had to say about the quarterback battle between Rattler and Mordecai.

ON IF THIS QUARTERBACK BATTLE IS DIFFERENT THAN THOSE IN THE PAST:

“It’s different. They’re not experienced, but they’re also, they’re experienced here. So it’s definitely been a different process than certainly compared to last spring. I would say it’s been more similar to like the years, especially maybe the year where we had Austin and Kyler kind of both coming back and both guys, neither one had played a ton yet, but they both had been in the system. Had both been in our program. Yeah, there’s some game experience that these guys don’t have and aren’t going to have, we get that. But there’s no doubt, it is nice to have guys that have been here. It’s not all just brand new. This time last year, we were obviously force-feeding, especially Jalen, at that point, trying to get him caught up as much as fast as possible. So it’s been a little different tone in there because of that. They’re guys that are ready. We’re very excited about the guys that are in that room. The guys that they’ve been able to learn under during their time. I feel like they’re both ready to be the starting quarterback here. If we didn’t, we would have brought somebody else in. We’ve obviously have had a history of that. But these guys are ready, they’re good enough, they’re talented enough. It’s their time.”

ON NAMING A QUARTERBACK IN THE SPRING:

“It doesn’t matter. I’m certainly not opposed to, if we had a clear-cut starter after spring of doing something then. I think there’s advantages to that if you’re able to do that, the team knowing who the starter’s going to be, first and foremost. I just think you have to let these things play out. I know everybody wants to come to conclusions, everybody wants to know what it’s going to be. And I know these things get dissected every which way and I know they’re going to continue to forever, that’s just the nature of the business. But it’s so simple. It’s the very core of team sports. You let however many people you have, you let them truly compete for a spot and may the best man win. To me it’s that simple. I’ve never felt any pressure on it to have a timeline, to feel like it needs to be done here or there. There’s obviously a timeline on the back end of this as you start to get close to the first game. But I think these things, you have to just let them evolve. Each one is different. So it’ll be fun to watch these guys because they’re both prepared, both experienced and both very talented players.”

Oklahoma announces kickoff time for 2020 Spring Game

Oklahoma football announced the kickoff time will be at 5 p.m. for their 2020 Spring Game.

Oklahoma football announced the kickoff time will be at 5 p.m. for their 2020 Spring Game, which will take place at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman on Saturday, April 18.

The Sooners’ annual Spring Game is typically a big weekend for Lincoln Riley and his recruiting team. The game serves as a way for fans to get a look at the upcoming team, recruits to visit the campus and alumni return to Oklahoma.

In last year’s spring game, quarterback Jalen Hurts got the first chance to showcase his skills as a Sooners. This year, quarterback’s Spencer Rattler and Tanner Mordecai will be looking to do the same.

This year’s Spring Game will also be Oklahoma’s first chance to showcase it’s 2020 recruiting class, which finished in the top-15 in the nation according to Rivals.com.

Last year, country music singer Lee Brice held a pre-game concert.

Oklahoma has said they will announce more details closer to the game.

Former Oklahoma commit Brock Vandagriff commits to Georgia

Lincoln Riley lost 2021 5-star quarterback prospect, Brock Vandagriff, to Georgia after Vandagriff committed to Oklahoma this past summer.

You win some, you lose some but the Sooners still have a few tricks up their sleeve.

Lincoln Riley lost 2021 5-star quarterback prospect, Brock Vandagriff, to Georgia after Vandagriff committed to Oklahoma this past summer. Vandagriff de-committed from the Sooners a few weeks ago citing the distance from his family in Georgia as one of the main concerns.

The No. 1 2021 quarterback announced his decision to stay home via his Twitter. Vandagriff is from Bogart, Ga., just 20 minutes west of Athens where the University of Georgia is located.

Riley will have to move his focus to another five-star quarterback, Caleb Williams. Williams is the No. 1 dual-threat signal-caller in the 2021 class and is slotted just one spot behind Vandagriff nationally at No. 5.

With the signing of Chandler Morris for the 2020 class and the current quarterbacks on campus in Tanner Mordecai and Spencer Rattler, Riley is sure to find the future of the program with his star-studded track record.

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Tanner Mordecai will reportedly return to Oklahoma, compete with Spencer Rattler for quarterback job

Oklahoma will be getting a quarterback back for the 2020 season. Per a report, Tanner Mordecai will not transfer, but instead return to OU.

Oklahoma will be getting a quarterback back for the 2020 season.

The idea of Tanner Mordecai hitting the high road after the Peach Bowl was real, but the Waco, Texas, native is set to return to Norman, Oklahoma, for his redshirt sophomore season to compete for the Sooners starting quarterback job, according to Jason Kersey of The Athletic.

Mordecai was named Oklahoma’s backup quarterback to Jalen Hurts for the 2019 season out of fall camp. He appeared in six games this past season, going 16-for-26 through the air for 207 yards and two touchdowns.

In the 2019 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Mordecai was not the second quarterback to head into the game. On Oklahoma’s final drive, Lincoln Riley sent out former five-star recruit Spencer Rattler for the final series. Rattler went 1-for-3 (both incompletions were drops) and failed to pick up a first down in his Peach Bowl appearance.

Riley said the day after the game that putting Rattler in over Mordecai had nothing to do with Rattler overtaking Mordecai for the backup spot, but more about getting Rattler reps. He said that the two will go through a quarterback competition ahead of the 2020 season.

With Mordecai returning, the Sooners will now have three scholarship quarterbacks as they added high school prospect Chandler Morris to the fold on Thursday night.

Oklahoma has not announced when spring practice will commence ahead of the 2020 season.

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