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.”