Game Thread: Jalen Hurts vs Ucla

CB4 said:

My question is who is the “they” that quoted Hurts as saying this? I was flipping among other games as I thought this would be OU boat racing UCLA. I can’t seem to find a quote anywhere along this line.

One thing for certain. The media would love it if he did.

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Until I see it in quotes attributed to him by a known source, it didn’t happen.


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owenfieldreams said:

OU fans have always had an issue with keeping the starting QB in longer than seemed necessary throughout Stoops' tenure. Riley has shown the same tendency. We were substituting liberally in all positions but QB. My sense is, and this is only one man's opinion, Riley doesn't have confidence in our D yet which is understandable. Riley also has a tendency to get conservative at the start of the year 2nd half. He caught some flack about it in the Georgia game. As good as Hurts has shown, as an avid follower of the team, there are some things that concern me.

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Actually I mildly disagree with you on this, I suspect Riley keeps his starter in longer than necessary for a quite practical reason. It's my suspicion that its done at least in part for recruiting purposes, to impress those being recruited at QB that they will have their opportunity to put up big numbers and bask in the limelight if they come to OU.

bama61 said:

Actually I mildly disagree with you on this, I suspect Riley keeps his starter in longer than necessary for a quite practical reason. It's my suspicion that its done at least in part for recruiting purposes, to impress those being recruited at QB that they will have their opportunity to put up big numbers and bask in the limelight if they come to OU.

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If I’m a blue chip QB coming out of high school, what has happened there with Mayfield, Murray, and now Hurts all coming as transfers to get the starting nod, it might give me pause. I’m sure Ratter and others behind Jalen at this point think “Well it’s only a year. My shot will come next year and I can still redshirt”. This is now five years in a row OU has a starter at QB that wasn’t part of the program as a freshman.

It it will be interesting to see if another transfer or grad transfer commits to the “Lincoln Riley Wayward QB Rehabilitation Program”.

Then again, I’m not a 18 year old blue chip QB. I’m almost 60 years old and trip over my dog on the way to the bathroom. Only place recruiting me is the Del Boca Vista Retirement Community.

wishbonesooner said:

A lot of you said the Heisman isnt that important, I'm like you, a national championship is a lot better. One thing about the Heisman, the best high school QBs in the country are giving OU a look where they weren't a couple of years ago. The Heisman may not be the best reward at the end of a season, but it's not nothing.
Good Luck the rest of the way.

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"Nothing", no?


But have the voters themselves made it an absolute joke?
Yes.

Their arbitrary standards based upon "plays for a blue blood" strikes a lot of us as an amusing joke.

I've said for years that the Heisman voters basically follow the logic below:
1) can we give it to someone who plays for Notre Dame?
2) can we give it to a USC tailback?
3) can we give it to someone who plays for Oklahoma?

In 2002, Carson Palmer won the Heisman Trophy.

Here is his stat line:
309 of 489 for 3942 yards, 33 TD, 10 INT

Meanwhile, a Big 12 QB had the following stat line:
479 of 712 for 5017 yards, 45 TDs, 13 INT


That's Kliff Kingsbury. So what I'm supposed to believe is that a guy who passes for 1100 more yards, has a better passing completion pct and throws for 12 more TDs is NOT AS GOOD a player as a guy who has the lesser numbers.

Kingsbury finished ninth and got six first-place votes. But if he had played for Oklahoma, he'd have won the Heisman.


Of course, the next objection is, "But team record blah blah." Well then how did Paul Hornung win it on a losing team? "Oh, he set a record for something something".

No, he got it because he played for Notre Dame, pure and simple.

In 2002, Palmer not only didn't lead the nation in passing yards, he didn't even lead his conference despite finishing fifth in the nation in passing yards. Timmy Chang of Hawaii threw for more yards but nobody saw Hawaii play and besides, they're Hawaii, right?

Jason White won it in 2003 with numbers substantially inferior to BJ Symmons (again at Texas Tech). Symmons had a better percentage passing and (wait for it) almost TWO THOUSAND MORE YARDS passing as well as 12 more TDs on a "not as good as OU" team (which, of course, makes hi the bigger contributor).


Jason White got consideration because he played for Oklahoma; BJ Symmons did not get consideration because he played for Texas Tech. (The real best player in the country, however, was Larry Fitzgerald, but I at least understand this one).


So what has happened lately. You have a guy who LEFT THE SEC because he wasn't good enough, he goes to Oklahoma and - voila! - runs up a bunch of great numbers against lousy defenses in a flag football league and miraculously transforms into the best player in CFB. Now the QB ot OU is a guy who LEFT THE SEC because the guy ahead of him is a better QB....and we're sitting here watching this nonsensical narrative play out about how Lincoln Riley has him doing things Saban couldn't something something, and it's atrocious. Jalen will easily eclipse 5,000 yards this year, and he still won't be the best QB in the nation as long as Tua is the starter at Alabama.


If Jalen Hurts had transferred to Texas Tech, none of these same dolts touting his "progress" would vote for him for the Heisman. And THAT'S the problem a lot of us have with the award.

Graham Harrell threw for more yards than Sam Bradford did, too.....and his team had the same record. Now, I DO happen to think Bradford was the right choice in 2008, but let's be honest: bigger numbers at Texas Tech don't win the awards that lesser numbers do win it at Oklahoma. Those stats are easily demonstrated to be the result of the league in which one plays.

You shouldn't somehow get extra credit points for playing in a flag football league that distorts stats - but (with the exception of RG3) only Oklahoma QBs get that bonus. (And RG3 got his ink because......he beat Oklahoma).

Again, it's nothing personal with you fine Sooner fans that post here, but it gets tiring to watch this year after year. I'll even grant Baker Mayfield deserved the award; Kyler Murray did not. And Jalen Hurts does not so long as Tua is at Alabama.

BamaNation said:

It was stated during the game broadcast by the game color analyst. Said he had spoken with Jalen. What I quoted was, Based on my best recollection and what I heard during the OU game broadcast, verbatim on what the analyst said Jalen said. Not “Jalen told me that he blah blah”, but Jalen said, “I didn’t get a chance blah blah.” Big difference if you’re quoting vs summarizing.

Again, maybe that’s his interpretation of what Jalen actually told him but it was not presented as an interpretation.

My guess is we won’t see any video of him saying stuff like this BUT (if he even cares what media says) he’s going to need to keep it close to the vest because they all want to make CNS and Bama be the ones who didn’t let Jalen have a chance.



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I mean.....26-2 but whatever.........28 games is long enough to learn to throw the ball down the damned field.

Er, I mean 28 1/2.

If he'd hit a wide open Calvin Ridley in the first half against UGA, he's still the starter.

selmaborntidefan said:

I mean.....26-2 but whatever.........28 games is long enough to learn to throw the ball down the damned field.

Er, I mean 28 1/2.

If he'd hit a wide open Calvin Ridley in the first half against UGA, he's still the starter.

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I think that the SECCG proved that he deserves to start somewhere right now, but he had the misfortune of playing on a team with a guy like Tua.

B1GTide said:

I think that the SECCG proved that he deserves to start somewhere right now, but he had the misfortune of playing on a team with a guy like Tua.

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I'm fine with that.

I'm just getting a little wary of guys fleeing the SEC - with more NFL players than anyone else - and going elsewhere and running up back yard Nerf ball type numbers and getting awards for it.

BamaNation said:

And just for the record (not that he needs my approval), Jalen can certainly express whatever opinion he wants to whomever.

My point was mainly about how (as I predicted weeks ago) the media will use every opportunity to portray Jalen as wronged somehow. Even if he was horribly misquoted above, that’s exactly what the quote was about.


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The media is portraying Jalen like politicians portray their flavor of the month.

selmaborntidefan said:

And Jalen Hurts does not so long as Tua is at Alabama.

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Jalen was tremendously improved after working with Enos before the start of last season, but Tua still beat him out for the starter position. Jalen had his chance, but Tua was still better. And still is. Can you imagine if Tua were playing for Oklahoma, and what he'd be doing to those weak defenses?

Ledsteplin said:

Jalen was tremendously improved after working with Enos before the start of last season, but Tua still beat him out for the starter position. Jalen had his chance, but Tua was still better. And still is. Can you imagine if Tua were playing for Oklahoma, and what he'd be doing to those weak defenses?

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He would put up video game numbers on easy level.

If Jalen has a strong desire to win the Heisman I can understand why he may have said what was mentioned. If his main competition for that award is Tua then he's not going to say that Tua was just better. If he wants to get votes and beat Tua for the award he's going to say that he's just as good, if not better but wasn't given a chance. If the two main contenders were between Jake Fromm and Justin Fields I'd bet Fields would say he's every bit as good as Fromm but wasn't given much of a chance. I don't know how many more dollars an NFL contract is worth with a Heisman on the resume but it's probably significant so Jalen could be doing some self-promotion for financial reasons. Athletes have too much pride to admit they're second best to anyone.

selmaborntidefan said:

I'm fine with that.

I'm just getting a little wary of guys fleeing the SEC - with more NFL players than anyone else - and going elsewhere and running up back yard Nerf ball type numbers and getting awards for it.

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Jalen was always good, and if my memory serves me correctly, he was always pretty good against the lesser defenses on our schedule. He had trouble in his first couple of years when we went against the better LSU/Barn/Clemson type defenses. Then Tua came in and his skills sets were just better, so Tua won the job. Jalen still stuck it out, and obviously improved his skills while at BAMA. Now he's at OU, with better skills, and facing only lesser defenses. If he didn't put up video game numbers in the OU system I would be greatly surprised. I still think Jalen is a class guy, and I doubt he said what the media is reporting.

I think y'all need to calm down and realize the media wants a certain narrative around this and they're gonna twist and turn circumstances, words, and actions to make it the way they want it.

Jalen Hurts was given ample opportunities here and frankly a coach like Steve Spurrier would've benched him mid-way through 2017 instead of letting him get all the way to the CFPCG as a starter. That is the reality of it and everything else is just journalists wishing they were novelists instead.


He's looking great for the Sooners and I am happy for him. I'll continue to wish him all the best until I hear something classless w/r/t UA and our program come out of his mouth.

rgw said:

I think y'all need to calm down and realize the media wants a certain narrative around this and they're gonna twist and turn circumstances, words, and actions to make it the way they want it.

Jalen Hurts was given ample opportunities here and frankly a coach like Steve Spurrier would've benched him mid-way through 2017 instead of letting him get all the way to the CFPCG as a starter. That is the reality of it and everything else is just journalists wishing they were novelists instead.


He's looking great for the Sooners and I am happy for him. I'll continue to wish him all the best until I hear something classless w/r/t UA and our program come out of his mouth.

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I think the Heisman is already his just for the "story" alone.

Whether he or Tua win the Heisman is immaterial to me. As our old buddy Pat Dye would say, "hindsight is 50/50", in hindsight Hurts probably never should have gone to Alabama. I say that because his real strengths are his running ability first and passing second. I never thought he was completely comfortable in CNS's offense. Don't know if OU offered him out of high school, but there were many other programs better suited to his skills than Alabama. He is now in a system that will allow him to play his game, and I see no reason to disparage him for that.

Better yet, he’s in a league with defenses suited for his game. Think about that for a little bit

CB4 said:

If I’m a blue chip QB coming out of high school, what has happened there with Mayfield, Murray, and now Hurts all coming as transfers to get the starting nod, it might give me pause. I’m sure Ratter and others behind Jalen at this point think “Well it’s only a year. My shot will come next year and I can still redshirt”. This is now five years in a row OU has a starter at QB that wasn’t part of the program as a freshman.

It it will be interesting to see if another transfer or grad transfer commits to the “Lincoln Riley Wayward QB Rehabilitation Program”.

Then again, I’m not a 18 year old blue chip QB. I’m almost 60 years old and trip over my dog on the way to the bathroom. Only place recruiting me is the Del Boca Vista Retirement Community.

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:biggrin:

Damn kid, 80 is in my rear view mirror.