Players to Watch
Kyler Murray, QB
Hello, Kyler Murray. We hope you’re enjoying your stay in Norman. I’m sure that you had a nice time last year experiencing the success of the Sooners from the sidelines. Now all you have to do is likely replace the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner — Baker Mayfield — as the starting quarterback at Oklahoma. That should be easy enough, right?
Though we’ve only seen Murray in limited action in the Texas A&M transfer’s time behind Mayfield, he does look promising and like he’s another natural fit in Lincoln Riley’s offense. However, as he’s splitting his time this spring between football and baseball for the Sooners, it’ll be fascinating to see how sharp he is in the spring game — and to see how harsh the criticism is of him if he falters in any major way.
Brendan Radley-Hiles, CB
No one should, or really could, mistake the 2017 Oklahoma defense as anything even closely resembling an elite unit. They were pretty indicative of how most things played out in the Big 12 last season in that they relied on scoring to win them games and just hoped the defense made enough plays for that to be enough to get the win. Now they hope that new talent like Brendan Radley-Hiles will help improve that.
Radley-Hiles is an early enrollee with the Sooners and the freshman comes in with quite a bit of fanfare as he was the No. 5 cornerback and No. 38 overall prospect in the 2018 recruiting class. While it might be unfair to single him out, he’s a strong symbol of what fans will be looking for: to see if players like the freshman and other newcomers can make noticeable improvements to this defense.
Bobby Evans, OL
Though everyone seems to think Orlando Brown is the worst football player to ever exist after his admittedly highly disappointing performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, he was a huge asset on the Sooners offensive line last season. His work at left tackle wasn’t perfect, but it was darn close and he helped the offense tick arguably just as much as the play of Mayfield at quarterback. But now that he’s gone, there are going to be questions about replacing him.
Bobby Evans is likely sliding over from right tackle to replace Brown. And while he’s been solid on the right side, there’s a bit more responsibility that comes with moving over. What’s more, that still means that the Sooners need to replace him on the right side. So while Evans’ performance at left tackle will be under the most scrutiny, the offensive line as a whole will see plenty more as well.