For a guy who only started five games in his first year to play, OU QB Trevor Knight’s stock is shooting sky high. College football guru Phil Steele named Knight a Hesiman candidate in a Twitter post. We are sure Knight…
Going into Bedlam, media experts said losing this game might signal a definitive decline in the Sooners program. But, win this game and it could mark a turning point for a seemingly slipping program (at least by Oklahoma standards) to instead be elevated into the national championship picture in the next two or three years.
A change in program direction could be coming. But which way?
On Saturday that was answered by No. 18 Oklahoma, a 10-point underdog and playing without two key offensive starters, with a 33-24 Bedlam win on a frigid day in Stillwater.
The win came thanks to the improbable contribution from kicker Mike Hunnicutt and starter, turned back up, turned reliever QB Blake Bell, who found Jalen Saunders in the corner of the end zone on a touchdown winning pass with a mere 19 seconds left in the game.
It spoiled rival sixth-ranked OSU’s bid to be Big 12 Champions.
It was the 84th Oklahoma win in a 108-year-old lopsided series (the Sooners had won 9 of the last 10 meetings) that Cowboy fans truly believed more than ever would be different this year.
It wasn’t.
The football gurus said Blake Bell’s performance against Tulsa gave him a pass efficiency rating of 202.4.
I don’t know what the heck that means. But, I don’t need any football stat to tell me that Oklahoma has found their quarterback.
No disrespect to Trevor Knight — he’s the future (and a bright one indeed, regardless of his shaky start in the first two games of this season) — but Bell’s 27 of 37 passes for 413 yards in the air and 24 yards of effective scrambling, won him the job.
More importantly, Bell looked comfortable and leader-like in the Sooners 51-20 win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
This should come as no surprise. Bell has been on Owen Field enough the last two years as the “Bell Dozer” — always in pressured situations in the red zone (remember his game-tying TD in Bedlam last year that gave the Sooners the opportunity to win in overtime?).