The Oklahoma Sooners have been known for exceptional quarterback play for quite some time, especially over the last handful of seasons. In 2019, the QB room isn’t as deep with experience as it has been in the past, but the talent and leadership is ever-present. Jalen Hurts, Tanner Mordecai and Tanner Schafer met up with members of the media to talk about the race for QB1 and their progress as spring practice carries on.

Full presser links included below

Jalen Hurts

Jalen Hurts kept his focus on this Oklahoma team and this upcoming football season instead of his time at Alabama throughout the Wednesday press conference. The former Crimson Tide QB was asked about having been through multiple quarterback coaches throughout his career and if all those different instructions hindered his growth as a player.

“In a situation where I’m asked about that I just say ‘Hey, I’ve had success with every coordinator I’ve had or coach I’ve had. I have multiple perspectives of looking at the game because I’ve had so many coaches.’”

Jalen Hurts is tasked with following up the Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray eras, and he understands how beneficial it would be for his game to learn from the back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners.

Hurts was also asked about CeeDee Lamb’s performance against Alabama and whether or not he had thoughts of eventually playing alongside him one day. Lamb is originally from Richmond, TX, which is less than an hour away from where Hurts grew up in Houston.

“I was a freshman at Alabama and I wanted CeeDee to come to Alabama. It’s not like I didn’t know who he was or what he was capable of, but the tables have turned and I’m here. I guess you could say we kind of reunited.”

Tanner Mordecai

Tanner Mordecai is the youngest player in the QB room this spring, but Riley would tell you (for what it’s worth) that he’s right on Hurts’ heels for the top spot ‘. On Wednesday he admitted that his youth does present a challenge for him when it comes to commanding the team, especially the older players.

Besides QB, there is a lot of interest in the three highly-touted receivers that enrolled early for this spring. Mordecai was asked about how those young pass-catchers are looking after a couple weeks of spring ball.

“They’re special, they’re really good dudes and they can play. I mean that’s why they were ranked so high, and that’s why they're here. You know they enrolled early, they gave up that last semester of high school and they’re balling out there and working really hard. We’re glad to have those guys for sure.”

Mordecai was also asked about how he’s going about his business with so much outside noise buzzing about Hurts as the next starting quarterback at Oklahoma.

“I try not to really listen to Twitter and TV shows and stuff like that. I know the opinions that matter are inside that facility, and everyone else’s, they don’t really see what we do every day and how we work so it’s hard for them to have a meaningful opinion.”

Tanner Schafer

The redshirt junior out of Canadian, TX might be a walk-on, but he has more experience in Lincoln Riley’s offense than the other two signal callers who addressed the media today combined. Odds are he’s on the outside looking in as far as QB1 is concerned, but that isn’t keeping him from competing like everyone else.

Schafer talked about what led him to walk-on at Oklahoma over the two scholarship offers he received from Tulsa and Ohio coming out of high school.

“Coach Riley talked to me and then I came over here. I went through the campus and got to see everything, got to talk to Baker one-on-one and that just kind of set it off for me. I knew that after I talked to Baker and he said that if you come in and are willing to work and put in the time, it doesn’t matter where you come from or anything like that.”

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