It was September of my senior year of high school. I hadn’t decided where to go to college yet, so I was still going on campus visits. On the second weekend of September, my dad and I drove up to Norman, Oklahoma, for my first visit to the University of Oklahoma. It involves a man who recently became a lot richer; Arizona Cardinals QB and former Sooner Kyler Murray.
The actual tour was fine. It was raining and cold all weekend, so nothing really stuck out to me on the first visit. I wouldn’t fall in love with the campus until my second visit a few months later.
After the campus tour, we went to my very first Sooners game. Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins were in town.
This just happened to be Kyler Murray’s first year as the starting QB at OU. Murray would go on to win the Heisman this season as well. Before that day, I didn’t realize just how good he was.
Before I decided to go to OU, college athletics weren’t something my dad or I followed closely. We followed the NHL, NFL, MLB, and the NBA, but there just wasn’t a fit for college sports.
College football was just something I wasn’t well versed in going into the season Murray won the Heisman. I had seen the highlights of Baker, most notably the Kansas thing, but nothing from Murray.
Kyler Murray showed me what I had been missing at the expense of UCLA’s defense.
Never before had I seen someone singlehandedly dominate a defense in-person like Kyler Murray did that day. It was like they were playing different sports.
He ran all over them, then he would show off his arm. There was no flaw to his game. It was incredible to watch. The atmosphere, the fans, the butt-kicking, it was great to take in. Although I didn’t know it then, I finally had a college team to root for: my Oklahoma Sooners.
On that day, Murray was 19 of 33 for 301 yards and three touchdowns. He also carried the ball 10 times for 69 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Sooners in rushing. This was Murray’s second game as the starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. He was good in the season opener against FAU, but his performance against the Bruins was his coming-out party.
Murray would provide more fireworks on his way to winning the Heisman trophy in 2018. He had 10 300-yard passing days and 10 games with more than 50 yards rushing. He threw for 4,361 yards, 42 touchdowns, and ran for 1,001 yards and 12 more touchdowns.
Here we are almost four years later, and so many things have changed. Murray has gotten…