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sportsOklahoma Sooners

Texas' QB competition followed the expected script; here's why the same can't be said for Oklahoma

Texas has its starting quarterback for the opener at Maryland in sophomore Sam Ehlinger.

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is still waiting to make a decision between Allen's Kyler Murray and Austin Kendall, less than two weeks from the start of the season.

Among the two Red River rivals, one competition has pretty much followed the preseason script everyone expected, while the other has more suspense than almost anyone expected.

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By now, Murray was supposed to be the official heir to Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, leading a team ranked seventh in the preseason AP Top 25 and seeking a Big 12 four-peat, if you believed the conventional wisdom.

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"No announcement yet," Riley said Monday to a large group of media in Norman that might have been expecting more clarity.

Riley acknowledged the urgency will grow the closer Florida Atlantic gets on the calendar.

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"I don't feel like it's the right time now," Riley said.

Riley said he just hasn't seen enough to make a call. Murray, the first-round MLB draft pick of the Oakland A's, has breakaway speed and put up impressive numbers as Mayfield's backup last season. Kendall was the OU backup in 2016 and then redshirted last year. He's more of a traditional drop-back quarterback.

"This is a difficult kind of pressure and they're doing a good job," Riley said. "Throughout all the years looking back, it's definitely been one of the closest ones that I can remember. They're different in a lot of ways, but they're both doing so many good things it's just tough to divide it up and say who's 1 and who's 2 right now."

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Maybe Riley is engaging in a bit of gamesmanship for the opener. Or he could legitimately want more info before anointing someone. Who knows?

Things are more concrete at Texas, where coach Tom Herman declared Ehlinger pretty much the starter ahead of Arlington Lamar product Shane Buechele "barring any sort of catastrophe."

Ehlinger started six games as a freshman, one of seven quarterback starters since Colt McCoy this decade. None has really, truly put a stamp on the position.

More mobile than Buechele, Ehlinger led Texas in rushing last season, almost by necessity. He was inconsistent at times throwing, completing 57.5 percent of his passes. He had two decisive interceptions late in losses against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech as well as an overtime fumble against USC.

"He's throwing the ball a lot better," Herman said. "He's sitting in the pocket much more comfortably, and let's make no mistake, Shane Buechele had a great camp. A great camp. Didn't really do anything wrong."

Quarterback was just one of several positions that Herman clarified Monday. Rice grad transfer Calvin Anderson will start at left tackle and freshman Caden Sterns at one safety spot.

At the end, Herman said he trusted his coaching staff on the quarterback decision. Buechele has started the last two openers and 19 games overall. Herman said Buechele was disappointed but declined to talk about his emotions beyond that.

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"Neither of them did anything to justify saying that you can't win with that guy," he added. "So it was just a matter of who do we feel gives you the best chance to win in the first game, and see if we're right."

Lacking stability

Colt McCoy started 53 games at quarterback for Texas from 2006-2009. There hasn't been any such continuity at the position since then, as shown by this list of QB starts after McCoy's departure:

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Record: 53-48

Source: KEYE-TV, Austin