The Football Brainiacs

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“It was just one game.”

It’s a quote regarding Trevor Knight’s performance you can attribute to any number of people since Oklahoma’s stunning shocking surprising win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The stupidity of preseason watch lists aside — including those for the Heisman, of which Knight has found himself on several — this seems to be an incredibly popular fallback for Knight’s critics. And technically they are right, it was just one game. To be fair, one game is obviously much too small a sample size with which to evaluate a quarterback (or any player for that matter). Instead, said critics are quick to reference the Louisiana-Monroe and West Virginia games in which Knight did not play particularly well. Because, of course, while one game is to few a sample, two games is plenty and a much better representation of who Knight is as a quarterback. Also conveniently ignoring the fact they were the first two games of his OU career, so who the hell is he to be feeling the nerves a little bit and miss the majority of his passes?

If you can wade your way through all of my sarcasm, the point I’m attempting to make is this dismissal of Knight as a ‘one game wonder’ is simply one of convenience. If you want to point to his first two games (ever) as examples of why you are skeptical about him heading into 2014, you can’t then also dismiss how well he played in the Sugar Bowl. And let’s not forget, as so many seem to do, that performance on the road in Manhattan. Which, by the way, was his first career road start. An efficient performance through the air, showing the poise of an upperclassman rather than a redshirt freshman, and putting up another 80+ yards and one TD on the ground. Then there’s Bedlam. While Blake Bell will forever be remembered for pulling out the victory (and deservedly so), that game was tied going into the half. It’s not as though Bell had to lead some miraculous second half comeback. And, yeah, Knight hadn’t exactly lit it up before going down with an injury just before the half. But, again, this is a guy in his second ever road start and in a rivalry game.

But I should probably stop as this is likely past the point of no return for many interpreting it as me simply making excuses for Trevor Knight. Which couldn’t be farther from the case, but I imagine I’ve already lost a good number of you with those first two paragraphs so I’m just gonna power through.

My point in all of this is that as far as I’m concerned, Trevor Knight is going to be just fine.

And that’s not just the homer in my, though I suspect many will presume otherwise. No, I could give you any number of reasons as to why I feel this way. All of which will work with one another to help relieve the pressure being placed upon Knight to lead an Oklahoma team some (many?) consider to be a national championship contender.

Veteran Offensive Line

If you look at the potential two deep, this is a line that returns no less than 107 career starts among them. This is a line that, under the leadership of second year coach Bill Bedenbaugh, should be more than capable of keeping Knight upright and opening up lanes for OU’s talented and multifaceted backfield.

Backs On Backs On Backs

Whether it’s Keith Ford, Alex Ross, Daniel Brooks, David Smith, Joe Mixon, or Samaje Perine, OU RBs coach Cale Gundy will certainly not be lacking for options in 2014. As I’ve said countless times already while they may be lacking in experience, there is no shortage of talent. And running behind this line, with Knight also being a considerable threat on the ground as well, should only help to open things up for Gundy’s stable of backs.

The Return Of The Tight End

We’ve been assured it’s coming. And while some of us (myself included) are taking a wait and see approach, if it is in fact true then it could provide an invaluable added dimension to this offense. You don’t need me to remind you that big-bodied threat over the middle/up the seam is something this offense has been missing truly since the days of Jermaine Gresham (maybe James Hanna). If Bell can actually take to the position like we’ve heard that he has, and if McNamara can finally live up to the hype he came in with, then both could be match-up nightmares for Big 12 defenses. And, more importantly, provide that security blanket type of intermediary target for Knight that quarterbacks covet.

Maturation

As I painfully articulated above, it is just as stupid to dismiss Knight’s Sugar Bowl performance as it is to form an opinion of him as a quarterback based on the first two games of his collegiate career. What you saw that night in New Orleans was his ceiling. Is he going to play that well in every game this coming season? Of course not. But with the talent around him, both on offense and defense, he won’t have to for this Oklahoma team to be successful.

We’ve already established this is a guy who has only played in eight games, and two of those (Notre Dame and Baylor) really don’t even count. So he’s a guy heading into his second year, who has already flashed a potentially elite ceiling as a player in easily the biggest game of his young career, and is under the guidance of a proven master of developing quarterbacks in Josh Heupel.

So you wanna tell me again why Trevor Knight isn’t going to be better in 2014?