Oklahoma football: When to pick a quarterback

OU QBs Kendal Thompson, Blake Bell, and Trevor Knight

OU is staging a quarterback derby this spring. But expect to be sweating when Bob Stoops names a starter.

Stoops almost always waits until August to determine a starting quarterback, when he doesn’t have an incumbent. The notable exception was 2003, when Brent Rawls worked his way out of contention and Jason White was anointed in June – and won the Heisman Trophy six months later.

The OU formula is different from OSU, where Mike Gundy likes to name a starter before the spring semester ends.

Gundy’s theory: pick a leader so that all his offensive players know who to follow during summer workouts.

Stoops’ theory: keep everyone working hard, knowing that no job is earned until the last possible moment.

“If you look at it, we generally haven’t made the decision real early,” Stoops said. “Most of our battles have continued through the summer, through two-a-days. We want to see the continued competition.

“We may have in our minds who has the edge, but let’s see through the summer. We want to see that competition work through a good part of summer, into two-a-days.”

Stoops said all three scholarship quarterbacks – Blake Bell, Trevor Knight and Kendal Thompson – are in contention.

Offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said of the leadership factor, “I think it’s important that all our guys lead in that way, whether they’re that guy or not. That’s extremely important.