Say the name “Trevor Knight” to the average fan and the first thing that comes up will probably be the 2014 Sugar Bowl.
Knight played superbly in Oklahoma’s upset win over Alabama, strafing the Crimson Tide’s defense for 348 yards passing and four touchdowns. It looked like a coming out party for a redshirt freshman who would lead the Sooners to even bigger wins in the future.
Of course, “one-hit wonder” will probably be the second thing that comes to mind. Knight’s 2014 campaign didn’t come close to living up to billing.
Baker Mayfield beat out Knight for the starting nod at OU in the 2015 preseason, and the Texas Tech transfer’s play this season left little doubt that he’ll be QB1 heading into 2016. No surprise, but Knight’s not down for sticking around. As college football’s version of an unrestricted free agent, he’s reportedly garnering attention from quarterback-needy programs around the nation.
A look back at his time in Norman reveals the positives and negatives of bringing Knight on board for a stopgap season.
What Went Right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSEB86oWus0
Knight made his name nationally in the Sugar Bowl, but the QB’s most enticing performance during the 2013 season actually came five weeks earlier in Manhattan, Kansas. His stats from that game against Kansas State won’t blow anyone away. Yet, with Knight at the controls, the Sooner offense was humming.
Offensive coordinator Josh Heupel predicated OU’s diverse offensive game plan around Knight’s athleticism. The Sooners were operating out of something akin to a Pistol scheme, but the emphasis was on stressing the defense with Knight’s ability to throw on the move and his strengths as a runner.
For example, OU gashed the KSU defense with QB Power and QB Counter calls. Once Knight got into the open field, he showed quickness and elusiveness in avoiding would-be tacklers.
Knight also operated the zone read with aplomb:
https://youtu.be/oSEB86oWus0?t=36m18s
When it came to throwing the ball, Heupel called rollouts and waggles:
https://youtu.be/oSEB86oWus0?t=10m6s
Those gave Knight the option to pass or tuck and run:
https://youtu.be/oSEB86oWus0?t=35m39s
Conversely, because Knight struggles with accuracy in short and intermediate throws, Heupel limited calls for straight drops and quick, precision routes.
When all was said and done, Knight and the Sooners had tied the Wildcats’ defense up in knots en route to a 41-31 upset win. He had given the kind of performance that demonstrated why Bob Stoops named him the starter before the season and modified OU’s offensive scheme.
What Went Wrong
OU stumbled through an ugly 2014 season, and a fair share of the blame got pinned on Knight. He threw nearly as many interceptions (12) as touchdowns (14) while completing only 56.6 percent of his throws for the season.
Watching the season play out, it was as if the coaching staff intentionally upped the degree of difficulty for Knight. The situation started to deteriorate for Knight and the Sooners when OU’s coaches apparently grew leery of their starting QB taking too many hits. (Those fears weren’t entirely without merit: Knight missed three starts that year after sustaining a scary neck injury in a game against Baylor.)
The reads in the zone read seemed to disappear and turn into straight gives. Meanwhile, Knight began throwing more out out of the pocket, which wasn’t his strong suit:
On the occasions when Knight was allowed to do his thing, he did show the glimpses of promise that had Sooner Nation so excited in the first place:
What’s Next?
Reportedly, Texas A&M has become the favorite for Knight’s services next fall. Aside from the fact that College Station is close to Knight’s home in San Antonio–he actually committed to A&M first during his high school recruitment–matching him up with the Aggies now makes sense on a few levels.
For starters, A&M coach Kevin Sumlin’s past experience with Johnny Manziel shows that he knows how to build an offense around a quarterback with Knight’s skill set. Manziel thrived once Sumlin removed the restrictor plates in his redshirt freshman season. Free to improvise in scramble mode, Manziel’s ability to ad-lib made A&M a bitch to defend.
Don’t get it twisted: Knight is no Manziel. However, a Manziellian offensive sensibility fits Knight best. (Ironically, Knight first turned heads around OU with his play while acting as A&M’s Heisman winner on the scout team during practices leading up to the 2013 Cotton Bowl.)
Second, by all accounts, Knight is a good guy to have in the locker room. He took a visible leadership role within the program in the spring when OU’s entire campus was grappling with tensions stemming from a racist fraternity video. Furthermore, Knight’s teammates elected him as a captain before this season started, even while knowing Mayfield had won the starting job.
The Aggies just saw two starting quarterbacks bail on them, and whispers about dissension among the team have proliferated since the middle of the season. It sounds like the kind of situation where Knight might have a steadying influence on the squad.
If Sumlin is looking for a quarterback to lead his team to an SEC title or national championship, that guy isn’t on his roster now. Unfortunately for A&M’s head honcho, that guy isn’t on the open market now, either.
On the other hand, if Sumlin is looking for a QB who can save his job with a solid season, Knight sounds like a strong plug-and-play option. At the very least, he can add depth and push Jake Hubenak, the only returning scholarship QB on the Aggies’ roster, to get better. Assuming Knight does want to make the move to College Station, Sumlin should get those transfer papers to him with a quickness.
