USA TODAY
ATLANTA — Within two days of arriving on campus last winter, Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts was throwing routes to wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and Charleston Rambo. Within two weeks, he was commanding the room.
Grasping every piece of minutiae within Lincoln Riley's offensive scheme was an understandable hurdle for Hurts, who during his first months after transferring from Alabama would query teammates on the many layers of a given play — asking players such as Rambo what the backside route would be in certain situations, for example.
Even before he took the field in March for spring drills, however, and even before the first time he wore an Oklahoma jersey in a practice situation, Hurts embraced a different struggle: gaining the respect of teammates who knew of the graduate transfer, had read and heard the story of his final year with the Crimson Tide, but were waiting to see just what, exactly, the one-year rental would bring to a program angling to go from College Football Playoff participant to national champion.