Sooners Find Their Man at QB?

On Monday afternoon the Sooners made their long-awaited offensive coordinator hire while bringing in Ben Arbuckle from Washington State. And the Sooners newest assistant, in his first day on the job, made his presence felt by offering his first quarterback while in charge in Norman. That offer went out to Lehi, Utah standout Jett Niu.

Niu is a long-time target of Arbuckle during his time in Pullman. But in spite of that affinity from the new Sooners assistant has been committed to Oklahoma State since early September. He and Arbuckle never lost contact and according to Niu’s head coach Ed Larson the two connected quickly after Arbuckle’s change of scenery.

“I’ve had two visits (Arbuckle) had with us at Lehi. He recruited Jett from Washington State, it was just a squeeze in timing and it didn’t work out,” Larson said. “He has done his due diligence, he has come out and watched (Niu).

“Then he watched him do an individual and came to a practice. He saw all the things we require Jett to do. He was really impressed and he has always been one of Jett’s guys but the head coach [at Washington State] made a decision to go with another guy. And when this thing happened, he got in touch with Jett and to see if he was still open to looking at other options. I think Jett is going to talk to him [on Wednesday].”

Something Special about Sooners New Offer

Arbuckle made repeated trips to Lehi and clearly came away impressed with Niu’s talents. And according to Larson it’s not just his pupil’s physical talent that makes him appealing to a coach.

“With him, I think from a distance, I know it’s hard to grasp it. He’s a really humble kid, he is willing to get coached hard. I can always count on him to be corrected, to work hard at things and to get better. So from that standpoint he’s a real coachable kid and wants to get better and learn. We have a lot of sessions and different things we talk about in how we beat different defenses and having a good understanding of that.”

Plenty of Trust Put on Niu

A big portion of any quarterbacks maturation is the amount of trust from their coaches and Larson, himself a former college coach, has put plenty on the plate of his young signal caller.

“We don’t do a lot of run checks with him, unless there is a specific front we’re looking at unless we have to check out of stuff – but that’s rare. He has to call protections, he has to change protections if they are coming form one side and they don’t have it picked up.

“[Niu] has to make sure the corners aren’t in a certain position. He is responsible for all of that, I tell him ‘if you get hit it’s your fault’. We’re going to protect everything else, you should throw under pressure and you should see it coming.

“That’s kind of what we’ve told him and he has had to deal with that. And you can see him, if he does [get hit] he gets up and pats his chest.

“We do what a lot of colleges do, he has to read the middle of the field, split safeties and pick the side you should go to. We [also] have some concepts that are just straight progression throws and a lot of quicks.”

Larson’s understanding of college expectations of quarterbacks comes from a wealth of college experience. Larson spent 15 years in the collegiate coaching ranks at places like BYU, New Mexico, Snow College, and elsewhere.

A Decision Incoming from Niu?

Though it’s a bit unclear on the exact timeline it does feel as though the Sooners will be awaiting word from the long-time Oklahoma State commitment on Wednesday. Larson himself said Niu would be speaking with Arbuckle on Wednesday. But could the Sooners pull a new commitment in that short amount of courtship?

There’s a real possibility that the Sooners could land commitment No. 19 on Wednesday. But we’ll obviously have to track the situation for Arbuckle and Oklahoma’s first offer.

Look for more on Niu on Wednesday.