Oklahoma’s Blake Bell switches from quarterback to tight end for his senior year

Oklahoma’s potential quarterback battle for 2014 came to a swift, anticlimactic ending Wednesday when head coach Bob Stoops announced that Blake Bell will play his final season with the Sooners as a tight end.

Bell started eight games at quarterback for Oklahoma in 2013, but sophomore Trevor Knight emerged as a better option late in the year with an MVP performance in the Sooners’ 45-31 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Bell had the option to play elsewhere via the graduate transfer rules, but opted to finish out his career at Oklahoma.

“With the positive momentum of how Trevor played throughout that (Sugar Bowl) game and coming off that, we want to try and build off that,” Stoops said. “That being the case, we’re excited that even though Blake can graduate and go somewhere else, he wants to stay here and finish out and wants to try tight end.”

The 6-foot-6, 252-pound Bell threw for 1,648 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2013 and was used predominantly in short-yardage running packages in his first two seasons with the Sooners, when he combined for 24 rushing scores.

“Blake has the size, the athleticism and the speed to (play tight end),” Stoops said. “He has exhibited his toughness through the years. I think it’ll be a great fit for him. He’s already working on that, and it’s something we’ll see in the spring.”

Bell’s position switch leaves the Sooners with a bevy of underclassmen at quarterback. Behind Knight on the depth chart are redshirt freshman Cody Thomas, four-star early enrollee Justice Hansen, and Texas Tech transfer Baker Mayfield – who will have to sit out next season per the NCAA transfer rules

Offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said that Bell will strictly play tight end, and would not move back to quarterback if Knight were to get injured.

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H/T The Oklahoman

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