Quarterback Kyler Murray, a junior transfer from Texas A&M, will lead the Oklahoma Sooners on the field at 11 a.m. Saturday to begin the second season under Lincoln Riley as head coach.

Murray, who has signed a $4-plus million contract with the Oakland A’s, won a battle with Austin Kendall for the starting job. Those are big shoes to fill following the graduation of record-setting Baker Mayfield, the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

“I just think, as we looked at the whole body of work, that he was just slightly ahead of Austin [Kendall],” Riley said. “It was a very close one … it was very close. It stayed that way. It was one of the closest that I’ve been involved with. They both did a tremendous job. At the end of the day, only one can do it. We’ll need them both to be successful this year, we know. Kyler is going to be the guy right now.”

The goal for the No. 5/7 Sooners is to win the Big 12 Conference championship for the fourth year in a row and to gain a spot in the College Football Playoff. OU has been to two of the first three playoffs but fell short of the national title game both times.

Expectations are sky high in Norman.

Florida Atlantic may be a tougher opening opponent for Oklahoma than some think. OU is a 21-point favorite in the game. If the AP Poll were extended, FAU got enough votes to be No. 30 – one spot behind Oklahoma State.

“This is a really talented team that has recruited great,” FAU coach Lane Kiffin said about the Sooners. “We’re not going to look like them when we go out there.”

This could wind up being a coaching duel between Riley and Kiffin.

Kiffin was head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2007-08. He had a 7-6 record as head coach at The University of Tennessee in 2009 and was head coach at USC for four years, where he went 28-15. After USC, he was offensive coordinator at Alabama for three years until he took the job at Florida Atlantic last season, when the Owls wen 11-3. Their only losses were to Navy, Wisconsin and Buffalo.

Florida Atlantic has the second longest winning streak (10 games) in the nation and is the preseason pick to repeat as Conference USA champions.

They have some accomplished players.

Florida Atlantic University football running back Devin Singletary was the 2017 Conference USA Football MVP and an AP All American. He is one of 50 candidates for the Walter Camp Award. He was placed on the Preseason Dream Team by College Football America. Singletary is also on the Doak Walker Award list. He rushed for almost 2,000 yards and 33 touchdowns last season.

Wide receiver DeAndre McNeal was named to the 2018 Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Watch list.

Led by Azeez Al-Shaair, who had the fifth most tackles in the nation last season, The FAU linebackers were named the 25th best unit in the nation by Athlon Sports. Linebacker Shelton Lewis and Al-Shaair are on a preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Award for the nation’s best linebacker and Al-Shaair is on the Butkus Award watch list.

Lewis and Jalen Young are both on the preseason watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back.

And Owl tight end Harrison Bryant is on the preseason list for the John Mackey Award, given to the nation’s best tight end.

Oklahoma normally schedules one really tough nonconference opponent (the last two years it was Ohio State) and two opponents who agree to come to Norman without necessarily getting a return trip from OU.

Schedules are made years in advance this season’s heavyweight is UCLA, which has a new head coach in Chip Kelly, a former NFL coach with Philadelphia and San Francisco (Kelly was highly successful at The University of Oregon). UCLA also has to replace a very good quarterback (Josh Rosen) and the Bruins are unranked in the preseason.

Army is the other nonconference game for OU.

Normally, FAU would look like just a tune-up for the visit to Norman by UCLA but it could be that FAU is no cupcake and that it will take Kelly some time to get the Bruins back into national contention.

OU returns a solid core of running backs, wide receivers, a talented tight end and perhaps the best offensive line in college football.

Defense is a question mark but the young players who were forced into action last season are now more experienced.

And with Austin Seibert, the Sooners have one of the best kickers in the nation in Austin Seibert.