In the third season of the TV adaptation of “Friday Night Lights,” Coach Eric Taylor is tasked with choosing either Matt Saracen, a serviceable former backup who guided his high school to an improbable state championship two years before, or J.D. McCoy, a hotshot freshman from Dallas with an impeccable resume and even more impressive arm, to be his starting quarterback.

Coach Taylor selects the veteran to begin the season, but, because of a rough start and pressure from boosters, makes McCoy QB1 after the first few games. Saracen switches to receiver, McCoy looks great as the starter and the Dillon Panthers reach the Texas state title game.

If this sounds like more than fiction, consider the parallels between Taylor’s situation and that of Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin. The Aggies coach named Kyle Allen his starting quarterback last week despite the arrival and impressive camp play of true freshman Kyler Murray.

Murray is McCoy in every sense of the word, and then some. The athletic quarterback was 42-0 as the starter at his suburban Dallas high school, winning three state titles along the way en route to becoming the top dual-threat quarterback in the country.

While a bit undersized and on the lighter side, Murray is extremely quick and is a constant touchdown threat. Virtually every team in the country wanted what could be considered the Second Coming of Johnny Manziel. Ironically, Murray committed to Manziel’s former school.

At 19 years old, Allen has all the intangibles and favorable factors to have a long, successful career as a starting college quarterback. In that sense, he’s not exactly Saracen, who fell into the starting job earlier than expected due to the injury of his team’s superstar quarterback.

Allen did, however, help rescue the Aggies season after the team lost three straight games under Kenny Hill. After righting the ship, Allen was named the MVP of the Liberty Bowl and many thought he’d be the face of the Aggies for years to come.

That was in December, though, and before Murray signed to come to College Station. Even though Allen had a head start on the quarterback competition and ultimately won it, many think Sumlin will give his talented true freshman early playing time to add another running threat to the Aggies offense. In this scenario, Murray could impress in a limited role.

If Allen can’t score enough points to offset Texas A&M’s porous but improving defense, perhaps Sumlin could feel pressured to promote Murray to QB1.

That’s a hypothetical scenario, but Murray has already lived through a similar one. The last time Murray was a backup, Oliver Pierce was atop the Allen (Texas) High School depth chart. But Murray quickly outshone Pierce as the season progressed, and the old starter was demoted to QB2.

The debate about who will be Texas A&M’s quarterback of the future hinges largely on how you view Sumlin’s Air Raid offense. If you think he’s an offensive mastermind and believe his system can survive in the SEC without a dual-threat quarterback, then Allen has shown enough to warrant being being “The Guy.”

But if, on the other hand, you saw cracks in the Air Raid post-Manziel, and if you think that Sumlin hasn’t implemented enough changes in his system to allow more limited pocket passers to succeed since his days coaching Case Keenum (himself a talented runner) and Houston, then Murray seems like a wiser bet.

After all, college coaches tend to make decisions based off creating immediate solutions rather than solving long-term problems. If there is a problem with Texas A&M, Sumlin won’t scrap the Air Raid just because his incumbent starter is better suited for another system. Especially considering the recent investment Texas A&M has made in its football program, Sumlin must continue to have a “win now” mindset in order to stay off the hot seat in College Station. If that means succumbing to booster pressure in the form of playing a true freshman quarterback from Dallas, so be it.

Despite these questions, the Aggies have a much better quarterback situation than most teams in the SEC. With how Sumlin recruits the talent-rich state of Texas, the Aggies could even have another hotshot freshman quarterback outshine the incumbents next season. For now, though, either Allen or Murray will be the future in College Station.

Texas (A&M) forever.