STILLWATER – Lets call this a rant story. Every so often every writer deserves a rant story. I’ve been talking until I’m blue in the face for close to a year that Gretna High School quarterback and now OKlahoma State freshman Zane Flores is not a three-star quarterback. From the day I first head of Flores as Oklahoma State began recruiting and offered the 6-3, 190-pound junior that had led his team to the Class A State Championship (largest class) only to have taken away because of the use of an ineligible player, I was impressed. Flores made a spring official visit to Stillwater and shortly after committed to the Cowboys.
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Flores was always impressive when I saw him throw including this camp in Stillwater.
The more you saw, the more schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, and homestate Nebraska doubled down on offering him, and then a better than average performance at Elite 11 quarterback competition made me think Flores is going to climb above the three-star status.
Despite the senior season that saw him throw for 3,117 yards and 31 touchdowns and rush for 274 yards and 10 scores. He took his team back to the Nebraska Class A State Championship and despite throwing for 414-yards and three touchdowns in the game they lost on a last play 45-yard field goal 43-41. Flores, holding the all-time Nebraska prep records for any class with passing yards (9,163) and completed passes (724); and the all-time 11-man touchown passes record (82) breaking Scott Frost’s old record of 67; was also the Gatorade and MaxPrep Player of the Year in Nebraska.
What’s a guy got to do to get a fourth star?
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Flores (right with his back to the camera has made a good transition to training at Oklahoma State.
It doesn’t matter now. The Oklahoma State strength and condiditoning coaches as a group say Flores has come in and displayed terrific work ethic, leadership, and explosive athletic skills. Flores is now in a world where stars don’t matter. Quarterback coach Tim Rattay loved what he saw when he brought Flores to the attention of offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and head coach Mike Gundy.
This past week The Athletic had their ace college recruiting writer Ari Wasserman and three other reporters with Big 12 backgrounds analyze the winners and top players in the Big 12 2023 recruiting class.
One question was which quarterback besides Texas freshman and five-star Arch Manning could you see earning a start in the Big 12 as a freshman in the 2023 season? Max Olson had an interesting answer.
“There are a couple interesting candidates beyond Texas and Oklahoma this year,” Max Olson wrote in starting his answer. “Three-star signee Zane Flores is walking into a potentially ideal situation at Oklahoma State with a young QB room (Garret Rangel, Gunnar Gundy) that added grad transfer Alan Bowman, who hasn’t started a game since 2020. I’ll be curious to see if he can put himself in position to play early there.”
Then the question was asked what non blue-chip (four or five-star) player do you most like in this 2023 recruiting class? Here is where Ari Wasserman chimed in.
“Zane Flores is a prospect who has piqued my interest for a while now,” Wasserman wrote somewhat suggesting he agreed that Flores should have had another star next to his name. “Though I’m not sure he’ll be ready to start for the Cowboys in Year 1 — though weirder things have happened — he is the type of prospect who could make those who passed on him regret it, namely Nebraska. He has the traits to develop into a big-time stud, and he accounted for more than 3,000 yards and 31 touchdowns through the air and added 10 rushing touchdowns in his senior season. The Big 12 is known for star quarterbacks who came out of nowhere. Flores could be another one.”
Finally, this Sunday there will be two Big 12 quarterbacks starting in Super Bowl LVII with Jalen Hurts of the Eagles and former Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes for the Chiefs. Mahomes, playing at Whitehouse High School in East Texas had similar numbers and a similar skill set to Flores. I’m not saying Flores will turn out to be just like Mahomes. It’d be nice.
I’m just pointing out in my rant story that Mahomes was slighted similar to Flores for his high school ability and aomplishments. His high school coach Adam Cook documented his opinion for the Ari Timpkin and former Iowa State and NFL quarterback Dave Archer on Sirius-XM’s Big 12 This Morning.
Whitehouse High School
Mahomes on sidelines with Coach Aadm Cook (on headsets).
“The three schools that ended up offering him were Houston, North Texas, and, if course, Texas Tech,” Cook then the head coach and athletic director at Whitehouse, said for SXM. “Eevery coach that came in was impressed with Patrick when they got to see him and met with him. But everybody was like, do we take a chance on this guy because he’s a three-star. You know I’ve made comments on how the star guy needed to get fired. It is really all in fun because the coach in me believes everybody needs that star guy to keep you in check and motivate you, so it’s like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth.”
I appreciate Cook’s thought. Flores has never spoke of his prep prospect rating, and I don’t think he ever would. I do hope he will always keep it in mind. I like the motivational angle to it.
