STILLWATER – The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of conjecture and guessing as Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders has one more season available to compete. He has played coy about what his plans were saying he would announce it when he knew. He waited until over a week after he could have put himself in the NCAA Transfer Portal as a graduate transfer before making the announcement on social media midday on Monday, Dec. 5, 2022.
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Sanders leaving represents the end of an era in Oklahoma State football with Sanders as the starting quarterback for the better part of four seasons. Sanders had an up and down career that also included missing a number of games to injuries, but for the most part when he played he was sensational making plays with his arm and his legs.
His best moments seem to come in bowl games as he earned MVP awards in both the Cheez-It Bowl win in 2020 over Miami, Fla. completing 27-of-40 passing for 305-yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 45-yards in the 37-34 win.
His greatest moment came in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl comeback win over Notre Dame as he completed 34-of-51 passing for 371-yards and four touchdowns with 125-yards rushing.
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Sanders as MVP in the Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame.
His total offense of 496-yards set bowl marks for Oklahoma State and the Fiesta Bowl.
Sanders came out of Denton, Texas and Ryan High School having taken his team deep into the Texas High School playoffs three straight seasons. Twice his season ended in the playoffs with a torn ACL injury. He came back from both injuries even better than before and never had a problem with his knees in college. It was more shoulders and ribs. He missed a couple of games to start the 2020 season and he also missed the opener of the 2021 season.
As a starter, Sanders guided Oklahoma State to a 31-11 record in his time as the starter. He also came in late in the third quarter to rescue the Cowboys to a win this season against Iowa State.
Sanders finished the 2022 season completing 212-of-368 passing for 57.6 percent with 2,642-yards and 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions. For his career he complee 765-of-1,253 passing for 9,553-yards with 67 touchdowns and 40 interceptions.
There is no telling where Sanders will wind up as he has the one-year of eligibility remaining. Much speculation has been out there about Penn State, but the Nittany Lions have a five-star quarterback recruit Drew Allar that was a freshman this past season and red-shirted. It would make sense he would wind up somewhere else.
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Garret Rangel at Kansas in his first start.
Oklahoma State has four-star freshman Garret Rangel and red-shirt freshman Gunnar Gundy. Incoming in the next recruiting class, set to sign in December, and to enroll and be on campus in the spring is Nebraska all-time record setting quarterback and Player of the Year in Gretna, Neb. star Zane Flores.
Rangel finished this regular season completing 45-of-84 passing for 53.5 percent as a true freshman and he threw for two touchdowns and three interceptions.
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Zane Flores in state championship game.
Flores in his final season at Gretna High School led his team to the State Championship Game in the highest class in Nebraska and he completed 235-of-359 passing for 65.5 percent and 3,117-yards with 31 touchdowns and seven interceptions. An Elite 11 Quarterback competition attendee, Flores completed 724-of-1,085 passes in his prep career for 9,163-yards. The completions and yardage are records for the state. He also threw for 82 touchdowns with only 24 interceptions.