Sanders and Dunn Want To Go Fast, Sanders Knows What He Needs To Know

Hope Spencer has an injury free year. If he does, I think his critics will love having him at QB and be hoping he takes advantage of one more "Covid optional" season to further mature and hone his skills for an NFL try out. I love having Sanders representing our team and bringing his skillset into this season.

Orangeheart72 said:

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Hope Spencer has an injury free year. If he does, I think his critics will love having him at QB and be hoping he takes advantage of one more "Covid optional" season to further mature and hone his skills for an NFL try out. I love having Sanders representing our team and bringing his skillset into this season.

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I'm not going to say anything bad about Sanders, since he's all that we have now.

Personally, I thought Sanders was great when he was on the bench, so I'm not sure what you're saying there.

If our OLine can keep pressure off of him against some of the better defensive teams (BU, etc.) then we have a chance to have fantastic season. I the OLine isn't great at their protection in those games, then hopefully Sanders has learned to take the sack and live for another day instead of half-assing it into another interception.

Sanders has to make good decisions when he's under pressure if we are going to have a conf championship season.

Cal, didn't understand the bench sentence, but I'm just saying if he can stay healthy, yes.....with protection which probably goes hand in hand, I think folks that have not been Sanders' fans will become Sanders' fans. I think he's very likely one of the top 5 QB's I've seen at OSU since I started seeing games in the mid 60's. He's also, IMO, one of the top 4 in terms of having a chance to make payroll in the NFL. But his character seems great, so I'm likely a bit prejudiced as I love seeing OSU having great representatives on their team.

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Orangeheart72 said:

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Hope Spencer has an injury free year. If he does, I think his critics will love having him at QB and be hoping he takes advantage of one more "Covid optional" season to further mature and hone his skills for an NFL try out. I love having Sanders representing our team and bringing his skillset into this season.

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CaliforniaCowboy said:

I'm not going to say anything bad about Sanders, since he's all that we have now.

Personally, I thought Sanders was great when he was on the bench, so I'm not sure what you're saying there.

If our OLine can keep pressure off of him against some of the better defensive teams (BU, etc.) then we have a chance to have fantastic season. I the OLine isn't great at their protection in those games, then hopefully Sanders has learned to take the sack and live for another day instead of half-assing it into another interception.

Sanders has to make good decisions when he's under pressure if we are going to have a conf championship season.

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FYI - your boy can't even start at Nevada.

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+ 1 more quotes (click to expand)

Orangeheart72 said:

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Hope Spencer has an injury free year. If he does, I think his critics will love having him at QB and be hoping he takes advantage of one more "Covid optional" season to further mature and hone his skills for an NFL try out. I love having Sanders representing our team and bringing his skillset into this season.

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CaliforniaCowboy said:

I'm not going to say anything bad about Sanders, since he's all that we have now.

Personally, I thought Sanders was great when he was on the bench, so I'm not sure what you're saying there.

If our OLine can keep pressure off of him against some of the better defensive teams (BU, etc.) then we have a chance to have fantastic season. I the OLine isn't great at their protection in those games, then hopefully Sanders has learned to take the sack and live for another day instead of half-assing it into another interception.

Sanders has to make good decisions when he's under pressure if we are going to have a conf championship season.

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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

FYI - your boy can't even start at Nevada.

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The official depth chart that I saw said "or".... did you see something different?

The coaches are new, the offense is new, the other "or" QB was not really very good under the old coach/scheme.

I don't know who is going to start, nor do I care, so long as it is a passing QB, not the Bobby Reid / Walsh / Chelf stuff we run recently.

Cox got arrested for DUI in June, charges were "reduced", and Coach Wilson said "we're going to handle that inhouse" (whatever that means).

and quit trying to start fights... I don't care what you think, or how badly you misconstrue comments. Why are you always trying to pee in somebody's sweet tea?

As of Friday morning, no starting quarterback has been named for the Wolf Pack.

Both returning senior Nate Cox and transfer Shane Illingworth are listed on the depth chart released earlier this week.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/nevada-football-team-opens-ken-wilson-era-saturday-at-new-mexico-state/ar-AA118RbX

this is from Aug 11 practice:
What Costa is looking for in a starter is also laid out: limit turnovers, generate explosive plays in the passing and running games, among other traits.

"Body language is very important," Costa expanded. "The way a quarterback carries himself is typically how your team is going to carry itself. That's very important. I'm always watching that on and off the field. I'm also looking for a guy who can learn from mistakes."

The big quarterback names on the roster are third-year returner Nate Cox and Oklahoma State transfer Shane Illingworth. Costa likes how Illingworth has digested the playbook in a short period of time and his pocket presence. Cox is getting praised for his command of the huddle and throwing accuracy. Costa thinks offensive coordinator Derek Sage has a plan for either guy.

GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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FYI - your boy can't even start at Nevada.

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After reading more about the Nevada QB competition, I found the part below in bold to be fairly interesting vis a vie OSU's QB (subject of this thread)

Illingworth joined the team this summer and is getting his first practices with the Wolf Pack. He (Wilson) admitted his late start is a disadvantage, but he worked hard over the summer in player-led workouts to catch up as much as possible.

Wilson said Illingworth's biggest hurdle is fully absorbing the playbook and new offensive scheme prior to the season opener, which is 22 days away when Nevada plays at New Mexico State on Aug. 27.

"Shane's a very talented football player," Wilson said. "He's very smart. He's played a lot of football at a lot of places. So he's been involved in a lot of different offenses. The new thing for him is he came from an offense that is predominantly reading coverages and throwing the ball, and there's a lot more to our offense than that. So that kind of stuff, he's got to keep improving, and he has some times where he gets a little overwhelmed with it and his body language changes. A quarterback's body language can't change."

Wilson said the thing that will separate the eventual winner of the quarterback battle is their ability to execute the most aspects of Nevada's new offense, which is being installed by Sage, a first-time coordinator who has worked as a position coach under offensive minds like Chip Kelly and Mike Leach.

"

Cox named starter prior to their first game vs NMSU.

Hard to imagine a second string QB at Nevada should have been the starter for a 12-2 B12 team.

GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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Cox named starter prior to their first game vs NMSU.

Hard to imagine a second string QB at Nevada should have been the starter for a 12-2 B12 team.

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I still can't find any report that says that... do you have link? Un named as of 10:00 am PT today (two hrs ago)

It's not that hard to imagine, I just posted two articles that explains it..... try reading

https://winnersandwhiners.com/games/ncaaf/8-27-2022/nevada-vs-new-mexico-state-prediction-7708/

GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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https://winnersandwhiners.com/games/ncaaf/8-27-2022/nevada-vs-new-mexico-state-prediction-7708/

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I couldn't really tell, but isn't that from August 24th? (the inserted tweet is)

Is there a date on that, it doesn't sound like an official announcement to me (since there was no announcement as of 2 hours ago).

Sanders is awesome and would already have been respected if he had legit lines to play behind. Imagine Shane playing behind the lines sanders had year to year. No one talks about his protection in chats but Gundy says it straight up. Without good line play no qb is gonna have a great game every week. Gundy has said that time and again. Gundy never mentions sanders decision making. No one mentions the balls that receivers didn't catch or deflections. Sanders turnover problem is a byproduct of never having ample time to make decisions. Illingworth would look like Dax garman compared to sanders behind these lines

Good luck SS! This can be your year with fast play and fewer turnovers. GO POKES!!!

Illingworth got benched against New Mexico State…… watched him played and at times he had all day but still was off the mark most of the time. Seeing that says for sure he was not the answer at ok state. We have proof now so maybe people can wise up

CowboyRed said:

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Illingworth got benched against New Mexico State…… watched him played and at times he had all day but still was off the mark most of the time. Seeing that says for sure he was not the answer at ok state. We have proof now so maybe people can wise up

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BULL***** They were always going to play each guy one half. Always.

We'll see what happens, but your comments are pure crap.

Shane led the team to 17 first half points. Cox led Nevada to 6 second half points. Shane passed for more yardage on essentially the same completions/attempts.

The Nevada team was playing 20 transfers, with an almost entirely rebuilt OLine (from transfers), in their first game. The whole team looked like crap frankly. One of Shane's drives the ball was hiked past him into the endzone and he wisely fell on it for a safety. Another drive they pick up 9 on a first play run, that was called back for penalty, putting him at 1st and 20, with a struggling OLine.

The first couple of series of a game are always scripted, and those plays were horrible calls, IMO... impossible pass attempts to RB on the flat running away from the ball... very difficult to drop the ball into that space, with the player running away from you laterally. (typically the RB would go out and then turn upfield to look for the ball.... Shane put it over his head each time.)

Cox actually threw a pick in that game, but the ref ruled that the ball hit the ground, which was very questionable.

Shane did just fine. Oddly Cox got a bit more rushing yardage (odd because he's 6'9"), but that yardage was fairly minimal.

CowboyRed said:

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Illingworth got benched against New Mexico State…… watched him played and at times he had all day but still was off the mark most of the time. Seeing that says for sure he was not the answer at ok state. We have proof now so maybe people can wise up

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As bad as the Nevada QB stat line was, it looked worse. Nevada doesn't have a QB. One of the worst teams in college football outplayed Nevada. The only reason they won the game was NMSU 5 turnovers. Don't know how Nevada can possibly win another game, their offense is brutal.

You can can all the excuses you want but stats don't lie. 7/12 for 51 yards. He missed multiple wide open targets. I watched the game and I believe my eyes. I'm not trying to bash Shane I like the kid but he had a qbr of 12.8…… I'll take sanders all day long

Nevada should be good enough to beat a New Mexico State yes. It was a pretty lackluster affair. They have lots of work to do and very likely could improve a ton as the season goes but no way I would trade sanders for Shane. Simply on effectively running an offense on top of producing. I wish him luck but I'm riding with sanders proudly

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CowboyRed said:

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Illingworth got benched against New Mexico State…… watched him played and at times he had all day but still was off the mark most of the time. Seeing that says for sure he was not the answer at ok state. We have proof now so maybe people can wise up

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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

As bad as the Nevada QB stat line was, it looked worse. Nevada doesn't have a QB. One of the worst teams in college football outplayed Nevada. The only reason they won the game was NMSU 5 turnovers. Don't know how Nevada can possibly win another game, their offense is brutal.

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yep, I would have to agree. Brand new coaches, new offense, new plays, tons and tons of new players, nobody looked like they knew what they were doing.

Nevada is actually favored in their next two games (Tx State, Incarnate World), but have Iowa after that and some very tough sledding.

Clearly Shane did what he always does when placed in very dire situations, leads the team to score and win games. He was a winner at OSU (3-0) and now 1-0 at Nevada. The kid is simply a gamer, he moves the team(s).

It should be interesting to see how this team matures over the season and begins to gel.. they have the potential to be a very punishing team with that duo at RB.

I'll be watching them from a distance, because Nevada also has a receiver from Norco High where my grandson attends... so why not tune in.

I'm wishing the best to Shane, and Cox, and Spencer.... thank you all for your efforts and contributions to college football.

CowboyRed said:

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You can can all the excuses you want but stats don't lie. 7/12 for 51 yards. He missed multiple wide open targets. I watched the game and I believe my eyes. I'm not trying to bash Shane I like the kid but he had a qbr of 12.8…… I'll take sanders all day long

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actually bashing Shane was the entire extent of your first post, which is what cause me to comment in the first place.

It was not a matter of comparing Shane to Sanders... how do you think Spencer would have done leading that team in that game, in a new offense, with only 8 weeks to try and pick it up? Never mind we already know the answer, in similar situations, Corndog beat him out, then Dru Brown played him lick for lick until it was a coin toss (according to Gundy) on who he would play.

I'm not bashing Sanders, I simply prefer a passing style of offense, and not this gimmick crap that OSU currently runs. Give me the Robinson/Weeden/Rudolph offenses over this junk.

My opinions about OSU have nothing to do with Sanders nor Illingworth. Meaningless games played by other teams means nothing to the discussion.

The Nevada coach was mocking the OSU offense, and claiming the Wolfpack offense is much more difficult for a QB.

None of this proves anything.

It wasn't the entire extent of my post. Sports comes with criticism especially the qb position so I'm simply stating that Shane had poor production and that sanders is a better choice to lead osu. I base it purely on production and what I physically see with my eyes. Either way it doesn't matter Shane couldn't beat sanders for the job so we get sanders regardless which is my preference anyway so I'm a happy fan. Sanders had odds to beat like a lot of other qbs and he has continually continued to beat the odds. Yeah didn't win the job in year one over corn but that's ok corn was a 5th year senior and deserved the job and it's been sanders ever since. He must be pretty amazing to run such a "gimmicky" offense and still lead us to so many wins. If the offense scheme is the problem then you should love sanders because he is making it work

CowboyRed said:

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It wasn't the entire extent of my post. Sports comes with criticism especially the qb position so I'm simply stating that Shane had poor production and that sanders is a better choice to lead osu. I base it purely on production and what I physically see with my eyes. Either way it doesn't matter Shane couldn't beat sanders for the job so we get sanders regardless which is my preference anyway so I'm a happy fan. Sanders had odds to beat like a lot of other qbs and he has continually continued to beat the odds. Yeah didn't win the job in year one over corn but that's ok corn was a 5th year senior and deserved the job and it's been sanders ever since. He must be pretty amazing to run such a "gimmicky" offense and still lead us to so many wins. If the offense scheme is the problem then you should love sanders because he is making it work

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and I call BS on all of that too.

Shane DID NOT have poor production, Shane was forced to play in the system that was designed specifically for Sanders. Even in those extreme circumstances, Illingworth was extremely successful at OSU. The coaching staff want to run RPO stuff, and our most successful offenses were more of a QB set design. Bully for Gundy, glad we've had some success with this approach, we had much, much, much more success with the other style.

The coaches want to use the QB as a running option, so that's what we have. Sanders would not nearly as proficient in other offensive sets. It has nothing to do with Shane nor Spencer, is has to do with what the coaches prefer, based on team personnel (not just the QBs).

We have been winning the past couple of years because the defense has improved, not because of the offense, which continues to struggle compared to past seasons.

I'm going to move on since you don't seem to grasp the team concept and seem to only want to point fingers at a position.

Shane had poor production last night was what I was saying lol you're a fan because you have the California connection so I can see you defending Shane which is cool. I'm unbiased tho and sanders is better. Plain and simple. No other factors added in simply when the lights come on which qb is better and that is sanders. Shane had his chance and had he played well they wouldn't have benched him for the other kid. So shane got his shot and didn't deliver against New Mexico State. Great qbs can carry a team shane did not carry his team. That run game saved nevada and New Mexico shooting then selves in the foot with turnovers. Shane didn't win that game for them. He played poorly. Do I think sanders would have done better last night in Shane's place with all the same factors? Yes yes I do

Also if sanders ever had a real offensive line then his play would be even more elevated.

CowboyRed said:

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Shane had poor production last night was what I was saying lol you're a fan because you have the California connection so I can see you defending Shane which is cool. I'm unbiased tho and sanders is better. Plain and simple. No other factors added in simply when the lights come on which qb is better and that is sanders. Shane had his chance and had he played well they wouldn't have benched him for the other kid. So shane got his shot and didn't deliver against New Mexico State. Great qbs can carry a team shane did not carry his team. That run game saved nevada and New Mexico shooting then selves in the foot with turnovers. Shane didn't win that game for them. He played poorly. Do I think sanders would have done better last night in Shane's place with all the same factors? Yes yes I do

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Shane DID NOT GET BENCHED. You're just intent on dropping hate on him. He had a hammy injury, and the other QB was always going to play. Your depiction of the events is just plain false.

Both QBs had poor production, because the whole team was new. Drop the bias and starting listening.

I'm providing the actual factual information, I am not "defending Shane". He doesn't need defending except from your biased attacks on him.

When I read "Sanders was great when he was on the bench" and then watched the second coming of Alex Cate last night, I can only laugh.

Had he played well or like a qb1 we wouldn't have been sat? Replaced? Filled in for? Whatever you want to call it. Had he played well he would have continued to play. I don't hate on him just being honest he did not play well so they took him out

GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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When I read "Sanders was great when he was on the bench" and then watched the second coming of Alex Cate last night, I can only laugh.

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you Poke haters don't know what you saw.... we haven't had a first year head coach putting in a new offense in almost 2 decades, so any cheap shot analogies you care to throw out there are simply not comparable.

It's probably best to let it go, we've already established the whole team looked pretty bad.

How are we poke haters when we are defending our qb Spencer sanders that currently plays and represents our team as we speak? You're in California arguing for a Californian kid playing for Nevada lol you are the guy slighting an actual osu qb. You're a poke hater man.

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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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When I read "Sanders was great when he was on the bench" and then watched the second coming of Alex Cate last night, I can only laugh.

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CaliforniaCowboy said:

you Poke haters don't know what you saw.... we haven't had a first year head coach putting in a new offense in almost 2 decades, so any cheap shot analogies you care to throw out there are simply not comparable.

It's probably best to let it go, we've already established the whole team looked pretty bad.

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Who bashed/hated on a current Cowboy?

Only you.