STILLWATER – The question of the week will be who will play quarterback when Oklahoma State kicks off this coming Saturday at Kansas. In last Saturday’s 48-0 shocking loss to Kansas State the No. 18 Cowboys veteran All-Big 12 quarterback Spencer Sanders went out with an apparent re-injury to his right shoulder. He later was walked to the Kansas State training room where he likely was X-rayed. Sanders was showered and dressed by the time the game ended and he did not speak with the media.
So, no surprise even though head coach Mike Gundy has said he won’t talk injuries, he was asked, how is Spencer Sanders?
“I hope he’s doing good,” Gundy answered making it seem that Sanders is an option for the game at Kansas. “We’re gonna rest him some this week and try to get him back, get him going, just like we’ve been doing.”
On the opponent side, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold said that his quarterback Jaylon Daniels, out with an apparent shoulder injury is back practicing this week. If Daniels can’t come back, then Jason Bean will start his third game of this season.
If Sanders can’t go for Oklahoma State, then it would be Gundy’s middle son Gunnar that is first in line to play. Gunnar Gundy has career numbers of 14-of-27 passing for 144-yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. One of those came in his fourth quarter stint at Kansas State. Just after he had scrambled for 22-yards and a first down into K-State territory he was under a heavy rush and tried to “Patrick Mahomes” flip it to a Cowboy receiver, and it was picked off.
“I didn’t have to. He came to me and apologized,” Mike Gundy said when asked if he had to correct Gunnar on that ploy. “I said, ‘You don’t need to apologize to me, you need to apologize to the team and your coaches.’ I mean, I just stand there and watch it. And I don’t have anything to do with that. But I know that there are times, sometimes he’s a freelancer. He did stuff like that in high school, and he’s done it here. He’s done it at this level in scrimmages and games. But I think that he learned the lesson in a good way that this is a different game … But when in the middle of the field, [it] wouldn’t be a good suggestion”
Gundy was asked what his comfort level would be if Sanders isn’t available, and he has to go to Gunnar or true freshman Garret Rangel?
“The comfort level is never going to be the same as it is with a guy that’s played three or four years,” Gundy answered being totally honest. “I think it would be unfair for me to stand here and say my comfort level with either of the two quarterbacks that we would use would be the same with Sanders, because it’s not. They’re inexperienced, they’re learning on the run. I’ve seen them execute in scrimmages, I’ve seen them do things in the indoor, but it’s different when everything, when the lights are on and people there. We all know that. That’s just athletics. So we would learn on the run somewhat. Do I think we can function? Sure, we can. Do I think that we function the way we do with Spencer? No, because of his 40-something games of experience and being in those situations.”
Gundy said Gunnar played okay in his fourth quarter stint at Kansas State. He functioned fine. He knew where to go with the ball. Besides his scramble, he completed a pass to Johnson and a screen that went for 10-yards to running back Deondre Jackson. He had another ball he tried to squeeze between a defender fronting and one behind a receiver on an out.
“He would probably tell you that, ‘I could have made that throw but maybe not now,’ said the head coach of that one. “So there are some things that he did good and there’s some things that he learned.”
Gundy agreed to two things brought up by media with regard to the quarterback scenario with Sanders possibly injured and the lightly experienced duo behind him. One of those thoughts was Gunnar Gundy has more pressure on him because he is the head coach’s son.
“I think he’s got more pressure,” Mike Gundy said.
The other is that Gundy has to and has got the relationship with offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay to listen to their thoughts and opinions on who should play.
“You know, we’ve got another young quarterback in this program, (Garret Rangel), who is really good too. I mean, he’s a good player,” Gundy said. “He doesn’t have any experience either. But from what he’s shown us in practice and scrimmages and stuff, we feel good about him. So you know, hopefully Spencer (Sanders) will play, because obviously that’s a different level. But if (he can’t), then we go through the path that maybe you’re talking about and we figure it out, we go play and see where it goes.”
It’s what you hope you don’t have to, but what you may be forced to do.
