The college football game I watched the closest this week-end was O State vs. Texas in Austin.
The reason?
Spencer Sanders. I wanted to see how the Gatorade Texas High School Player of the Year responded on the biggest stage with the lights the brightest.
He responded like I thought he would. Like a star about to be born. Like a version of Vince Young albeit with a better throwing motion than Vince Young ever had….even in the NFL.
Mike Gundy has a star. A quarterback in this era of spread offenses and dual threat QBs who can be special.
I thought Texas would win and they did by six points. Texas has better athletes and has a very nice quarterback of their own in Sam Ehlinger.
OU and Auburn are my two favorite college football teams to follow, but Spencer Sanders will ensure I don’t miss watching any O State games moving forward.
He’s worth the price of admission in person or the time invested if you’re watching on television.
Mike Gundy has never had a dual threat guy like this. Bobby Reid was a bust. Zac Robinson was okay. Brandon Weeden couldn’t even beat out Alex Cate when he first arrived in Stillwater. And Mason Rudolph like Landry Jones will make a nice backup for the Steelers.
But Spencer Sanders has a national star aura about him primarily because of what he can do with his legs.
First time I watched him on video he reminded me of Vince Young.
But Vince Young struggled his freshman and sophomore seasons. It wasn’t until the Horns beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl before his star began to meet the hype. The rest is college football history. The win over USC was one of the greatest college football games ever.
Can Spencer Sanders be this at O State? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know if Mike Gundy can be Mac Brown or Bob Stoops or even Lincoln Riley.
Gundy is a nice coach for sure, but I’m not sure he can take this to the next level with both OU and Texas as top ten programs at the same time. This won’t be the Texas after Colt McCoy departed or the OU of Bob Stoops who repunted the ball to Tyreke Hill.
This will be a Big 12 where O State is going to have to elevate its program to heights even higher than in 2011 when Boone won his only Big 12 championship.
But as a college football fan, I do know this—I won’t be missing any Spencer Sanders games.
Only one O State player has ever won the Heisman. His last name was Sanders as in Barry. This Sanders has the same electric feel about him.
Barry Sanders had Mike Gundy as his quarterback. Spencer Sanders has Mike Gundy as his head coach.
Mike Gundy needs to bring his big boy game as a coach because like Barry this Sanders has a chance to be very special. Mike Gundy needs to be special as well.