Thoughts, observations from Oklahoma State’s spring finale

Saturday was perfect weather for what is now know to me as Spring Homecoming. The porch at Joe’s Friday night was filled with former players and their families and, considering the holiday weekend, it seemed like a strong crowd for Oklahoma State‘s spring practice.

Here’s a couple of my observations:

-All eyes were on the battle between Spencer Sanders and Dru Brown, including mine. The first thing that stood out to me was the reaction from the crowd when they were announced by Larry Reece at the beginning of their respective drives during 11 on 11 action. There was no reaction for Brown and a nice cheer for Sanders. While in my experience the causal OSU fan is knowledgeable, I’m guessing more people are aware of the former Denton Ryan four-star QB than the Hawaii grad transfer.

-The lack of traditional running plays was a bit of a shock to me. Both QBs started off with one, but outside of options and designed QB runs, it felt like there wasn’t a ton of them after that. It could be because Hubbard and LD Brown are experienced, but I would have thought Coach Dickey would like to see his boys run blocking. I’m sure there is a method to that madness.

-Gundy was extremely upbeat when they went to his on-field hits. I like relaxed Gundy. Tylan Wallace was fielding punts before the 11v11 session.

Now the good stuff:

-Both players got time with 1s and 2s, but Dru Brown started the 11v11 session with the 1s. Could be something, could be a seniority thing, could have been a coin flip.

-Dru has a very nice deep ball. A bit better than Sanders, but not by much. The touch is there, the power, all of that. As someone who was very frustrated watching QB1 struggle going deep at the beginning of last year, it was refreshing to see.

-Spencer has some magic when he needs to use his legs. It was like watching his HS playoff highlights unfolding in front of me. He’s effortless when he is running, it looks so smooth. Fast and shifty.

-Dru can use his legs as well. He had some nice scrambles and designed runs. Someone on twitter dropped the Baker comparison. Im not a fan of that (for all kinds of reasons), But he can move.

-CJ Moore is running with the second unit but he will get some major playing time this season. He’s very good in the air. He and Spencer seem to have some chemistry already, which tells me Spencer has been running with the 2s most of spring.

-Both QBs has some pretty long balls, both had nice plays where the WR dropped the ball and both looked decent with the short and mid routes. Heck, both even threw an interception.

-AJ Green will be an All Big 12 Corner this year. Write it in sharpie. (He was responsible for most of the INTs)

-Bonus note: Costello looked nice during 7 on 7 sessions as well! I’d be surprised if he’s anything other than a redshirt this year But I’d bet he will be a nice next gen QB for us.

My final thought on the QB situation:

Each QB had a moment that made my eyes pop. Sanders had a throw where he hit a guy in stride on the far sideline that made me gasp. Brown had a route jumped easily where the WR clubbed the ball loose. Not the type of throw a senior transfer should make. Other than that, there isn’t a lot separating them. I thought Brown looked a little better with the 1s compared to Sanders (vs the 1s as well) if you take the entire body of work, but I thought Spencer looked better with the 2s by a good margin. To me, if it’s this close, you take the kid with the highest upside, which is Spencer Sanders, no doubt. That being said, I don’t think we have our answer until fall ball starts.

The real question is can us twitter types respect the process and understand that there are going to be some growing pains this year? We open the year vs. Oregon State and don’t get our first tough test until Texas on 9/21. Would could be rolling into Austin 3-0 and feeling great but without any idea what we really have with this team.