Mike Gundy Gives Vote of Confidence to Spencer Sanders Following Texas Loss
STILLWATER – There’s no arguing Saturday was a tough day for Oklahoma State. The defense held Texas to under 300-yards of total offense, while the Cowboy offense put up over 500-yards of total offense. Mistakes and turnovers absolutely killed any chances the Cowboys had to win as the five turnovers lead to 21 Texas points. Eliminate the turnovers and effectively eliminate those points.
Quarterback Spencer Sanders was responsible for three of the five turnovers on Saturday, two fumbles and one interception, and they were costly. However, Mike Gundy says they weren’t the same type of mistakes they dealt with fixing from last season.
“The interception he threw, he threw behind the receiver and the Texas guy was in a good position,” said Mike Gundy. “The ball exchange issue, he needs to have a better grip on the ball, that’s his responsibility. The one in the first quarter, that’s reps. The strip right before halftime, he was in the pocket for almost five seconds, the guy came from behind. Little bit of feel for the game, nobody’s open, pull it down and take off and run. Then LD [Brown’s], LD got hit hard. He got spun around and the guy drilled him and made really good contact on the ball.
“We had another one, but I can’t remember what it was, but either way, that’s kind of an explanation about what happened. It was almost like a perfect storm. We had some issues to correct with Spencer last year, but they weren’t – what happened Saturday was not what we dealt with him last year. Just had a little bit of the perfect storms, so hopefully we can get some of that corrected before the next game.”
The fifth turnover on the day was the roughing the punter call that gave the Longhorns a first down and lead to a Texas score.
So, if the mistakes by Sanders on Saturday weren’t the same as he made last season, how do you move forward with fixing them?
“Got to let him go, let him play,” said Gundy. “He’s aggressive. He’ll make some mistakes; he’s only played in nine games [11] I think in his career. He’s still young and he’ll make some mistakes, but we don’t want to put a leash on him. We need to let him go. He makes a lot of plays and so we don’t want to tone him down, we want to let him rip and play football.”
The mistakes were definitely costly as they nearly all lead to Texas points, but remove Sanders’ turnovers from the conversation and he had a solid day. He finished with 400 yards on 27-of-39 passing and four touchdowns. He also carried the ball 16 times for 55 yards, but finished the game with only 11 yards as he was sacked five times and was dropped a few times a loss.
As Pokes Report publisher Robert Allen wrote on Sunday, Mike Gundy and Kasey Dunn have a talented quarterback in Spencer Sanders. He’s athletic, has a good arm and can make things happen on his feet as well. However, they also have a talented and promising quarterback in freshman Shane Illingworth. He only has a few games under his belt, but he’s shown that he can take care of the football.
“I'm not sure where you set the controls, but at some point, if the turnovers continue, the defense and the rest of the team deserve a quarterback that will protect the football. It would be great if that quarterback is Spencer Sanders." -Pokes Report
