For all of you big football babies out there.
Sunday post-practice - No QB news
OState.com
After Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy spoke of having found a starting quarterback in Saturday's scrimmage, the question on everyone's mind was who that quarterback might be.
Has returning starter Donovan Woods retained his starting job? The question seems to still be unanswered.
Following Sunday's short, light practice, Gundy wasn't ready to be any more forthcoming than he had been the day before. After the scrimmage, Gundy indicated he was not going to name names until he had a chance to visit with his offensive coaching staff. He had that talk on Sunday afternoon, and found that some of those coaches weren't in 100 percent agreement with his assessment.
"You know, earlier I was visiting with the offensive staff," Gundy said. "I guess they don't see it quite like I did. They don't feel that there was that much difference in the scrimmage. So, we're gonna sit down and meet tomorrow. We came in today, not until 2 o'clock because those guys all go to church. We're gonna sit down and meet for a couple of hours. I'm going to sit in with the offense for a couple of hours and the defense for a couple of hours and try and get an idea of what we really want to do against Montana State."
Though Gundy was again not inclined to name names after Sunday's practice, he did say that publicly naming a starter is very much on the horizon.
"Obviously, whenever we make this decision - and I'd like to make it a week from tomorrow, I told them that today that I'm hoping I can make it some time this week - whenever we make that decision, we all want to be in agreement," Gundy said. "That's why I was a little hesitant yesterday. Now I'm glad I waited, because when they all sat down and they saw what happened, I guess there was some things that happened internally in the offense that were an advantage or disadvantage for one or the other."
Gundy indicated that the two-quarterback system that's gotten so much talk in the pre-season is still a possibility - but not necessarily what he wants.
"I'm hoping to be able to name a starter," Gundy said. "I've always wanted to play one, but am willing to play two if we feel like there's two who deserve to play. I thought maybe that we had gotten to a point yesterday where we could do that, but obviously they didn't feel the same way I did."
The first-year head coach indicated that he had not discussed his comments following the scrimmage with his squad.
"No, I haven't said anything (to the team)," Gundy said. "Nobody's said anything to me. I'm sure most of the players see the same thing I did, but our offensive staff doesn't feel about it as strongly as I do. So, I respect that, and give them the opportunity to...they feel like it's a much tighter race, even after yesterday's scrimmage."
Gundy's decision to hold off on deciding on a starting quarterback has had one notable side effect. The Cowboys will scrimmage two more times this week. Gundy indicated that one more scrimmage had been planned, but a second has been added to give the coaching staff another look at both quarterbacks in live action.
"We're going to scrimmage twice (the next week)," Gundy said. "We were going to just do it once, but after the way I felt yesterday and the offensive staff kinda threw me on a little detour, we're going to scrimmage twice this week.
"One of them will be a 40 or 50 (play scrimmage), one will be a 70 or 80."
OSU's quarterback saga looks ready to drag out for another week. Gundy indicated that he had planned to name a starter on Tuesday, but now thinks it's a week off.
August 22, 2005
The big story for Oklahoma State entering fall camp was, of course, the battle for the starting quarterback spot between sophomore incumbent Donovan Woods and redshirt freshman Bobby Reid.
Woods or Reid? That is the big question on OSU fans' minds.
Through two weeks of open practices, there were actually few comments on the race from head coach Mike Gundy or offensive coordinator Larry Fedora. Fans and media alike were left to their own analysis from personal observation. After three closed sessions, Gundy set both groups on their ears with a cryptic statement indicating that he saw OSU's starting quarterback in Saturday's scrimmage.
Gundy left plenty of room for interested parties to read into his comments, even moreso following Sunday's practice. For the purposes of this column, we'll leave the psychoanalysis of his comments to the message boards. Rather, we'll look at the pros and cons for each quarterback based on their performances in the spring and early fall, attempting to take the same viewpoint as the offensive coaching staff will when trying to settle on a starting quarterback.
One of the few comments Gundy has given on the quarterback race is that the job belongs to Woods until someone takes it away with a clearly better performance. That's exactly the way you would expect it to be handled with a returning starter battling a challenger.
After Woods clearly outplayed Reid in the spring, the first two weeks of fall workouts were crucial for Reid's bid to knock him out of the starter's role. Though there were days where Reid clearly outplayed Woods, there were at least as many where the opposite was true. Through the end of open practices, the battle looked like a draw.
So, that means Woods retains the job in a "tie goes to the returning starter" scenario, right?
Not necessarily.
Woods has a big advantage in one of the most key areas - experience.
The biggest advantage Woods holds in the battle is a year's worth of experience. That's also the lone factor that neither prospect can change via play in practice. It is a big plus in Woods' favor.
Tied in with experience is the leadership factor. Both quarterbacks appear capable of leading the team, but Woods has done it in the heat of battle. Which QB will the team rally behind? That's really an impossible question to answer, considering the fact that it appears that the coaching staff is just as divided as the OSU fanbase on who should be under center versus Montana State. Players naturally give the standard answer that both QB prospects have their strong points, but won't really commit publicly to backing one or the other. If the staff, fans and media are nearly evenly split, it's fair to assume that the football team is probably in the same boat. This can be a good problem, as it may well mean that the team will rally behind whichever guy the coaching staff names as the starter.
A firm grasp on Larry Fedora's offense is a major factor as well. At the start of OSU's fall camp, Woods clearly had an edge in this category, but Reid looked to quickly close the gap.
Decision making is another area that would be squarely in Woods' corner through the first couple of weeks of fall camp. It probably goes back to experience more than any other single factor. Reid has proven he's willing to take more chances in order to make something happen, and that sometimes results in negative plays. It can also result in more big plays. What the coaching staff has to decide is whether having a signal-caller who might win a couple of games on his own is worth the risk that he might also lose one or two with bad decisions. It's a tough call for a young squad who will scratch and fight to reach bowl-eligible level in 2005.
How about the physical aspects to each candidate's game?
To my eye, Reid is the better overall passer, but neither would rate as one of the Big 12's better passing QB's at this point in their careers. Woods has greatly improved his ability to throw passes in the 8-20 yard range, but still has some mechanical flaws in his throwing motion. While a statement like "I don't care how it looks, does the ball get where it's supposed to be?" sounds good in theory, in practice there is a reason that fundamentals are stressed from Pee Wee football on up. A flawed throwing motion tends to manifest itself most when the heat is on.
In that same vein, for whatever reason Reid tends to throw a more catchable ball. That usually has to do with touch - knowing when and how to drill or float a pass depending on the situation. Still, better touch isn't a good enough reason to promote the challenger. Another area where Reid has a clear advantage in the passing game is throwing on the run, either in rollout or scrambling situations. Reid throws a better ball on the move than any OSU quarterback since Tony Lindsay, and has a much stronger arm than Lindsay. The ability to throw on the run hinges on mechanics, and Reid's are nearly flawless in that regard.
OSU's quarterback pair both have another weapon at their disposal - their legs. On the ground, Woods is the stronger runner. A good example of his bullish strength came last Wednesday in the Cowboys' mini-scrimmage in Ponca City. On a sneak on 4th-and-1 at the defense's 40 yard line, Woods kept his legs churning and eventually bounced out to left tackle and went in untouched for a touchdown. Reid is the better open-field runner and seems more capable of creating something out of nothing. This is a hard item to quantify, particularly in scrimmage situations with no quarterback contact allowed and a quick whistle, but Reid had more plays in the two weeks of open practices where it looked like he would have gone for huge gains on scrambles and designed runs.
Reid is generally regarded as the candidate with more "upside."
All told, it still looks a lot like a draw. So, that means it comes down to intangibles.
Both quarterbacks are fantastic natural athletes. Though the two have similar height and weights, how it's stacked onto their bodies is considerably different. Woods appears capable of moving to a position like wide receiver, safety or linebacker and contributing immediately. Reid might fit in as a receiver or H-back type of role, but isn't an obvious fit anywhere but quarterback.
More importantly, Woods has expressed publicly - in the past, at least - that he would be willing to change positions if the coaching staff settled on another starting quarterback. Reid hasn't really commented on the thought, but it's obvious that it's not an option in his mind. If Reid isn't the starting quarterback at Oklahoma State, he might look at options other than a position change.
Perhaps the single biggest factor that gets little attention is the recruiting aspect. Reid has been one of OSU's best recruiters. His status in Texas generally and Houston specifically can't be understated. If Reid became unhappy at Oklahoma State, the impact in recruiting would be immeasurable. That is not a good enough reason to promote a player who is clearly not as good as an incumbent starter. It is a factor that can't be overlooked in a breathlessly close race, however. It's the factor that says a tie goes to the challenger, not the returning starter.
Before Gundy's revelation in Saturday's session with the media, my official prediction would have been that Woods would start the first game with Reid seeing plenty of snaps in a two-quarterback system. A further prediction would have been that Reid would be the starter by the start of Big 12 play. Factoring in Gundy's comments, my guess is that No. 14 will be under center for the Cowboy offense's first snap against Montana State on September 3rd. I said we'd leave the psychoanalysis of Gundy's comments to the message boards, but there is one item worth touching on in this column. As Reid rehabbed his surgically-repaired shoulder last fall, it was Gundy who wanted to see the true freshman taken out of redshirt mid-way through the season as his arm strength returned. That was overruled by Les Miles, but says something about what OSU's new head coach thought about the quarterback race then. That doesn't mean Reid is Gundy's choice now, but does indicate he is intrigued by what Reid brings to the table.
If Reid is ultimately named as OSU's starting quarterback, what happens with Woods? That's the subject of another column.