Gundy Says Rudolph is ‘Most-Decorated’ OSU Player Since Barry Sanders

Mike Gundy has not been holding back when it comes to QB1 over the last few months. He has called him the Peyton Manning or Tom Brady of college football, said he wants his sons to commit to an organization the way Rudolph has, that he deserves all the records and now that he will leave Stillwater as the most-decorated player since Barry Sanders.

“He will leave here as the most decorated player since Barry Sanders in my opinion,” said Gundy on Monday. “That’s based on Barry playing back when we played and there was no social media. You’d be surprised at how many people in the country didn’t even know he played or didn’t actually see him play or know how good he was.”

Gundy went on to note that Barry would be as big of a YouTube star in today’s society as … well … Gundy is with his hair and his quotes and his rattlesnake hunts. Then he turned his attention back to No. 2.

“Mason will leave as the most decorated player since then, in my opinion. He’s won a ton of games. He plays with broken ribs. He has played with a broken foot. I think he’s leading the nation in passing. … He has been tremendous for this school and tremendous in society.”

In one sense, he’s right. Rudolph holds all the important statistical records. Passing yards, completions, total TDs, wins. They’re all his. But an important distinction between him and, say, Brandon Weeden or Justin Blackmon is that he does not have a conference championship and does not have a postseason award.

Still, Gundy said when it comes to Rudolph, it’s about more than just the numbers and the Ws.

“In Stillwater we have 400 homeless people and this team pitches in and feeds them every Thanksgiving,” said Gundy. “We hand out boxes of food and that takes place on Sunday, which was yesterday. I got to work early and my only goal outside of football was to make sure we went over there and handed the food out – I’ve done it for years. And I forgot about it and I felt terrible.

“I went in to my assistant, Danielle, and I asked, ‘Who was there for me?’ … Mason Rudolph. Dillon Stoner. … I mean, I’m just giving an example of the 10 or 12 guys. And Mason is a guy that threw a couple of interceptions and felt like he had an overthrow late. He had a good game, but on his standards, it wasn’t as good as he wanted it to be, but he showed up the next day and handed out food to people that are homeless.

“That’s the kind of kids that we have here. That’s what makes me the most proud.”

That’s great. I don’t know how well it resonates after a loss, but it is great.

And Rudolph has been awesome. The knock on him, probably fairly so, is that there aren’t really any signature wins. There aren’t really any moments that we’ll talk about 25 years from now. Maybe the OU game his freshman year? But did it evolve on the big stage after that?

He will end his career either 7-7, 7-8 or 8-7 against top 25 teams depending on whether OSU gets a ranked team in a bowl (probably) and wins that game.

Career Record:

Rudolph, 29-7
Mayfield, 29-5 (OU only)

Record vs Top 25:

Rudolph, 6-6
Mayfield, 11-3

Hard to pick against Baker #Bedlam

— Cayden McFarland (@caydenmc) November 2, 2017

Regardless, he’s been a buoy for OSU football in his time in Stillwater. He’s won a lot of games and been through a lot of wars in BPS. It’s been fun as hell to watch him thrive and went by more quickly than I think any of us can believe. He’ll strap it on one final time on Saturday against KU. One final collection of numbers. One final connection with James Washington. One final win. It would be the 31st of his storied career.