How Mason Rudolph Made It Out of ACC-SEC Country to Become One of the Most-Accomplished Big 12 QBs Ever

I was tasked with writing a Mason Rudolph feature for CBS Sports ahead of Bedlam and asked to pick a storyline. They’ve all been told many times over, but I settled on how in the world Rudolph made it out of ACC/SEC country to Stillwater and whether the teams in that region regret it.

Incredibly, the quarterbacks in the class of 2014 that went to South Carolina (where he’s from) and North Carolina (where his dad played) totaled three college passes for 9 total yards. Rudolph just hit 9,000 and 10,000 and is about to hit 11,000 for his career. He was never even offered by those two schools.

So anyway, this is a story of how Mike Yurcich and Mike Gundy dipped into a place they never even recruit and came back with one of the crown jewels of Oklahoma State football history. It’s a story about why nobody wanted him and how those reasons were the same reasons he was good to begin with.

It’s a story about how even though OSU was a good fit, it was still hard to shun the ACC and SEC. It’s a story about how his parents weren’t real fired up about that start at Baylor his freshman year.

It’s a story about how the entire thing almost never happened until Rudolph’s dad insisted they visit Stillwater. It’s a story about Excel spreadsheets and Les Miles and USC-Texas film and mostly it’s a story about how in the imperfect world of recruiting quarterbacks, Mike & Mike hit the jackpot 1,087 miles from Boone Pickens Stadium.

Hope you enjoy it.