If This Really is 2014, Just Give the Keys to the Freshman … Eventually

Stop me if you’ve heard this before … OSU gets pounded by Texas at home before going on the road at Baylor and handing the keys to the kingdom to a freshman phenom who rejuvenates the program over the final few games before rolling to three (or four) more years of greatness under Mike Gundy.

2014 ➡️ 2017 — Yes
2018 ➡️ 2022 — Hopefully?

Here’s the truth about the Oklahoma State offense right now. They have an average quarterback playing behind a below average to average offensive line. We can get the stopwatch out and time how long Corndog is holding onto the ball. We can compare sack rates now to sack rates in 2014. Statistically, we can do anything. Or we can just look at history possibly repeating itself.

Through 10 games in 2014 OSU had allowed 32 sacks and were sitting at 5-5 with just Baylor and Oklahoma left on the slate. They’d just been embarrassed by UT at home, and the roster was a long list of walking wounded. Enter No. 2. Actually he was No. 10 at the time, but a new QB1 provided a jolt in Waco and beyond.

There is sometimes an ethereal, intangible piece to sports that can’t be explained or understood. Not much changed in 2014 for Oklahoma State between the Texas and Baylor game (they moved some linemen around to different spots and put in a true freshman walk-on at center). Nothing super notable except for the guy barking out calls behind center. And for whatever reason that worked. OSU averaged more yards per play in its final three games than in all but one of its previous seven Big 12 tilts.

This is less a plea for Spencer Sanders (although it’s certainly that!) than it is a showcase for what can happen when you have a change at one position. Again, there is no explanation here other than the guy behind center was better or maybe just different than the previous one.

That’s not to say that Cornelius wasn’t good on Saturday against Iowa State. He was. He was fine. His stats were solid. He made some throws. But for whatever reason change can often engender big-C Change when it comes to trajectories. And maybe OSU’s offense isn’t even the problem. They have a top-25 O when it comes to points per drive — a far cry from what they were in 2014 — but something’s … not working. I think 17 plays (!) for negative yardage (not including penalties) on Saturday prove that.

If this thing really is trending toward 2014 and if the only way for OSU to be great is to have a QB capable of covering a multitude of sins (I think it might be), then I’m in favor of starting Spencer but holding off until the Baylor game at Waco in November (fittingly!) to maintain the redshirt. But after that, release the hounds. See what you got. See if, during what portends to be another down year, you can let another true freshman spark some hope for the future.

Stars may be born in big time games on national television against ranked teams, but the seeds are sown long before that. They were in 2014. They could be again in 2018.