Incoming Freshmen at Oklahoma State Have Chance to Make an Early Impact

The freshmen on the Oklahoma State football team have made it through their first week of fall camp.

At first glance, the freshman class might not have the most impact on the season, but with injuries that are sure to come and the addition of the new redshirt rule, which allows players to play in four games and still redshirt, freshman have as good a chance to break through as ever.

The most recognizable freshman on the roster is probably quarterback Spencer Sanders. Although it doesn’t seem as if Sanders will start anytime soon, it’s hard to imagine a world where he doesn’t play this season with the new redshirt rule. In the small sample size redshirt junior receiver Tyron Johnson has seen of Sanders, Johnson said he thinks Sanders is going to be one of OSU’s greats.

He’s not alone in that sentiment.

“Oh, man, Spencer, I’ve never seen a dude who can throw such a pretty ball, throw it so far, before,” sophomore wide receiver Tylan Wallace said at OSU’s media day. “He can really throw the thing from what I’ve seen. That’s really special about him.”

The secondary provides an interesting spot for freshmen with new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles 4-2-5 scheme, and so far, some corners have impressed. Within the first two days of fall camp, Tyrell Alexander said freshman Tanner McCalister, a former three-star recruit, had an interception.

McCalister is one of three three-star freshman at corner for the Cowboys, along with JayVeon Cardwell and Gabe Lemons.

“Ever since they came in, they’ve been poised, asking questions and trying to be active,” Alexander said. “They care. You know how some freshmen, they’re not really sure. They have confidence. They’re playing pretty good the first couple of days in fall, making us compete more as well.”

Freshman running back Jahmyl Jeter might find it hard to get on the field with the Cowboys’ depth at the position, but already at 6-foot, 210 pounds, Jeter is going to be a problem to bring down in the future.

“He’s big,” running backs coach John Wozniak said. “He is a big, big man, so he’s going to have to bring that part of the game. That’s going to have to be his dominant trait.”

The new redshirt rule is untested, meaning it might be a few years before coaches find the best way to use it. It’s also likely the way it’s used on wide receivers might not be the best way to use it for offensive lineman, something O-line coach Josh Henson told PFB at Karsten Creek.

Henson noted the physical demands of offensive lineman having to hit someone every play. He said in his 18 years of coaching, he’s only had about three freshman get a solid number of snaps on the offensive line, and a lot of that was because of injuries.

The new redshirt rule gives Henson the chance to get freshman like Hunter Anthony and Jacob Farrell reps, but even as of a few weeks ago, Henson said he wasn’t sure if the freshman will be ready in the season’s opening weeks.

“I’ve thought about all these different ways to approach it,” he said. “My gut feeling is, early in the season, I don’t know that those guys will be ready yet anyway. My gut feeling is even if you get into a game where you have the luxury of putting your second-team O-line in, for whatever reason, you’d want to go ahead and play your second-team O-line because if there is an injury in Game 5 or 6, those are guys that are going to play. I think for linemen, usually by Game 8 or 9, once those guys have repped a little bit through the season, you get to where those guys are starting to, ‘OK, now I got it, coach. I understand what’s going on.’”

OSU coach Mike Gundy has raved that high school football players are more college-ready as the years go on, and though a freshman on this year’s squad likely won’t get Justice Hill-levels of playing time, Gundy said this year’s crop continues the line of freshmen coming in more ready than ever.

“(The newcomers) seem to be doing really well,” Gundy said. “Each year they get more and more advanced. High school football is further along than it ever has been. Their training this summer is different than it ever has been. The maturity level of an incoming high school player is higher than it has been in years.”