Mason Rudolph Climbs Record Books At Oklahoma State

On Sunday I looked at where James Washington stands statistically from an historical perspective at Oklahoma State. His numbers pop. He has an outside chance at every receiving record ever although I think total catches and total yards will ultimately be out of his reach.

Part of this is because OSU (like most teams in 2016) throws it as much or more than it ever has. That means there’s someone else on the verge of etching his name high in the record books in Stillwater. Let’s look at where Mason Rudolph ranks currently in OSU QB history halfway through his junior year with 21 starts and 22 games played.

Attempts: No. 6

1. Brandon Weeden (1,103)
2. Mike Gundy (1,078)
3. Zac Robinson (999)
4. Tone’ Jones (819)
5. Josh Fields (815)
6. Mason Rudolph (742)

If he stays through his senior year and plays every game, Rudolph will be around 300 ahead of Weeden and nearly 400 ahead of Mike Gundy. That is crazy.

Completions: No. 4

1. Brandon Weeden (767)
2. Mike Gundy (636)
3. Zac Robinson (610)
4. Mason Rudolph (456)

Rudolph should reach the 600 mark by the end of the season.

Completion Percentage: No. 3

1. Brandon Weeden (69.5)
2. J.W. Walsh (63.1)
3. Mason Rudolph (61.5)

I think it’s important to remember to take some of these numbers in context. That is, Mike Gundy and Josh Fields weren’t afforded the short throws that Rudolph and Walsh get to boost that completion percentage.

Yards: No. 4

1. Brandon Weeden (9,260)
2. Mike Gundy (8,473)
3. Zac Robinson (8,317)
4. Mason Rudolph (6,659)
5. Josh Fields (6,090)

He should pretty easily go down as the only 10,000-yard passer in OSU history if he stays through 2017.

TDs: No. 5

1. Brandon Weeden (75)
2. Zac Robinson (66)
3. Mike Gundy (57)
4. Josh Fields (55)
5. Mason Rudolph (40)

I’m surprised that Gundy and Fields had that many. Zac too for that matter.

Yards per game: No. 1

1. Mason Rudolph (302)
2. Brandon Weeden (299)
3. Mike Gundy (193)
4. Josh Fields (190)
5. Zac Robinson (185)

Wow. This one was the most stunning. And Rudolph’s number would be even higher if you didn’t have to count the OU game last year in which he played and threw for zero yards.

Yards per attempt: No. 1

1. Mason Rudolph (9.0)
2. Brandon Weeden (8.4)
3. Zac Robinson (8.3)
4. J.W. Walsh (8.3)
5. Donovan Woods (8.2)

Donovan! This is your sort of normalization for the fact that Rudolph throws a lot more than Gundy, Fields and the rest did. He’s doing it more effectively than all of them even at a higher volume. This is also impressive because No. 2 is having trouble finding space downfield.

“A lot of teams are trying to take away the deep threat from us because we are so lethal down the field,” said Rudolph on Saturday. “They are throwing different looks at us that we haven’t seen in the previous five games of the season. I have to give the credit to our coaching staff for making great adjustments at halftime and making sure that we have some schemes to work with to execute and we executed well.”

300-yard games: No. 2

1. Brandon Weeden (16)
2. Mason Rudolph (9)
3. J.W. Walsh (5)
4. Zac Robinson (5)
5. Josh Fields (5)

Again, it’s a different game, but Rudolph is still historically impressive through two and a half years. Statistically, he will go down as one of the best ever at OSU if he stays through his senior season. I’m not sure he will ever be beloved the way Brandon Weeden and Zac Robinson were, but he is certainly in Weeden’s league in terms of numbers.

Oklahoma State QB Mason Rudolph picked apart Iowa State's defense from a clean pocket on 42 of his 47 dropbacks in the Cowboys' win: pic.twitter.com/ijE8TxWy0Z

— PFF College (@PFF_College) October 9, 2016

He’s also not throwing picks. Weeden had 27 in 30 games or around one a game. Rudolph has just 15 so far in 22 games and only four in the friendly confines of Boone Pickens Stadium.

It’s true that Rudolph might not be as good as we would have liked through six games this season, but don’t confuse his ceiling with the ceiling of any of these other guys. At 16-5 as a starter, with the running game he’s had for most of two and a half years, he’s one of OSU’s all-time greats even if he never throws another pass.