Mike Gundy, Mike Yurcich Praise Mason Rudolph For Pitt Performance

The “Rudolph ain’t that great” truthers are out in full force on Sunday the day after No. 2 set the school record for passing yards in a game. It’s stunning really. And maybe this is all our fault. Maybe we set the bar so high for Mason Rudolph that anything short of him being a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft next year was going to feel mediocre. I wrote about this more at length here.

I don’t think Rudolph is perfect or that he doesn’t have a lot to work on, but man, some of you act like he’s Aso Pogi or Donovan Woods! Mason Rudolph is probably going to go down as one of the two best QBs in school history. Him and Weeden. That’s it. He’s 14-4 (*15-3*) as a starter and could become the only current B12 QB with wins over every B12 team if he beats Baylor next week.

Was he elite on Saturday? No, but he was pretty good. And apparently his “pretty good” games are record-setting performances. Everybody gets caught up in the sailed passes over the middle, and they are certainly there. But what you forget is him throwing 25-yard outs off the wrong foot like everyone in college football does it. I can promise you everyone in college football does not do that.

He’s 14-4 as a starter with an average offensive line (at best), no run game and a below average defense.

Don’t take my word for it though.

“Mason came back,” said Mike Gundy. “It’s tough being a quarterback when you lose a game like that [against CMU]. It’s tough being a head coach when you lose a game like that. He rallied back, so he did a nice job. Unlike last week where I said [he] struggled, he played pretty good today. He missed a few throws. I think he missed maybe three, but overall his accuracy today was tremendous on deep balls.”

Not sure about the three missed throws. But the deep balls were there for the most part. And that’s not a gimmick offense if it works 50 percent of the time. It’s just an offense.

“He played great,” added Mike Yurcich. “There’s always room to improve. He should sit back and enjoy this one. He played tremendous at the end. He finished strong again with the game-winning drive, which is becoming commonplace for him. I’m proud of him and proud of everyone else too.

“I said it to you guys a million times, but the kid is poised,” Yurcich told the Tulsa World. “You’re not going to see him get real hot. You’re not going to see him get real emotional. And that’s a key to his success.”

It is. I haven’t counted the 4th quarter game-winning drives, but I believe we are up to six or seven now. Three games into his junior year. Still there are flaws. Rudolph needs to be better than 57 percent in accuracy, and some of those sailed throws are going to start becoming picks in Big 12 play. He knows that. Gundy knows it too.

“I think he’s pressing too much,” said of the issues Rudolph has encountered. “When you’re 20 or 21, and people talk about you being a potential first or second round draft pick. Then people make judgments or decisions on you, your ability to run, your deep ball, your arm strength and all of that. I think it affected him. I think he got caught up in some of that and he started pressing. We wanted him to know that we believe in him and that he needs to go play. The rest of it is going to take care of itself.”

This goes back to the Colin Kaepernick thing for me. You can hold two truths in your hand at one time. Rudolph can be both a great college QB and still have a lot of things to work on. It’s not all or nothing. It’s just not. It’s not “he’s the worst” or “he’s the best.” The reality is that he’s a tremendous college football quarterback who has some adjustments to make going into Big 12 play. Historically as an OSU fan this is beyond where we have been with our quarterbacks.

So no, Mason Rudolph has not been the best quarterback in the country over the first three weeks of 2016, and he had a bad game last week that kept OSU from rolling CMU. That’s disappointing. But it doesn’t mean he’s not one of the best in OSU history. And that thought, heading into conference play, is exciting.