Mike Gundy Sounds Like He’s Pretty High On Keondre Wudtee

Kyle B. has predicted that freshman Keondre Wudtee will be QB3 going into the season opener, leap-frogging John Kolar but not surpassing the Oil Baron Taylor Cornelius. Mike Gundy addressed the exciting young freshman (and probable future face of the program) at fan appreciation day on Saturday.

“Well, he understands football,” said Gundy.

That’s a good place to start.

“Seems that a lot of what we can’t coach comes natural to him. I like his demeanor, I like his work ethic, I like his attitude up to this point. He has a quick release and gets rid of the ball fast. He’s a true freshman; he’s got a ways to go in throwing, just like all of them have. He doesn’t have a lot of wasted motion.

“And I think he’s going to be able to figure out the offense fairly quick, which then allows him to improve at a faster rate because he understands like all of us if we understand what direction we are going in we will get there faster. If we are not sure, we are hesitant. I don’t see that with him at this point. I think he is going to pick up pretty fast.”

That doesn’t necessarily sound like somebody Gundy plans on definitely redshirting.

“His skills are a little different,” added Gundy. “Obviously, he is a little more elusive and can take off and run. As I mentioned, I like his release, I like how he’s throwing the ball now at this stage in his career. Whether it’s Mason (Rudolph), or Taylor (Cornelius), or Wudtee or (John) Kolar, we have a base offense that we refine for each one of those guys, even while they are practicing out here. Some of the plays that we think Mason is good at, Kolar may not run them, or Wudtee may not run them, or vice versa. We can do that in practice.”

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— Keondre Wudtee (@K_wudteeQB) August 3, 2016

Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich agreed with the head man on Wudtee’s elusiveness.

“I’m going to hold on [talking about his development] because time’s going to tell on him,” said Yurcich last week. “Obviously, he’s got great athleticism, he’s got great arm strength and he’s a smart kid, but he has less experience in the system, so it’s going to take a few more practices to get him moving to where we can evaluate him a little bit better.”

The athleticism is not a question. Take one look at Wudtee’s high school film and he wows.

I don’t actually think Gundy will pull the trigger on Wudtee as QB2 but stranger things have happened. And I wouldn’t be surprised like Kyle B. to see him as QB3 heading into the first game. And we all know how much QB3s have played in the past.

“By the end of next week, we should have a plan for what we’re going to do with our backup quarterback. We have a couple of guys that are improving each day. There are only so many reps, so by that time, we need to come up with a plan.”