Oklahoma State’s Newest Running Back Gem is a Barry Sanders Aficionado

Carson Cunningham said this best the other day. Mike Gundy’s penchant for finding top tier talent in, pardon the mini reference, the lowest places is unparalleled. I’ve thought that for years. It only continues to be reinforced.

. @CoachGundy's eye for talent is great. Finds James Washington under a rock, now Jeff Carr ( 2*) & Jalen McClesky (3*) will play 1st game.

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) August 25, 2015

Another guy who came without all the trappings to Stillwater was somebody Gundy used to share a backfield with. It’s the same person freshman Jeff Carr (the newly-named starting kick returner and third string RB, by the way) has looked up to his whole life. Here’s the Tulsa World:

But Carr said Sanders became his favorite after he watched “Barry Sanders: A Football Life.” “I play like him,” Carr said on National Signing Day in February. “I’m elusive, he’s small, and I found out Coach Gundy used to play with him, too.”

If he gives OSU 15 percent what Sanders did, it will still have been a great recruiting job by Gundy. You can see why Carr would say that, by the way, if you watch the first play on this video.

“You know it’s interesting, in recruiting, those were the two guys (Carr and Jalen McCleskey) that in a lot of people’s opinions weren’t heavily recruited as other players in our class and other classes in the conference,” said Gundy a few weeks ago. “They end up being the guys that it looks like are going to compete in the first game.”

He reiterated it on Thursday.

Gundy: If Jeff Carr and Jalen McCleskey were not undersized in high school, they would have been national recruits. #okstate

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) August 27, 2015