Spring Position Preview: Cowboys Have Four Intriguing but Inexperienced Quarterbacks

The Cowboys will be back on the field next week for what feels like one of the more anticipated spring camps in recent history.

There are tons of new players, an almost entirely new coaching staff and an Oklahoma State program motivated to right the wrongs of a 3-9 season. The spring ball on the horizon, we’re starting up our spring position previews, starting with a look at the OSU quarterbacks.

Returners

Incoming Transfer

Career Passing Stats

Career Rushing Stats

Overview

This is probably OSU’s most interesting quarterback room since the 2012 season when Clint Chelf, J.W. Walsh and Wes Lunt battled to see who should sit the throne Brandon Weeden left vacant.

All four of these Cowboy QBs bring some intrigue. Rangel has the most experience, and he got the Cowboys’ offense going in Provo this past season with his legs before breaking his collarbone. Smith threw for 316 yards in his first star as a true freshman and led an offense that scored 48 points. Although Flores hasn’t played, the hype surrounding him is undeniable — hype Mike Gundy himself contributed to before last season. Then the newcomer Hejny brings speed with him, which feels important in a Doug Meacham-coordinated offense. And that’s not to mention the fact that Hejny and Meacham were together at TCU last season.

But at the same time, it’s tough from the outside to think too strongly about any of these guys because they’ve thrown 254 college passes among the four of them. Rangel has started games the past three seasons, but he’s never been OSU’s full-fledged starting quarterback. Smith had a good game and a bad game. Flores hasn’t taken a college snap. Hejny hasn’t thrown a college pass.

Two-Deep Prediction

QB1: Hauss Hejny
QB2: Garret Rangel

For all the reasons I just mentioned, this feels like throwing blind darts. Maybe I’m reading too much into the Hejny-Meacham connection and the fact that Hejny initially committed to Duke under new OSU quarterback coach Kevin Johns in high school.

After two seasons with the stereotypical pocket passer, I think OSU will want to get back to more of a dual-threat, and that’s historically been what has worked best in Meacham-coordinated offenses.

“If you have a pocket guy, you’ve gotta have that one receiver that can make it happen,” Meacham said in January. “Like with (Brandon) Weeden. He could sit in there and make it happen because he had a two-time Biletnikoff award winner. If you’re not particularly dominant in that area, you’d probably like a guy that can move around a little bit. And if you’ve got both, then that’s lightning in a bottle. That’s kind of what we had at TCU those couple years. We had Trevone and those guys at receiver. It was kind of like the best of everything.

“That’s ultimately what you want, a guy that can process, throw from the pocket and access secondaries and whatnot and get you in and out of correct plays but also can kind of take off and adlib and make stuff happen.”

As for the second spot, I default to experience and the fact that Rangel has shown to be the most mobile among the three returners. I’m very much a passenger on the Zane Hype Train, but it’s hard to predict a guy who hasn’t played to start.

This should make for a fun quarterback battle, one that has a ton of promise. I’m not sure anyone knows who’s going to come out of it on top here in mid-March.