Tom Herman Praises Spencer Sanders After Electric Performance

There were still a few lingering question marks about Spencer Sanders going into Saturday’s big-time game against Texas. Nothing big. Just something here and something there. Gnats on the neck of a cow more than anything. But after 60 minutes of slugging it out with Texas on Saturday night in Austin, there are no longer any questions at all.

Sanders didn’t have the greatest statistical game of his career. He threw it 32 times for 268 yards and a pair of picks. But he picked up another 109 on the ground on just 18 rushes. And if you watched the entire game, he was OSU’s most electric — and, if you’re a Texas fan, most terrifying — weapon.

Tom Herman — who has coached some pretty good QBs in his time at the collegiate level in Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett and Sam Ehlinger — left DKR on Saturday impressed with what he saw from No. 3.

“I told Coach Gundy after the game, I said he’s got himself one in that quarterback,” Herman said. “Man, that guy is very, very difficult to defend in that offense, and the way he can run the football.”

Yes, when you do things like this, you tend to be difficult to defend.

Gundy was asked about Sanders’ demeanor after the game. Gundy, as you know, loves “when the lights are on” performances. And Sanders put on a show for most of the game.

“Good. He’s really good,” said Gundy. “He was … a little more calm than I thought he would be. He got a little flustered last week at Tulsa, and he didn’t get flustered tonight. I thought he handled himself really well.

” … You feel good about it. He’s making some plays. He’s making competitive plays is kind of what you’re talking about, and that’s a good thing. The guys chasing him today run pretty well, and he still made some competitive plays.”

Here's @CoachGundy assessment of Spencer Sanders tonight. #OKState pic.twitter.com/zPWAbNkWMT

— Scott Pfeil (@scottpfeil) September 22, 2019

“Spencer played his heart out,” added tailback Chuba Hubbard. “I respect him 100 percent for that.”

OSU leaves Austin with a lot of questions. Should they continue to be conservative? What should they do in the red zone? How many hits can Chuba take? Is there a device that will clone Trace Ford?

But whether Sanders can roll at the highest level of college football is not one of them. If there were any leftover raised eyebrows or queries about just how good No. 3 can be and just how great OSU can be with him, they’ve been erased. Freshmen don’t roll into Austin against ranked Texas teams and single-handedly keep unranked teams alive like he did.

There aren’t many freshmen like him, though. Spencer Sanders — just like a lot of people thought and Tom Herman now knows — is something special.