Rookie QBs rare at OSU, but Wes Lunt has a shot
Published: 4/16/2012 7:55 AM
Last Modified: 4/16/2012 8:06 AM
Rookies typically don’t play quarterback at Oklahoma State.
Of the 13 QBs who were primary starters during the past 26 seasons, only two – Mike Gundy in 1986 and Tone Jones in 1993 – were first-year freshmen.
When Tony Lindsay led the Cowboys to the 1997 Alamo Bowl, he was a redshirt freshman. When Josh Fields rallied OSU to a 2001 Bedlam victory in 2001, he was a first-year freshman but not the starter. Aso Pogi (2000), Donovan Woods (2004) and Bobby Reid (2005) were redshirt freshmen when making their first starts.
In that the redshirt guy has been exposed to college football and the college lifestyle for a full year before getting his chance to play, the difference in the preparedness level of a redshirt freshman QB and a first-year freshman is vast.
As recently as 15 weeks ago, Wes Lunt was a Rochester (Ill.) High School senior. Now, as a Cowboy rookie involved in spring practice, he battles junior Clint Chelf and redshirt freshman J.W. Walsh for Oklahoma State’s starting quarterback job.
Lunt is more than just a participant. At 6-foot-4 and 211 pounds, and with the best pure passing arm in the program, he has given Gundy and offensive coordinator Todd Monken something to talk about.
Lunt is a real player in OSU’s quarterback competition. Will he be given the reins to an offense that last season carried the Cowboys to the Big 12 championship and a Fiesta Bowl victory?
And if Lunt does become The Man in Stillwater, what happens with Gundy’s media policy? With Gundy as the head coach, first-year program members – even junior-college transfers – are not made available for media interviews. Perrish Cox, Kendall Hunter and Dez Bryant were impact players as first-year freshmen, but Gundy pressed the mute button. No interviews.
If Lunt quarterbacks an OSU program that in four consecutive seasons has achieved a national top-10 ranking, would Gundy relax his policy and allow Lunt to speak? If Lunt has the wherewithal to win the job, surely he has the poise to answer a few football questions.
Gundy hoped that by the end of the spring-practice period – which ends with Saturday’s noon Orange-White game at Boone Pickens Stadium – that he and Monken would have identified OSU’s starting quarterback. That won’t happen. No one QB has been consistently better than the others.
When preseason camp begins in August, the quarterback process continues. Lunt will be there, and by then it is expected that he will have added 10 pounds of muscle and experience.
It is quite possible that Oklahoma State would transition from a 28-year-old, record-breaking, NFL-caliber passer in Brandon Weeden to a kid – Lunt – who doesn’t turn 19 until October.
-- Bill Haisten
Written by
Bill Haisten
Sports Writer
