Rooting for a return to normalcy in Stillwater
Published: 10/10/2012 10:14 AM
Last Modified: 10/10/2012 10:14 AM
I’m ready for Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt to get 100 percent healthy as soon as possible.
That doesn’t mean I am turning in my objectivity card. I’m still here to report the news instead of being a cheerleader.
So why am I rooting for Lunt to bounce back? Because I’m rooting for a return to normalcy, or whatever passes for normalcy in college football nowadays.
There has been a different vibe in Stillwater ever since Lunt was helped off the field on Sept. 15. In the aftermath, a degree of puckering up has occurred.
Most recent example:
I made the round trip from Tulsa to Stillwater for a post-practice media availability session Tuesday. It’s the last crack at interviews before a Big 12 road opener at Kansas. In case there was a shred of news that emerged from the Tuesday session, I didn’t want to be the guy who missed it.
There was no "real" news (and I didn’t really expect any), so Plan B was to gather some quotes for use as notepad items later in the week.
My first question was to an offensive lineman (and I won’t name him because I’m not trying to pick on anyone). I asked this: If -- and I’ll emphasize here that I used the word “if” -- OSU was to use a quarterback who is less than 100 percent, would an offensive lineman feel an increased responsibility to make sure that quarterback was protected?
The polite response: “We were told not to talk about the quarterbacks.”
I reiterated that I wasn’t asking a question about the quarterbacks. I was asking a question about a blocker’s job. And then the lineman answered the question.
This is where a skeptic might accuse me of being devious in an attempt to squeeze a Lunt update from an unsuspecting teammate. And that would be incorrect. If I had been in search of a clue for which quarterback will start against KU, I wouldn’t have beaten around the bush. I would have asked the question point-blank, just like I did the day before when I fired it at Mike Gundy, Todd Monken and J.W Walsh.
The good news is OSU’s players are apparently loyal enough to Gundy that they are not going to go against his wishes when it comes to letting any quarterback info out of the bag. He’s their boss. They should listen to their boss.
The bad news is a player could find himself in awkward gray areas during interviews. What’s a quarterback question and what isn’t a quarterback question? Can players talk about third-team quarterback Clint Chelf or emergency quarterback Jase Chilcoat?
I had some fun with the offensive lineman (who -- my opinion -- is a good guy) and asked him which player on a football team takes the snap from center. When he answered “quarterback,” I playfully turned him into sports information officials because he, of course, said the Q-word.
Silly? Yes. I’m ready for silly to go away. I’m ready for normalcy. Get well soon.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
