Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/mike-gundy-says-osu-might-even-play-both-qbs-moving-forward/
Is this legit or gamesmanship on Gundy’s part?
Who was dumb enough to ask if he had one he would pick to start, and did he really think Gundy would tip his hand?
If Shane is in the game it’s almost a given he won’t run. Obviously Spencer is a threat for the run or pass. Now if they play both at the same time there could be some trick plays involved…
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I’m 100% sure that a healthy Sanders is the primary QB. However, I’m all for getting both guys reps so that when Sanders goes down, again, we have experience at that position. Unfortunately. it’s likely Sanders gets hurt again given his playing style. Or, if Sanders starts throwing picks and putting the ball on the ground it is good to have an experienced option.
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Illingworth will take Sanders’ job at some point. Sanders might still be useful like JW Walsh was, but he is not a very good primary QB. It sounds like Gundy knows this and is trying to figure out the best way to make the switch without disrupting team chemistry.
Even if this isn’t true if Sanders doesn’t improve as a passer Illingworth will take his job.
There is no good way to run 2 QB’s without disrupting things in my opinion. Gundy has to know this could be a very special season, and one would think he wouldn’t disrupt it more than COVID and off-season things already have. I understood his reasoning behind using Walsh in the red-zone during the Rudolph era, but I absolutely hated it, and I do believe that behind the scenes it caused team chemistry issues.
I would say something but it’s all been covered 
Sanders is a better passer than Walsh was. There’s a reason we had Tyreek Hill playing RB. Walsh couldn’t throw the ball good enough to hit Hill on the run. It will be harder for Illingworth to usurp Sanders than it was for Rudolph to take over for Walsh.
Rudolph did not take over for Walsh, he took over for Daxx Garmin. To your point, Sanders has a stronger arm and throws a much prettier ball than JW ever did. However, Sanders reminds me a lot of Bobby Reid. He makes poor decisions and is not accurate. Most concerning, he made zero improvement over the course of his first 10 games.
Time will tell how easy it is for Illingworth to take over for Sanders. A lot of that has to do with how good Illingworth is, which I do not have a great sense of yet. To me, he could be anywhere from serviceable to our best QB ever. Time will tell.
The whole is a pretty pass thrown 3 yards from the receiver is not as good as an ugly pass caught. Didn’t put in fumbles. They said he is doing better. If he can hit open guys will help. He reminds me of reid because he can’t stay on the field.
Staying on the field for Sanders will take him having to stop being a RB and be the QB… he doesn’t need to try to stretch out a scramble. If he would he gives us the other dimension for the defense to deal with. Illingworth has a nice arm, but he runs like me
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I’m not buying the whole “the offense is significantly different under the two.” If Iowa state game plans for a second for Shane, they’re not very bright. We all know that the passing plays used with Shane in would be the exact same plays called with Sanders in, the only difference is that Sanders can run. So if I’m Iowa state, you gameplan 100% for sanders and 0% for Shane. Then you’re covering the passing plays and the run potential. If Shane ends up playing, congrats. You’re already prepared for the passing schemes without the worry of a mobile QB hurting you. I don’t get the “Iowa state will have to scheme for two completely different offenses” take. They don’t. They scheme for sanders and Shane’s offense would be the exact same thing with no QB runs. I highly doubt they have some different and overly-complicated blocking scheme or playbook for when Shane is in, especially considering that neither him or the line are very experienced.
90% of the season with Tyreek was played without Walsh. He was hurt. Tyreek did not play RB because Walsh can’t throw. He played RB because the other backs weren’t very good. Which showed immensely the next season when we had to use a 4th string walk on to get more than 3 ypc.
Shane did fine coming in unexpectedly against Tulsa in my opinion, so it wouldn’t be unfamiliar for him if he expected not to play and was thrown in again. I think they should start and play Sanders 100% of the time, unless he either gets reinjured or struggles to make plays. In that case, make the permanent switch to Shane. I agree, I hate the idea of carouselling the two throughout the game. Bad idea.
No one has said anything about shane knee brace. Is just protection from an old injury
Yeah, cause he looks like one of those QBs who didn’t play baseball or much at all cause he doesn’t know how to slide and thus could likely get injured again. RGIII is the perfect example, every time I saw that dude take off I had a feeling he was gonna get jacked. It probably shortened his career…as far as being a starter.
Personally I like having a dual threat QB, it keeps defenses much more honest and with our O-line issues a team w/ a good D is gonna give Illingworth a lot of problems!
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Walsh could throw fine, for what we did with him. He almost beat #1 FSU, hater!
Sanders is just a Sophomore, so we need to see more than one Freshman season. Illingworth looks solid, but hasn’t played anyone yet. Our D has been the main reason we have all W’s. Our O has looked lost at times. Big game Saturday for OSU to prove we belong in the top ten; for our D that they can keep it up vs. a very solid team; and for Sanders to demonstrate he’s the guy at QB.
Hater? Try reading the comments again bud. I was defending him.
Ok, well Walsh still wasn’t able to hit our other receivers in stride either. Why do you think we stopped throwing slants? He was ok at ten yards or less, but couldn’t throw deep and had poor arm strength. When he did pass beyond that it was very often under thrown because of this. Average to decent accuracy, but nothing that stands out as amazing. Strong suit was that he made good decisions though for the most part, as long as he wasn’t trying to force things too much. Basically, he wasn’t going to lose the game for you, but that was about it. Just saying, he was a decent qb, but he wasn’t any better than Sanders had been, and certainly didnt have his upside potential. Sanders isn’t nearly as bad as most are trying to make him to be, and Walsh certainly wasn’t as good as it isn’t colored hindsight makes him either. Sanders is the qb, and will be unless injured again.