Gundy talks quarterbacks

Oklahoma State was one of the few schools to not send a quarterback to Big 12 Media Days ahead of the 2025 season. Head coach Mike Gundy had a good reason for that – none of the four quarterbacks have taken a live snap for the Cowboys.

And he didn’t name a starter after spring drills.

Naturally, the subject was one of the first to come up when reporters met with Gundy on Wednesday. Entering his 21st season at the helm for OSU, Gundy said it’s the new norm to a degree in college football today.

“I think with quarterback play, it ties into the new wave of college football,” Gundy said. “Most
coaches would agree that if you can keep two guys on your roster that have some sort
of experience that you feel like can compete in a game, that you’ll be fortunate.
I don’t know that anybody will be able to carry three now because of the availability of
quarterbacks to transfer. It’s the one position that there is reason for transferring,
obviously, you only play one in a game. A young man can get stuck behind a good
player and never get a chance to play.”

In the past, OSU and Gundy recruited quarterbacks with skillsets that would allow them to excel in the “Oklahoma State offense.” With the staff overhaul, the framework of that offense is changing. Gundy said it will be up to new offensive coordinator Doug Meacham to build his offense around what he sees as a given QB’s strengths.

“We have to build our offense around the availability we have at quarterback,” Gundy said. ”Different than in the past, we recruited a certain type of player. I’m guessing that you may be referring to a pocket passer ability to run or such. Wherever you find the quarterback who can be productive, provide leadership, and the team will rally around him to get the best chance to win, then Coach Meacham and his staff have to find a way to build the offense around that player.

“I don’t know that we’ll have the luxury to recruit a prototype quarterback to fit our system, more so than a quarterback who can play well enough and we’ll design the system around him.”

OSU will carry four quarterbacks on the roster

Gundy mentioned that the Cowboys just added a fourth quarterback to the roster yesterday, after exiting the spring portal window with just three. Stillwater High School product Mason Schubert debuted on the pre-season roster the school released ahead of media days. He will join fellow freshman Banks Bowen to round out the depth chart behind Zane Flores and Hauss Hejny. The latter two left spring practices in a battle for the starting job. While Hejny took a handful of snaps as a true freshman last season at TCU, the QB room effectively has zero experience in a college game. And that’s a bit scary for a head coach.

“We don’t have a quarterback that’s ever played a snap for us at Oklahoma State,” Gundy said. “We’ve got a little bit of familiarity with a couple guys coming through spring, but it’s one of the things in the future of college football that’s a little bit scary—you don’t have as many guys in that room as you’d want to. But I think Coach Meacham and our staff understand the importance of finding out who gives us the bestchance to win and building our offense around that system.”