Where was the Corndog Gundy told us about? Berry Tramel
The first time Taylor Cornelius had to zip a pass Thursday night, he bounced the ball, woefully short, to Tylan Wallace on an out pattern. Maybe Corndog was nervous. Maybe the ball slipped. Maybe the Missouri State pass rush actually forced a quick throw.
But the nerves should have been long gone by the third quarter, when for some inexplicable reason, this game had not been completely decided. OSU’s lead was only 21 points, the Bears were starting to believe in themselves and the Cowboys needed to make a play. And on another out pattern, a throw that Cornelius again had to zip, the ball sailed well over the head of Dillon Stoner.
In between were a variety of missed throws from the successor to Mason Rudolph.
So despite some eventual gaudy Corndog numbers and a 58-17 rout of Missouri State, the Cowboys come away from their 2018 season opener with some questions about their new quarterback.
The upside to playing a FCS foe like Missouri
State is that you’re going to win. The downside is that you don’t learn that much.
No way could OSU get positive answers from playing the Bears. Only negative answers. And Cornelius wasn’t as quality as Mike Gundy hoped for from a fifthyear senior who he anointed the quarterback without waiting on August competition.
“Taylor was average at best,” Gundy said. “I just thought he missed too many throws. I counted six missed throws that he normally makes.”
Corndog’s numbers were good — completing 24 of 34 passes for 295 yards and five touchdowns. But those totals were padded by breakaway plays from the Cowboys’ corral of tailbacks and receivers.
The tailbacks, in particular, were spectacular, with cross-country plays by Justice Hill, L.D. Brown and Chuba Hubbard. And the receivers regularly broke free, as they should against Missouri State, and had no drops.
So Cornelius has a lot to work with. OSU just needs good quarterbacking to lead it.
“His mental part was good,” Gundy said of Cornelius. “He just missed some throws. One thing I was kind of ready for, first time to get out there. He’ll be fine. Everybody’s going to have to be patient with him.
“I knew he would have some jitters and fire the ball out there and miss some throws. Everybody’s going to have to be patient with him and work through it. Lot of times that happens with young players.”
Well, Corndog’s not young, but he is inexperienced. No reason not to be patient with Corndog. He showed some of the attributes that had Gundy so confident in the former walk-on. Particular Cornelius’ mobility. That was the best part of his game Thursday night, scrambling out of trouble and hitting some throws. That’s a nice new dimension for the Cowboys.
And getting too down on Cornelius means going against one of the commandments of the 2018 season — don’t expect too much from a guy that’s never played, after three-plus years of Rudolph. Quarterbacks don’t grow on trees. They sometimes fall out of trees, but they don’t grow on trees.
So this is not a declaration that Cornelius is not Rudolph. It’s a declaration that Cornelius was not the Cornelius we were led to believe. He wasn’t nearly as accurate as OSU needed him to be. On intermediate and deep throws, Corndog consistently misfired. Gundy told us that the Cowboys would remain a team that throws the ball downfield, but that’s only helpful if the Cowboys complete one every now and then.
To his credit, Cornelius was better in his abbreviated second half, leading the Cowboys to three touchdowns on his four possessions.
But there never was a play when you said, there it is, there’s the arm Gundy’s been talking about. Corndog was good moving his feet and Corndog was good on short throws. But when he had to zip it, this was a throwback to 2014, before Rudolph took over and made the Cowboys believe that elite quarterbacking was the standard in Stillwater. Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-7608080 or at btramel@ oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/ berrytramel.