Gleeson comfortable with Sanders' run usage
STILL WATER—In a virtually meaningless game in which Oklahoma State overpowered its opponent, F CS-level McNeese State, 56- 1 4 Saturday night at Boone Pickens Stadium, it was a little surprising to see freshman quarterback Spencer Sanders running the ball as often as he did.
Sanders rushed the ball 11 times — several of which were direct run calls or option plays — and was sacked once, totaling 12 attempts for 51 yards, all in the first half.
New offensive coordinator Sean Glees on showed in his time at Princeton that he wasn't afraid to run the quarterback early and often, and he wasn't too bothered by Sanders' usage on Saturday.
“It' s one of his best assets,” Gleeson said of Sanders' running ability .“We had a couple designed runs for him that I thought were gonna be a little bit cleaner than they were.
“Obviously, we don't want to run him into trouble and get him dinged up, but I'm pretty comfortable managing a guy who's a runner. It wasn' t the 20 carries that my kid had in the third week of the year at halftime, which I was a little nervous about. But we were over 10, and we were conscious of it.”
Sanders, whose competitive nature seems to draw him toward such plays and the contact that comes with them, had no issue with the situation.
“I'm gonna do whatever they want me to do,” he said. “If they want me to run 20 times, I'll run 20 times.”
Sanders almost didn't see Wallace's final touchdown
After a slow start to the first half, the Oklahoma State offense was determined to begin fast in the second.
So, after Sanders fired a short strike to receiver Tylan Wallace on the first play of the third quarter, the QB started thinking about the next play call.
“I looked back to the sideline for a play,” Sanders said. “I just see the whole crowd go crazy. I turn back around, and he's scoring. I was like, `All right, that's one in the books.'
“It's an honor to play with him and I look forward to more games.”
Sanders and Wallace connected five times for 180 yards and three touchdowns, with two of the scores including more than 60 yards after the catch by Wallace.
Double-Aussie action
Oklahoma State got the opportunity to send into action not one, but two Australian players on Saturday.
Freshman Tom Hutton, the team's regular punter, kicked four times for a 40.0-yard average.
Late in the game, backup kicker Alex Hale, a redshirt freshman walk-on from Point Fredrick, Australia, was used on two kickoffs, putting both into the end zone for a 65.0- yard average.