From OSU: Cowboys Add Transfers
Wednesday brought the beginning of the early signing period for football transfers.
For OSU, it brought two initial signatures, with another possibly on the way.
Here’s the release from OSU:
Oklahoma State Football Adds Two Transfers
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy has announced the signing of two student-athletes to National Letters of Intent.
Joining the OSU program are Jones County (Miss.) Community College defensive end Ryan Robinson and Navarro Community College offensive lineman Michael Bowie. Both of the newcomers will begin class at Oklahoma State in January and participate in spring drills.
“Both Ryan and Michael are quality people and they are excited about being part of the Oklahoma State football program,” Gundy said. “We are excited about them as well and we expect both of them to improve our team on the field next season.”
Robinson and Bowie both originally signed with OSU in February of 2009.
Bowie is a local product. He attended Charles Page High School in Sand Springs. He was one of seven signees from the state of Oklahoma in 2009. He was an all-district, all-metro and all-state selection as a prepster and was listed as the nation’s 30th best offensive tackle by Rivals.com as a senior. He allowed just two sacks over his final two years of high school. During his senior season, the Sandites averaged 433 yards of total offense.
He was a high school teammate of current Cowboy quarterback Johnny Deaton.
At Navarro, Bowie played on a national championship team that just completed an 11-1 season. He is rated as the 32nd best junior college player in the country, regardless of position.
Robinson is from Buford, Ga. He attended Mill Creek High School and was an all-region and all-county selection in Georgia’s largest classification. His senior season statistics included 85 tackles, including 14 behind the line of scrimmage.
At Jones County, Robinson was 10th in the country with 10.5 quarterback sacks as a freshman. He was an all-region selection as a sophomore with 64 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and eight sacks in nine games. He was named the most valuable defensive lineman in the MACJC South Division.
Weeden Rise Not Automatic
The Cowboys now know what they have in Brandon Weeden. And it's good, very good.
By John Helsley
jhelsley@opubco.com
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Brandon Weeden’s rapid ascent among the nation’s top quarterbacks has been just that — rapid.
And uncertain.
Even among Cowboys coaches, Weeden’s rise to this level of play, which frankly doesn’t get much better, was hardly a given.
Remember last year’s Colorado game, when Alex Cate, not Weeden, got the call to start when Zac Robinson was injured?
Remember the Oklahoma game and the Cotton Bowl, when it was apparent Robinson wasn’t right, how Weeden never got a shot, even though he was superb in leading a second-half rally past Colorado?
OSU coaches didn’t turn to Weeden because they just weren’t sure what they had in Weeden.
“He did zero to ever make us think he could perform well the last two years,” Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said this week. “We tried to give him the (backup) job for the last 2 1/2 years. He just never took it.”
Gundy said the uncertainty attached to Weeden from the moment he arrived as a walk-on trying a new career following a stint in pro baseball.
“We knew we had a big, strong athlete who had some ability,” Gundy said. “You don’t go in the second round of the Major League draft if you don’t have some skill. But we didn’t know whether he would pan out. Playing minor league ball is one thing, being involved in a major college football program, where you have discipline all year round and offseason workouts and all the things you go through just to be a player, is another. Sometimes, those guys don’t make it.
“But he hung around and worked through it and was there. He’s matured a little bit and gotten better. And he’s playing in an offensive system that fits his style and fits his ability.”
During Weeden’s early years, when he admits his attention to detail suffered as he waited for Robinson’s time with the Cowboys to expire, there was some doubt if he’d ever fully engage.
“He was kind of like a cat that’s a stray,” Gundy said. “You put some milk out and he just keeps coming back every day. Well, he just kept coming back every day. He didn’t look very good at practice and he wasn’t into it very much mentally.
“We’d jump on him and he’d just turn around and walk off. And later that day, he’d go hit some drivers at the driving range. And he’d come back the next day.
“That was just his temperament; that’s what his body language was. But he was never in a situation where we felt like he wasn’t going to make it. He was always at offseason workouts. He lifted hard. He performed and ran. We tried to make things tough on him, but he wouldn’t leave. But he never really did anything to make us think he was going to be any good.”
Heading into spring, Weeden figureed to battle freshmen Clint Chelf, Johnny Deaton and Nate Sorenson for the starting job. But the battle never materialized, as Weeden thrived in the opportunity to finally be “the guy.”
“I knew I had a big guy who had a strong arm and could throw really well and throws a nice spiral and accurate. That’s all I knew,” Gundy said about pre-spring perception of Weeden. “I didn’t know anything about him as a competitor, I didn’t know anything his toughness, his leadership skills. We didn’t have any answers in that area.”
Now they do. And the answers, and Weeden’s play, are off the chart.
Self-Containing Weeden
By John Helsley
The Cowboys need Brandon Weeden to avoid all danger.
follow me on twitter @jjhelsley
Brandon Weeden, the former top draft pick of the New York Yankees now quarterbacking the Cowboys, is a solid athlete.
Let’s get that established, as if it was necessary.
Is he Vince Young or Terrelle Pryor or even Zac Robinson? Not in terms of running the football, although that should never be an absolute requirement when discussing athleticism, but that’s a debate for another time.
But Weeden can run a bit, enough to escape pressure and buy himself time in the pocket or even scramble a few yards for a first down. In his big half against Colorado last year, he made a big-time throw on the run, rolling right and firing 28 yards to Justin Blackmon for the game-winning touchdown.
These things he can do.
It’s just not a good idea.
Any vision the Cowboys have of another strong season, a bowl season, demands Weeden stay healthy. It’s imperative.
And that’s just not me talking. Asked how he felt about his backup quarterbacks, offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen said:
“Not very good right now.”
That’s not necessarily a dig on Johnny Deaton and Clint Chelf, they’re just pups. And in getting Weeden up to speed in the offense, Holgorsen hasn’t had the luxury of getting those guys reps, too, in practice.
“ They’re young. They’re both freshmen,” Holgorsen said. “Those guys have ability, the more reps we get them the better off they’ll be. Right now, we’re not able to do that.”
So Weeden need be careful, which isn’t always easy for a quarterback instinctively trying to make plays.
It may not even be ideal for this offense. Last year at Houston, Holgorsen had a quarterback in Case Keenum who carried the ball 60 times. While that total included sacks, Keenum was also adept at scrambling and creating, something Weeden just can’t afford to do.
No one at OSU is talking about any sort of protection plan for Weeden. Will they shackle him? Put him under strict orders not to scramble? Or to at least slide, something Robinson never was very good at at OSU?
Weeden is capable of making plays with his legs. There are things he can do.
It’s just not a good idea.
Walsh Wings It In Opener
By John Helsley
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As Brandon Weeden prepares, he hopes – and so do Cowboys fans everywhere – to pick up where he left off in the second half of last year’s Colorado game, there’s talk of OSU’s great quarterback depth and a flourishing future.
Johnny Deaton, Clint Chelf and Nate Sorenson.
And, oh yes, J.W. Walsh.
One of OSU’s top recruits for 2011, Walsh plans to arrive in Stillwater in January to begin his Cowboys career.
Until then, however, he’s got business to tend to, taking aim at a Texas state championship.
And so far, his aim is sharp.
Walsh and his Denton Guyer teammates opened their season Friday night with a 45-7 rout of Waxahachie. And Walsh was superb, throwing for a career-best 340 yards with four touchdowns. He connected on 15 of 20 passes and his TDs covered 59, 39, 38 and 10 yards.
Walsh made it look easy against a traditional power.
“Coming into it, we didn’t expect it to be like this at all,” Walsh told the Dallas Morning News. “We thought we’d get a good test, and that wasn’t the case. We came out and from the very beginning, and we were hitting on all cylinders.”
Walsh’s Wildcats rolled up 566 yards of offense and he found eight different receivers for completions.
“That’s exactly what I envisioned,” Walsh said. “We threw to all of them. When you can complete balls to all those guys, it makes the defense throw fits because they can’t stick on one main guy.”
