Oklahoma State won more than just its game against Texas on Saturday afternoon.
After taking down the Longhorns 49-31 in Stillwater, the Cowboys also won the race for 2018 quarterback Spencer Sanders’ commitment.
The dual-threat quarterback from Denton, Texas, has been target for numerous major programs. Though he has kept his recruitment close to the vest and been careful not to give too much away, Oklahoma State had been a favorite in his mind all along.
“I have been leaning towards them for a while now,” he said. “I hadn’t said anything, but they really showed me what I wanted to see and showed me that they wanted me as part of this team.”
Watching the game on Saturday gave Sanders an in-person opportunity to envision himself running the Cowboys’ offense. While current quarterback Mason Rudolph is more of a pure-passer than Sanders, his ability to run the ball both on designed plays and on the fly makes him a great fit as the engine of a high-powered offense.
“It was a great experience out here watching them beat a great Texas team,” he said. “But Oklahoma State is a great team too, and their offense really matches what we do at Ryan. It’s good to know that I’m walking into something that I am already familiar with; they do a lot of the same things and run a lot of the same concepts.”
Sanders already had a well-developed perspective on Oklahoma State - much of his mother’s side of the family went to school there. A self-described 'farm boy,' he didn’t know immediately if he’d be looking into any sort of agriculturally-oriented education, but said that he couldn’t be more comfortable with the campus environment.
“It’s gorgeous out here,” he said. “It’s kind of out in the country and I’d love to live out on a farm when I get older.”
Oklahoma State offered Sanders in early June and he chose the Cowboys over other programs like Colorado, Ole Miss, North Carolina, Penn State and Texas A&M.
Those schools couldn’t offer the same sort of vibe that he got from the Oklahoma State program and it sounds like he knew as much heading into this weekend’s visit. The win over the Longhorns was the perfect exclamation point to the whole experience.
“Coming into today I knew that I could’ve committed if I wanted to,” he said. “I just really like how they do things - the way Coach (Mike) Gundy does things - and it’s similar to what I want for myself in the future.
“I really think it’s a great school and the opportunity they have each year in the Big XII is a big part of that. I think it’s an underrated program they have great athletes that beat top teams but they stay humble, show out, play football and do great things and that’s what it’s all about.”
Sanders has already mastered the art of post-game quarterback rhetoric. That’s been what’s helped him escape giving away too much about his recruitment to this point. Now, with his commitment in the books, he’s already flipped the switch back to the more immediate task at hand, finishing his junior season the way that he’s started it at Ryan; undefeated.
“I’ll keep up with (Oklahoma State); follow-up with them and stay close,” he said. “But now I’ve just got to get back to focusing on the rest of my football season.”
