Gundy on Sanders Bouncing Back After Texas Tech

Mike Gundy addressed quarterback Spencer Sanders bouncing back after Texas Tech loss

STILLWATER -- This past Saturday against Texas Tech, Spencer Sanders had probably the worst game of his football career. He finished with five turnovers, three interceptions and two fumbles in the 45-35 loss. The performance led Sanders to say after the game that he was never losing again.

While that's a rather bold statement to make, I love the leadership and commitment Sanders has shown through the first six games of the season.

Because the Pokes have an open week this week ahead of the Homecoming matchup against Baylor, the media only got to speak with head coach Mike Gundy. There was plenty talked about during yesterday's availability, but something that was hit on towards the end was Spencer Sanders and how the coaches addressed the turnover issues how he's bouncing back from the loss.

"You just tell him the truth," coach Gundy said. "This is where it is, this is what happened and this is where you fix the issue. This is the plan we have in place and we're going to start it right now. Hopefully we will improve considerably and faster than normal. It takes time to clean things up. We always just tell him the truth and where it is at. We need you to do these things to improve each week, and this guy needs to do these things to improve this week and put a plan in place. I always use the term "things don't fix themselves". So we have a plan for improvement in all those areas and he'll buy in. Sanders is a very prideful, emotional young man. He wants to do good every single play and what he has to learn is that quarterback is not that way. He needs to watch [other quarterbacks] and see how it happens and say 'You know what? I'm going to get better. But I can't make a play every single game, it's just not the way the game is played.' He'll learn that, it just takes experience."

But for coach Gundy, the biggest issue isn't trying to bounce back from the loss, it's trying to overcome the issues that led to the loss in the first place.

"He needs to take care of the football in the pocket, that will solve half of his problems," coach Gundy said. "We're going to coach that and drill that. We have a plan in place to correct that mistake. Essentially, you don't give yourself a chance at all when you turn the ball over in the pocket. Those mechanics need to be improved and we have a plan in place for that as well. Can we do that in two weeks? I don't know, but I feel like a month from now, it will be a lot better. That';; be a big help in that area. If you look at what happened, one ball got tipped and then intercepted. The other one got hit when he threw it. Now, I'm not trying to justify anything he did or we did offensively, but my job is to look at everything from a reasonable bipartisan point of view and make good decision on it. Whether it's true or not, I don't know, it is what I do. So, he needs to learn to take care of the ball in pocket and the rest of it will get better through experience."

Is it reasonable to expect Sanders to get better moving forward? Absolutely. I know it was just high school, but look at how he played throughout his career at Denton Ryan, and look at how he's played for a majority of this season.

Every great quarterback at Oklahoma State's had games like that.

Brandon Weeden threw three interceptions against Oklahoma in 2010, but he destroyed them the next season 44-10 to clinch the Big 12 title. Mason Rudolph threw three against West Virginia in 2015 and went on to break just about every Oklahoma State quarterback record.

We'll know firsthand next Saturday, as the Pokes face Baylor for Homecoming, about whether or not Spencer will bounce back from his performance against Tech. As for me, my money's on yes.