Oklahoma Football: Five Big 12 Players Who Will Strike Fear in Sooners in 2017
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma State Quarterback Mason Rudolph
Oklahoma State has won just two of the past 14 Bedlam football games with Oklahoma. One of those Cowboy wins, however, was two seasons ago in Norman with Mason Rudolph at quarterback.
As a freshman in 2015, Rudolph threw for 273 yards against the Sooners in leading the Cowboys to the second-largest fourth quarter come-from-behind victories in school history, a 38-35 win in overtime. His 273 passing yards were the second-most ever by an Oklahoma State quarterback against Oklahoma.
Rudolph will begin his third season in 2017 as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. He was second last season in the Big 12 in both passing yardage per game (314) and pass efficiency (158.9, behind Baker Mayfield’s record-setting 196.4), as well as total offense (319 yards per game).
Some experts believe Oklahoma State will have the best set of receivers in the Big 12 next season, and perhaps the Big 12’s best in senior wide receiver James Washington.
Rudolph threw 28 touchdown passes last season with just four interceptions, 10 of those TD tosses were to Washington.
Washington had just 50 receiving yards against the Sooners last season in Norman, but the year before in Stillwater, he caught seven passes for 168 yards and a touchdown.
Rudolph has enough experience and talent to carve up any team by himself, including the Sooners, but in combination with someone like Washington it is equivalent to what Mayfield and Westbrook were able to achieve for Oklahoma a year ago.
And with the home crowd adding an extra boost of adrenalin in a rivalry game against an opponent that has dominated the Cowboys in Bedlam football, it could spell a very long day for a Sooner defense that has had its share of criticism the past couple of years.
Kansas State Senior Quarterback Jesse Ertz
Kansas State has beaten Oklahoma in two of the past five seasons. Both of those Wildcat wins were at OU, but Kansas State seems to play its best under coach Bill Snyder when it is at home, which is where the Cats will be this season when they host the Sooners.
Ertz, who will be a senior in the coming season, has dual threat ability, which is a combination that OU defenses have traditionally had trouble against.
Ertz was one of only four quarterbacks in college football last season to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for at least 1,500. He finished the season with 1,012 yards on the ground (5.5 yards per carry), eighth best among Big 12 rushing leaders and the only quarterback in the top 10. He passed for an additional 1,755 yards in 2016.
He led all Big 12 quarterbacks in rushing touchdowns last season with 12 and ranked sixth nationally with an average of 77 rushing yards per game.
Ertz is probably more dangerous when he runs with the football, but he has a group of talented receivers to throw to when he puts the ball in the air.
Against TCU last season, Ertz ran for 159 yards and passed for 170 against the second best defense in the Big 12.
Ertz has the prototypical qualities that Bill Snyder likes in his quarterbacks. This dual-threat presence plays well in Snyder’s desire to slow down the game and play ball control, which the Wildcats do as well as anybody in the country.