Why I’m Alright with This Quarterback Battle Taking Time to Work Out
AUTHOR Marshall Scott / pistolsfiringblog.com
STILLWATER — When Mike Gundy hinted at the possibility of Zane Flores and Hauss Hejny both playing in the Cowboys’ season-opening game against UT-Martin, there was a sense of “here we go again,” among some in the OSU fan base.
It’s also important to note that while Gundy said it’s a possibility both guys play to start the year, he didn’t say that was for sure going to happen. It was still too early to tell when he met with the media.
You don’t have to go far back to the last time an Oklahoma State quarterback competition lingered into the season — and it wasn’t pretty. Going into the 2023 season, OSU rotated Garret Rangel, Alan Bowman and Gunnar Gundy at quarterback through the Pokes’ nonconference games. That ended with a 33-7 loss to South Alabama in Boone Pickens Stadium, whereafter Bowman was named the starter and the Cowboys miraculously battled to 10 wins.
The situation feels different in 2025, though, which is why I’m actually OK with this Flores-Hejny battle taking its time to get worked out. The main reason it feels different is that neither of these guys have really played college football.
Bowman had already thrown for 5,000 yards before he got to Stillwater. Although Rangel and Gundy were young, Rangel played in four games the year before and threw for 711 yards, and Gundy threw for 247 yards in 2022. There were some sort of data points as to which guy might be best for the job.
Neither Flores nor Hejny have a single passing yard in their careers. Flores hasn’t even taken a snap. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to see what both guys are like when the bullets are live before hitching your wagon to one.
“I think everybody would rather have one guy, right?” said Gundy at Big 12 Media Days. “It’s easier for that player to develop the leadership skills and things we talked about, but we can’t make that happen. That has to happen itself.
“I’ll give you an example. What if we try to make that happen, a certain person? That’s, to me, worse than not knowing. You’re better off not knowing and let them figure it out versus trying to make this happen and then it could be the wrong way. Because what happens is you lose credibility with the team. If you lose credibility with the team, in my opinion, you’ve got issues.”
It’s also different in that the expectations are a little different after a 3-9 season last fall. With two young guys battling for a spot on a team that has a lot of new faces, I think it’s better that OSU makes sure it gets the right guy for the future of the program rather than moving too quickly.
In a perfect world, whichever quarterback wins this battle will be the Cowboys’ quarterback for the next three or four years — putting an end to the quarterback carousel that’s been going on since Spencer Sanders’ 2022 injury and entry into the transfer portal. Get the right guy here, and the Cowboys could have some stability back behind center.
“The easiest thing to do would be to have a returning starter,” Gundy said recently. “Patrick Mahomes is coming back, he’s the guy, everybody knows he’s the guy. Two or three guys are working to be the second (string), third team and a practice squad guy. The years that Zac (Robinson) was here and (Brandon) Weeden was here, (Mason) Rudolph was here, Spencer (Sanders) was here. …
“The good news about where we are now is there are enough reps for two guys. When you have more than two, you cut into a guy who has the opportunity to get better, in my opinion. The difficult part of it is, you want to keep those two guys healthy.”
You wouldn’t want a battle to go too long — ala Clint Chelf and JW Walsh. If their eligibility hadn’t run out, they might still be splitting reps in Boone Pickens Stadium. But in the transfer portal era, I’m not sure there will be many of those years-long QB battles anywhere any more.
For some reason, I have a cautious optimism about both guys heading into the year despite not having seen either play. But given both guys are young, this feels a lot more like the start of a quarterback era — like the Rudolph or Sanders eras — than it does just another quarterback competition. Because of that, I’m cool with this battle taking as long as it needs.