OK State's QB Situation

[StructuralPoke]

Thought some might be interested in this...

9/11/05
Reid takes over at quarterback

By Mike Baldwin
The Oklahoman

STILLWATER - Donovan Woods is out, Bobby Reid is in.

The startling revelation from Oklahoma State’s practice Saturday: Reid took over at quarterback; Woods was moved to strong safety.

Reid and Woods have competed for the starting job since last spring. Woods, who started all 12 games last season and led the Cowboys to the Alamo Bowl, started the first two games, while Reid played significant snaps at quarterback and a few at wide receiver.

But Reid played the entire fourth quarter in Thursday’s 23-3 win over Florida Atlantic. Now he’s the starter, a move speculated on for months.

According to sources, Woods was given the option of moving to wide receiver or safety and chose defense.

Reid supplied OSU’s longest run (24 yards), longest pass (20) and was the quarterback for 197 of OSU’s 292 yards in the Thursday win. Cowboys offensive coordinator Larry Fedora admitted Saturday that Reid had moved into the No. 1 role, yet didn’t go so far as to say Woods was finished at the position.


“After looking at the film Bobby is ready to get a few more reps, so we’re going to make him the starter,” said OSU offensive coordinator Larry Fedora. “He’s getting better and better each week. As he gets more reps he gets better each day. We’ll see how it goes.”

Woods received three-fourths of the snaps in OSU’s 15-10 season opening win over Montana State. Both quarterbacks played six series against Florida Atlantic.

In OSU’s first two games, Reid has rushed for 130 yards on 15 carries, an 8.7 average. Reid is 5-of-12 passing for 69 yards but those totals are misleading since OSU receivers dropped three passes against FAU.

Some analysts have compared Reid’s running style to Texas quarterback Vince Young. One of the nation’s top recruits two years ago, Reid has a strong, accurate arm but was inconsistent during two-a-days. In OSU’s first two games, Reid hasn’t had many passing opportunities.

“He’s made a lot of progress from where we were with him in the spring,” Fedora said. “He’s running the offense. He has control. He knows what’s going on. Things aren’t going 100 miles an hour for him. He’s not forgetting calls, forgetting signals. That’s all part of the process.”

Woods, a highly competitive team leader who is widely respected by teammates, established several OSU freshmen passing records last season. This season Woods has rushed for 63 yards on 12 carries and has completed 17 of 32 passes for 163 yards.

One of the most heralded recruits in OSU history, Reid participated in the prestigious Elite Eleven camp following his junior year of high school, then led Houston North Shore to an undefeated season and the Texas state championship his senior year.

After he graduated in December, weeks after the state title game, Reid participated in OSU’s spring drills in 2004. Reid competed with Woods for the vacancy created when Josh Fields left a year early to pursue a professional baseball career.

The competition was close that first spring but ended when Reid underwent shoulder surgery during the summer, an injury that went undetected in high school. Reid redshirted. Woods led OSU to a 7-5 finish. Now Reid is finally shaking off rust from going more than 20 months without appearing in a game.

“I felt I got more into a rhythm,” Reid said after Thursday’s game. “I was out there a lot longer. Now I’ve just got to go out there and let everything go.”

Fedora’s goal is for the offense to show improvement. The Cowboys compiled only 292 total yards against Florida Atlantic, in its first season of Division I-A football. Against two inferior opponents, the Cowboys are converting only 25.9 percent of third down opportunities (7-of-27).

“We’re making too many mistakes in a lot of areas, not just one guy,” Fedora said. “It’s a different guy here and a different guy there that’s keeping us from doing what we really want to do.”

Staff writer John Helsley contributed to this story.

[CoolaidWade]

Wow.... That's a big move. I'm glad they didn't bench Woods.

[StructuralPoke]

I agree -- Woods is too good of an athlete to bench. Supposedly he played safety in high school, so it's not a complete start-over for him. I don't necessarily disagree with this move, it just really surprises me...

[Loftin]

Yeah, if you have two great QBs, and one of them can play another position, then it's better to find a way to use both guys. I'm assuming that Woods is taking the place where Vernon Grant would have played(if he were still alive), which is nice that Oklahoma State is able to fill that position with a good athlete.

[texag005]

Dang i didn't know osu only beat montana state 15-10. Sorry that's off topic but it just struck me as odd. Anyways, yeah hopefully for our sake since we have to play ya'll every year he won't be too good, but sounds like he's gonna be a keeper.

[Texas Aggie 07]

I think the position switch should be a good one. It's good that he will still be on the field.

[StructuralPoke]

Yeah -- the 15-10 win was a bit tough. But I took it as a 'W' with completely new schemes on offense. Gundy said go for it on 4th and short on their 5 or so, called a pass (???) and we didn't complete. The defense pitched a shutout in the second half and they are really adapting well to the new schemes from the horrid 4-2-5. I took the first game with a grain of salt. The qb's rotated out often keeping them from getting into a rythm, but neither completed many passes (the only stat I remember offhand is Reid was 1 or 2 passing). The Fla Atlantic game (20-3) should have been higher scoring and could have been. But while watching on TV it was obvious that their D and O lines were getting really tired half way through the 3rd. We just pounded the ball home for most of the second half letting the clock run. I feel we should have taken Tech's approach to this game and just finished strong and scored as many as possible. Instead, they did the 'gamesman' thing and backed off. Our guys really could have used the experience. I feel they backed off because we host them for the next two years and didn't want to give them a fire in their bellies for next year.

It'll be nice to have him on the field in some capacity, but after seeing the first play of the year (Woods pass to Reid for ~+14 yards) made me really excited for them to be on the field at the same time.

[Texas Aggie 07]

ya'll could run a two QB set. In high school we did that for a couple games. We had two QBs that were good runners so the ball would get snapped to one of them and they would either hand off and go down the field, or fake the handoff and the other one go down

[polish]

I thought this would happen but i thought it would take a few more games. What surprised me was woods to ss.

[Texas Aggie 07]

I'm a bit suprised about the move to ss, I would have thought they might have moved him to WR to make use of his passing and running for fakes, but I guess SS was more of a need

[StructuralPoke]

someone over at www.orangepower.com had a pretty good take on the situation. While he is a team player, he put a lot of time and effort into being the #1 QB and now that he's lost the position to someone else, might not like taking orders (plays) from him.

While I don't think that's completely true, it is a good explanation.

Donovan Woods, sophomore safety

On changing positions
“I haven’t been there long, so I’m just excited to get out there and learn what’s going on and make some plays.”

On the media circus surrounding the QB race since the spring
“It’s been a whirlwind, but it’s in God’s hands. Everything in the spring through the first two games have all been in the plan. I just thank God for the opportunity and for giving me another opportunity to continue my career.”

On possibly laying a hit on brother D’Juan at practice
“I think we’ve hit each other enough that we’re to the point where we don’t have to do that anymore, but hopefully we’ll come across each other once and say some words then laugh about it later on down the line.”

On the chance to go into conference play undefeated
“We’re trying to win all of our games. If it’s non-conference or conference, we want to win it. If we’re playing against Arkansas State in thumps, we want to beat them. We just have to come out and continue to play well, get better in some areas and continue to put “Ws” in the win column.”

On if he’ll play offense in the future
“It all depends on the coaches. However they want to handle it, I’m sure they’d discuss it with me, and then we’d come up with something.”

[Dustin00whoop]

Wow. That just doesn't sound good for team chemistry. I guess all you Pokes are hoping that Gundy knows what he is doing. It sounds to me like he just split that team right down the middle.

[Slotback]

Sounds like a gamble to me. But is it a good gamble for OSU?

[Texas Aggie 07]

we'll see

[phatbc]

ya'll could run a two QB set

I think that would be pretty cool. You have a lot of options there.

[StructuralPoke]

they were running the 2 QB sets for the first 2 games. Mostly the 2nd QB was lined up as a receivre though. Was nice to see, but the formations and plays didn't seem too imaginative. I don't think it was a long-term solution to Fedora (O-Coord.) or Gundy.

Woods was the one who called Reid to tell him he got the job. I don't think this is dividing the team. The fans, YES, team, no. It is a gamble though. Reid hadn't played for something like 20 months after getting hurt and redshirting last year. We knew what we were getting with Woods, with Reid, we know what the Potential should be...

[Texas Aggie 07]

hopefully this turns out good for ya'll for every game except the one against us