Oklahoma State football: belated post-spring thoughts

Apologize for the delay on one of these types of blogs, folks. I’ve been a little slammed with draft preview coverage.

We covered a ton of angles from the OSU spring finale in Sunday’s and Monday’s papers, but here are some additional random observations that I had from the game, and from the spring in general, that weren’t noted or explained thoroughly in previous stories.

Not shocked we didn’t get a starting quarterback announcement today. It sounds like it might come Thursday. If that’s the case, can I request it happen in the morning? Some of us are covering Justin Blackmon, and possibly Brandon Weeden, getting drafted Thursday night.

J.W. Walsh told me that he didn’t know the finale/game/whatever was going to be “live” (as in tackling) until Saturday morning. “We didn’t know what (the spring finale) was.” None of us did, really. I was under the impression that it was going to be another “thud” scrimmage. Granted, the quarterbacks didn’t get hit unless they took off running, and running plays were often blown dead early. But there was definitely more hitting than I expected.

Have a day, Charlie Moore. As I mentioned in my Monday Insider, I certainly did not expect him to explode for nine catches, 243 yards and three touchdowns. But I was not surprised to see him become a solid target and make some really athletic plays. One of the best plays of the entire spring was a connection between him and Lunt on a 40-50-yardish deep ball in a scrimmage about two weeks ago. Moore ran either a wheel route or a go route down the far sideline. Lunt slightly overthrew the ball, and Moore made a remarkable diving catch in the end zone. I’ve also seen him out-jump defenders on more than one occasion and use his size to snag the ball. I was surprised, however, at his speed on that first touchdown grab. He split the defense and outran a quick secondary on his way to the house. Spring stars don’t always become fall stars, and I still expect Tracy Moore and Josh Stewart to be the Cowboys’ go-to receivers in 2012. But “Chuck” definitely showed this spring that he can contribute.

The defensive linemen have been really good at tipping balls at the line of scrimmage. Part of that could be on the quarterbacks, but you’ve got to have solid awareness and athleticism to get a hand up.

Staying with the defensive line, I thought one overlooked player was Ryan Robinson. He had three tackles (two for loss) and one sack. He’s quick off the edge. Mike Gundy has praised Robinson throughout the spring, saying he’s in so much better shape now and has finally “gotten it” after transferring from junior college a year ago.