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Six Observations From Saturday’s Spring Game

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Spring games aren’t always the best indicator of the progress being made as a football team. When you break up your teams and don’t have your 1’s running against the 2’s and it’s a mashup of what the team will really look like in the fall, it’s hard to get a good read on what a team may look like. Especially when both sides are running base concepts. But I did have some observations from the trip to Stillwater on Saturday that I think were worth sharing.

6. Jakeem Johnson is a sleeper choice at running back

Johnson, the redshirt junior from Coweta, Okla., looked very capable as a change of pace back on Saturday. He impressed me with his consistency and aggressiveness taking the handoff out of the backfield. But where he really stood out was his ability to catch the pass down the field, which could help him see more playing time as a versatile back.

5. Matt Amendola’s leg is ?

The freshman kicker from Philly showed off his big-time leg with 51-yard and 40-yard field goals. But where he really shined was on kickoff duties, booting it through the endzone and showing off exactly why he’s definitely going to get some play this year. Grogan is still the guy in field goal duties – he’s proven he’s a winner. But Amendola has the bigger leg of the two, so wouldn’t be surprised to see him taking over kickoff duties full time.

4. Neither Kolar or Cornelius are running away with the No. 2 job

For what it’s worth, even Mason Rudolph didn’t look fantastic on Saturday. Again, base offense against base defense turned into a defensive slugfest. But besides Cornelius’ first pass converting for a 75-yard touchdown, I wasn’t all that impressed with either of the potential backups. If I’m making bets between the two, however, I think Cornelius looked more impressive. There’s obviously no drama with who the No. 1 QB will be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the QB2 competition runs through fall camp. Especially with several promising youngsters coming into town.

3. Oklahoma State’s 2017 QB Commit is Huge

Oklahoma State earned a commitment at quarterback Friday night with the commitment of Jelani Woods from Ellenwood, Ga. The 6-foot-7 quarterback stands out in a crowd so I spotted him easily in the crowd of fans.

I’m 6-foot-nothing and I barely came up to the guys shoulders. 6-7, 230 with an entire year of high school left? This dude has some big upside.

2. Marcus Keyes looks very capable at left tackle

Keyes will probably end up at No. 2 behind Salako in the fall, but he proved to be a very capable offensive tackle. He’s strong, physical, and had a great day providing running lanes on the left side – where they found the majority of their success on the ground with Rennie Childs. I really like Keyes and I don’t think there’s any question he’ll see some play this fall.

1. The Keenen Brown experiment is very intriguing

Keenen got a lot of run at cowboy back Saturday and had a few targets come his way, too. I thought he looked really natural running routes and he’s a mismatch nightmare for defenses when he sneaks into the flat. I thought he had a pretty good game in run blocking too, although to be honest the teams are so mashed up it’s probably hard to tell just how far along he is in his transition. Regardless I really like his switch to tight end, and he’ll be an interesting player to follow heading into the summer and fall.

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