Obviously we all know how important Mason Rudolph is to the 2016 Oklahoma State football season. He is the bedrock upon which this offense and this team is built. That’s a good thing for innumerable reasons, not the least of which Mike Gundy outlined recently when talking about QB1.

“Mason is doing well,” Gundy told the Tulsa World. “He had a great summer. I was telling a couple of our coaches that his arm strength has improved more during his career than any quarterback I’ve ever seen. He’s spinning the ball really well and we are excited about the leadership he has provided.”

Whoa. More than any quarterback I’ve ever seen.

“I think it is just an increase of overall fundamentals,” added Mike Yurcich this week. “The mental side of it, the physical side of it, he’s done a nice job of getting work done from film study to just fundamental work, individual instruction, understanding schemes, understanding defenses, just the whole picture. I don’t think he’s been focused on this or that, he’s done a nice job of improving himself overall.”

I personally think Zac Robinson deserves all the credit here.

Yurcich went on to say that there’s a trust factor back there with Rudolph that is seemingly the same as a Robinson or even a Brandon Weeden. With good reason too.

“It’s good to have a quarterback as talented as Mason, and anytime you have a good quarterback — I hate using the word comfort because if you feel comfortable, you better look out cause you’re going to get beat — but I think as an offense, I think, with Rudolph, they’re a lot more confident with having him at the helm. There’s a lot of belief in him, players have a trust factor and they’re a tight bunch.”

None of this is all that surprising, I suppose, but it’s nice to see Rudolph trending into those Weeden waters. We’ve been talking for a few months now about how he could be a first round pick in 2017 which would obviously be bad for OSU, but with the way Gundy is talking about his arm and Yurcich is talking about his mental acuity, it really seems like something that could happen.