Tramel's ScissorTales: Will former Oklahoma State QB Shane Illingworth land Nevada job?
Shane Illingworth left OSU last winter for the opportunity of more playing time. With Spencer Sanders entrenched at least one more season, and perhaps two, as the Cowboy quarterback, Illingworth wanted to be on the field.
And Illingworth might get that at the University of Nevada. But he’s in a quarterback derby as the Wolf Pack go through August training camp.
The Nevada quarterback job is open, thanks to the departure of Carson Strong, a three-year starter and two-year star who now is in camp with the Philadelphia Eagles.
But Strong’s two-year backup, Nate Cox, is dueling Illingworth for the job.
“I'm just gonna keep working every day," Illingworth recently told Nevadasportsnet.com. “I just wanna show I'm a grinder, that I'm here for the team. I'm not a me guy. I want us to win. I want whatever's best for the team. If it's Nate, then it's Nate. If it's me, then it's me.
“I don't care. If Nate clearly beats me out of it, have it. What's fair is fair. If I clearly beat him out, let's run it. And I think Nate would do the same and support me. So I'm just here for the team. I want whatever's best for us, and I want us to win.”
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That’s the politically correct thing to say, but make no mistake. Illingworth wants to play.
Illingworth got to play some in Stillwater. As a 2020 freshman, Illingworth started the season as the third-team quarterback but took over in the season opener against Tulsa when Sanders suffered an early injury and backup Ethan Bullock was ineffective. Illingworth helped rally OSU to a 16-7 victory.
Illingworth also went 2-0 as the starter, quarterbacking the Cowboys past West Virginia 27-13 and Kansas 47-7.
A year ago, Illingworth started the season opener against Missouri State – Sanders missed the game due to COVID protocols – and completed 22 of 40 passes for 315 yards, one TD and one interception.
In those three games, Illingworth completed 73.5% of his passes for 483 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception. But Illingworth was overmatched when he replaced the injured Sanders in the 2020 Bedlam game, completing just five of 21 passes for 71 yards.
But Sanders returned and led OSU to a great season: 12-2, a Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame and the No. 9 national ranking.
Illingworth didn’t sign with Nevada until February, so he missed spring practice. That gave Cox a head start in the quarterback competition.
And when camp opened Wednesday, Cox ran the first-team offense.
Nevada is rebuilding under new head coach Ken Wilson. Former Wolf Pack coach Jay Norvell left for Colorado State. Wilson, hired away from the Oregon staff, has 19 years’ experience coaching at Nevada. Wilson hired Derek Sage as offensive coordinator; Sage is a long-time Chip Kelly protégé, having worked for Kelly at both New Hampshire and UCLA.
Nevada opens its season August 27 at New Mexico State.
“It's been a good adjustment," Illingworth said. “Quite frankly, the other guys got a leg up on me because they did spring ball, and I didn't get that advantage. It's a huge advantage to have spring ball to have those practices. You get to connect with the guys, especially with the new system that's going in. But I was working my tail off during the offseason and I was preparing for this moment, and when I got here, I was ready to work.”
Nevada might have the nation’s tallest quarterback tandem. Illingworth is 6-foot-6; Cox is 6-foot-9.
“My strength, I would say, is my competitive nature," Illingworth told nevadasportsnet.com. “I say that's a strength because you don't want a quarterback who is OK with losing. I hate losing. It's on my mind 24/7, and if I do something wrong like today, I probably had a couple of (missed assignments) out there, it's in my head until the next practice. So I absolutely hate losing, and I hold everybody accountable. I think that's pretty big from a quarterback. You've got to hold everyone accountable to do their jobs, and every day I'm gonna hold everybody accountable, and I want them to do their job. And I want them to hold me accountable. That's important, too, that I'm not above them and they hold me accountable."
Illingworth, from Norco, California, has four years eligibility remaining. The pandemic season of 2020 didn’t count against his clock, and Illingworth didn’t play enough for 2021 to count, either.
But if Illingworth is to be a four-year starter at Nevada, he’ll have to win the job in 2022.
Stability lifting Langston football
Langston football’s winning tradition has been established. Six straight winning seasons. A 41-10 record in Quinton Morgan’s five seasons as head coach. A constant threat to make the NAIA playoffs.
Stability matters. Coaching stability. Player stability.
“It helps a lot,” Morgan said. “We have a great foundation. It’s easy to continue to build off that foundation. The kids know what to expect, the system runs well.”
We begin our series of state-college football with the Lions, and Morgan says retention has been a Langston key, pointing to a graduation rate greater than 80 percent and a 2.99 team grade-point average.
“Our turnover is pretty good,” Morgan said. “We don’t lose a lot of kids.”
Langston returns senior quarterback Larry Harrington of Raleigh, North Carolina. Harrington quarterbacked three games last season, completing 35 of 66 passes for 725 yards, one interception and 10 touchdowns.
The Langston defense will be led by linebacker Devin Dourisseau, a preseason NAIA all-American. The Lions expect linebacker Kyhlan Moseley (sophomore from DeSoto, Texas) and defensive backs Isaiah Hall (sophomore from Cedar Hill, Texas) and Travis Martin (sophomore from New Orleans) to spearhead an experienced unit.
“Lot of our kids are back,” Morgan said. “We had a very young team last year. To make the strides we made last year, with predominantly freshmen on the field, was very good.”
Langston football 2022 schedule
Sept. 3: Panhandle State, 6 p.m.
Sept. 10: at Texas College, 2 p.m.
Sept. 17: Wayland Baptist, 2 p.m.
Sept. 24: at Arkansas Baptist, TBD
Oct. 1: Lyon College, 2 p.m.
Oct. 15: at Texas Wesleyan, 2 p.m.
Oct. 22: Ottawa-Arizona, TBD
Oct. 29: Louisiana Christian, 2 p.m.
Nov. 5: at Arizona Christian 8 p.m.
Nov. 12: at Southwestern Assemblies of God, 4 p.m.
More:How former OU football players Gabe Ikard & Dusty Dvoracek are hoping to do NIL differently
The List: Baseball playoff races
August has arrived, which means baseball playoff races can start heating up with the new playoff format.
A quick review: the new playoff format calls for three wild-card teams. The two division winners in each league with the best records get first-round byes, the remaining division is seeded third and plays a best-of-three series against the wild-card qualifier with the worst record. The other two wild cards also play a best-of-three series.
Most of the first-round byes seem set – Yankees and Astros in the American League, Dodgers in the National. And the Mets are up 7½ games on the Braves for the second NL bye.
Here are the best five other races to monitor:
1. AL Central: The Twins (53-48) lead the Guardians (52-49) by a game and the White Sox (51-50) by two games. A three-team divisional race is hard to beat.
2. AL wild card: The Blue Jays (57-45) have a 2½-game lead on the Mariners (55-48) for the best wild-card record. The Rays (54-48) are a half game behind Seattle. But the new format shows its value with all the teams still in the hunt – Guardians, White Sox, Orioles (51-51) and even the Red Sox (51-52), the latter just 3½ games out of tying for a playoff berth.
3. NL wild card: The Braves have a five-game lead on the Padres (57-46) for the league’s best wild-card record. The Phillies (55-47) are a 1½ games behind San Diego. Chasing a spot is St. Louis, then it’s a significant jump back to the Giants (51-51), four games out of tying for a berth.
4. NL East: The Metropolitans (64-37) lead the Braves (62-41) by three games, and the Phillies are 9½ back. So it looks like a two-team race.
5. NL Central: The Brewers (57-45) lead the Cardinals (54-48) by three games.
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Mailbag: Harvard as a football power?
The quickly-changing face of college football has people thinking of all kinds of scenarios. Include this wild one.
Leo: “Brave new college football world, Berry. Everyone is thinking in the terms of how the world used to be, the old, obsolete reality. What if because of the inconceivable money being offered, the universities with the deepest pockets get involved? Nobody has deeper pockets than Harvard. They could procure the best players, the best coaches, the best everything. And they won’t have to lower their admission standards. It won’t be long before there is no pretense of student-athletes employed by the university. And all this jawing about conference realignment is going to be gone, replaced by the allure of big-time money. Everybody is independent, making their own deal, sharing with no one. Some kind of round robin scheduling is no problem with the motivation of unbridled greed. The gloves are off. It is only a matter of time until it is every university for themselves. Times they are a changing.”
Tramel: Harvard (and I suppose Yale) with a return to big-time college football? Interesting.
Harvard, of course, was one of the early powers of the sport. The Crimson claims seven national championships from 1890 through 1919; the 1919 team won the Rose Bowl. Harvard had more than 80 first-team all-Americans from 1889-1928.
Harvard and Yale and Princeton gradually became less prominent as the decades went by, though Princeton’s Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy as recently as 1951. The Ivy League officially formed in 1956, and the Ivy dropped from Division I to Division I-AA in 1982.
Does Harvard have the resources to get into this game? Sure. Does Harvard have the will? Of course not. If I’m running Harvard, or I have anything to do with Harvard, I wouldn’t touch big-time college football with a 10-foot goal post. What could college football do for Harvard except make a mess?
Does Harvard need more branding? No. Does Harvard need more money? No. Does Harvard need to sustain a program that would be a runaway mine of train of expenses, in constant need of new revenue streams? No.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Former Oklahoma State QB Shane Illingworth fights for Nevada job
