STILLWATER — What in the name of Sam Bradford and Brandon Weeden is going on here?
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were among the last major college football teams to abandon their beloved triple-option offense, OSU giving it up fully in the mid ’70s and OU ditching it in the late ’80s.
But when the Cowboys and Sooners finally did, they were all-in with pocket-passing quarterbacks like Landry Jones, Weeden, Bradford, Jason White, Nate Hybl, Josh Fields and Josh Heupel. Throw the Gundy brothers in there, too, from the late ’80s and early ’90s, and you’ve got 76,027 career passing yards.
That’s more than 43 miles.
So then 2013 comes along, and it’s back to the Stone Age.
OSU’s J.W. Walsh and OU’s Trevor Knight each rushed for more than 100 yards last week in their season openers, Walsh for 125 and Knight for 103.
It’s the first time in 40 years the Bedlam brothers have each had a quarterback run for over 100 yards on the same day. The last time it happened, Oct. 27, 1973, Steve Davis cut up Kansas State for 119 yards and Brent Blackman slashed Nebraska for 141.
Those two wishbone wizards actually surpassed 100 yards three times each that season, and they all happened on the same days: Oct. 27, then previously on Sept. 29, when Blackman got 132 on Southern Illinois and Davis hung 102 on USC, and on Sept. 15, when Blackman gained 101 versus UT-Arlington and Davis had 110 versus Baylor.
Hard to believe it didn’t happen again for 40 years. But it’s even harder to believe it happened now, after both schools had made such a long-term commitment to precision and prolific passing.
OU’s patch job with Blake Bell’s Belldozer package notwithstanding, OSU’s Zac Robinson (2005-09) was the last quarterback we’ve had in these parts who could run a little. And Robinson could run a lot, and throw a lot. The guy set a school record with 10,175 yards total offense.
Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops said Monday he endured some frustrating moments and needed patience when the Sooners were installing the quarterback option.
“People think you just run it. It’s a time investment, and it’s a big time investment,” Stoops said. “You ask anyone who wants to run the option, you don’t just run it. It has to be drilled and drilled and drilled. There’s a huge time investment with certain plays.”
When Mike Gundy benched Clint Chelf after two series last week in Houston, he also benched more than a few pages in the playbook that call for the quarterback to throw. But, Gundy said, he isn’t necessarily changing the way he recruits quarterbacks just because there’s now a tendency to run it rather than throw it.
“We have to take who we think gives us the best chance to win and we have to build something around him,” Gundy said. “Because we can draw up Brandon Weeden’s offense and you can throw me out there and it’s not gonna look very good because I can’t throw the 25-yard sail route across the field and hit a guy right in the hands. And you could run some of the option that we ran with J.W. and I don’t think Weeden would look very good running it. We all know that.”
Stoops has always extolled the virtues of having his quarterback stationary. He’s been gun shy about his QB moving around too much ever since Jason White popped an ACL while scooting outside the pocket.
But even Stoops has come around. Knight is the starter, but both of his backups are fleet of foot. So is 2014 recruit Justice Hansen. This year marks the most radical change of offense in Norman since Kevin Wilson installed the no-huddle in 2008, or maybe even since Mike Leach installed the spread in 1999.
“First,” Stoops said, “you see the success a lot of other teams have had when you have that option.”
Indeed, mobile quarterbacks are suddenly all the rage — even in the once-staid NFL — and adding elements such as the shotgun read option puts stresses on defenses that they simply can’t account for.
Keep in mind, this isn’t the old days of the wishbone, where option QBs tossed footballs with all the precision of a 7-year-old on the state fair midway. These guys — Johnny Manziel, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, Marcus Mariota, etc. — can flat out sling it.
“It can change coverages,” Stoops said. “You can all of a sudden start pulling people out of the secondary to come up and stop it, and there are fewer people deep when you start throwing the football. It can change their structure. And again, it makes them more susceptible to play-action passes, and when you do run it, you’ve got an extra guy blocking when the quarterback’s running with the ball.”
All this is not to say that Walsh and Knight can’t throw. Knight’s passing will grow, and Walsh last season led the Big 12 Conference in passer efficiency. They’ll both become good passers this season and beyond.
And then Gundy and Stoops will have some real options.
“At the end of the day,” Stoops said, “it’s just a little bit different style.”
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