Will Air Raid Offense Put OU Ground Game on the Back Burner?
By Chip Rouse
It’s finally here, 2015 season-opener week, and you can feel the excitement and anticipation building. One of the big questions on fans’ minds leading up to the season kickoff is: What will happen to the OU ground game, the big bazooka in the Sooners’ offense last season, with the installation of the new Air Raid offense?
With all the talk about a new up-tempo, quick-strike, throw-the-ball-all-over-the-place offensive attack that the Sooners are employing this season under new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, the fear among a number of fans is that OU will go away from its biggest strength from last season and long a staple in Bob Stoops’ successful teams of the past: running the football.
Well, that’s the way people who view things as glass-half-empty might see it, but for the rest of us, what it means is the Sooners’ are now looking to attack with a twin-barreled bazooka. They are going to spread teams out and attack the defense with quick-hitters, employing a number of different receivers, including weapons out of the backfield. And then when teams back off a little to extend their pass coverage, Riley’s offense will attack on the ground with bruiser Samaje Perine and/or the speedy Joe Mixon.
Nov 15, 2014; Lubbock, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners running back Samaje Perine (32) rushes against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the second half at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
It is going to be a difficult offense to defend, as we’ve seen from those schools who have rung up huge offensive numbers just on the passing end of the game plan. And that is exactly what Stoops and Riley are hoping for.
“I feel like it’s a good mix,” said Baker Mayfield, who last week was named the starting quarterback to begin the season, in an interview with the Oklahoma City Oklahoman newspaper. “We have running backs who can catch the ball, so we can kind of do everything with ’em. We have a good mix of run and pass.”
On Riley’s first day on the job, Mayfield said, everybody thought he was going to come in with his Air Raid and all we were going to do was throw the ball. As Mayfield and other quickly found out, that is not the case at all.
“No, he’s going to play to his personnel,” Mayfield said. “He’s smart like that. We have the personnel to run the ball. We’re not going to stray away doing what’s best.”
At practice last week, Riley said to reporters: “There’s going to be some games where we have to run it a lot, we get the opportunity to run it a lot and we’re going to. And there’s going to be some games where people load up on us that we’re going to have to throw the ball well, and I think our guys are confident that we’re going to get it done.”
The new OU offense will make its debut on Saturday night in the season opener at Gaylord Family-OU Memorial Stadium against the Akron Zips. By the time the second half rolls around, we should have a good idea of how this offense is going to operate this season.
But don’t expect Riley and the Sooners to show their entire playbook in the season opener. With a big game coming up next weekend at Tennessee, I’m sure they will hold some things back in order not to give away too much for the Volunteers to prepare for.