Oklahoma football: OU’s ‘Air Raid’ belies real offensive weapon
By Chip Rouse
When a casual observer watches an Oklahoma football these days, his first observation is a Heisman quarterback candidate firing precision passes to playmakers all over the field.
After all, since Lincoln Riley arrived on the scene five seasons ago, it’s been a rebirth of the Air Raid offense in Norman, and this time on steroids…or so it would seem.
The Air Raid is nothing new at Oklahoma. Mike Leach installed that offensive scheme at OU as the offensive coordinator in Bob Stoops‘ first season as head coach in 1999. The following season, the Sooners won a national championship with Josh Heupel as quarterback.
Prior to that time, and particularly during the time Oklahoma ran the Wishbone offense, the Sooners were recognized as a team that preferred to run the ball and beat you with speed and brute strength. Under Barry Switzer, the forward pass was a foreign concept.
In the three seasons (1996-98) before Stoops took over as the Oklahoma head coach, arguably the worst three-year stretch in the history of the program, the Sooners ran the ball twice as many times as they put the ball in the air. Part of that was because of the limited skill level at the quarterback position, but most of it was because of OU’s tradition as a run-oriented offense.
The turn of the century brought with it a change in offensive thinking and formations. Teams began going more to spread formations and splitting multiple receivers out wide in order to spread the field and make defenses cover more real estate, but also making them more vulnerable against the run.
With Leach as offensive coordinator, Oklahoma was an early adopter among Big 12 teams, and the results were noticeable in year one of the Stoops era and paid off big time in year two.
The Sooners began incorporating the forward pass more into the offensive game plan when Stoops took the coaching reins, but they never abandoned the run game. In the 2000 national championship season, Oklahoma averaged 37 passing plays per game and 34 rushing attempts.
While it may have seemed that the Sooners were going to the air more times than not during the Stoops years, which featured three quarterbacks who won the Heisman Trophy and another as Heisman runner-up, only five times in Stoops’ 18 seasons did Oklahoma average more passes per game than rushing attempts, and four of those occurred in consecutive years (2009 through 2012).
The Air Raid is a key to Oklahoma football’s strength running the football
Last season, Lincoln Riley’s third as the Oklahoma head coach, the Sooners averaged 40 running plays per game to just 27 passes, and when you have the talented stable of running backs that OU has been blessed with for most of the past decade it is easy to understand why they like to run the ball.
The truth is, while many college teams want to establish the run in order to create more passing opportunities, the Sooners like to spread the field to throw the football as a means of setting up its run game, and it has worked splendidly the last five seasons, even while operating out of an Air Raid offensive system.
Oklahoma has led the Big 12 in each of the last three seasons, averaging over 200 rushing yards per game. Over that same time frame the Sooners ranked in the top 20 nationally in passing offense, which was a major driver of their effectiveness running the football.
It is fair to say that Oklahoma’s ability to complement its aerial game with a strong running attack, and vice versa, is the key to the Sooners’ finishing each of the last three season among the top three teams nationally in total offense. A period of time that coincides perfectly with Riley three seasons as the Oklahoma head coach.
This season undoubtedly will be Riley’s biggest challenge in the run game, and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Sooners began the 2020 season without their top four rushing leaders from a year ago. Graduation, a player who opted out this season, a transfer and a suspension, left just two running backs who saw any action in the 2019 season, and one of those two, junior T.J. Pledger, was not available for the game with Missouri State.
Senior Rhamondre Stevenson totaled 515 rushing yards last season, but is out for at least three more games serving a suspension for an NCAA drug violation. That leaves Pledger, redshirt freshman Marcus Major and true freshman Seth McGowan to carry the load in the early part of this 10-game season.
Despite the serious depletion of running backs on the depth chart, Riley remains confident that the players he has available can get the job done.
In the season-opening win over Missouri State, McGowan led the Oklahoma running attack with 64 yards on the ground on nine carries, including a touchdown. He also was utilized in the passing game, something the Sooners like to do with their running backs, a 37-yard catch and run for a touchdown.
Oklahoma ran the ball a total of 35 times against Missouri State for 149 yards. That was only the seventh time in the Sooners’ last 29 games that they have produced under 200 yards rushing in a game. The offensive balance was about as good as it gets in the Missouri State game. In addition to the 35 run plays, three OU quarterbacks attempted 36 passes in the game, completing 30.
COVID has cast a cloud of uncertainty on this college football season, but there is nothing uncertain about Oklahoma’s desire and need to run the football.
How well the Sooners are able to advance the football with their legs this season will determine how far Oklahoma will go in its quest for a sixth consecutive Big 12 crown and a potential spot in the College Football Playoff for a fourth straight year.
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