Oklahoma football: No team as offensive as OU in past 5 years

If you are what your record says you are, the Oklahoma football team is the fourth best in college football over the past five seasons.

Since 2015, or the year Lincoln Riley joined the Sooner coaching staff, Oklahoma’s cumulative record is 59-9, trailing only Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State in terms of games won and lost.

While the Sooners stand fourth in winning percentage among major college teams over the past five seasons, no one surpasses Oklahoma in offensive supremacy.

In 68 games since the start of the 2015 season — the same season that Baker Mayfield replaced Trevor Knight as the starting quarterback and Riley joined the staff as the new offensive coordinator — Oklahoma has recorded at least 500 yards of total offense 50 times, including in 40 of the last 52 games.

The Sooners have gone over the 600-yard mark in total offense 25 times in the last 68 games and exceeded 700 yards seven times. Oklahoma has been credited with 700 or more yards of offense a total of 13 times historically. Seven of those 700-yard games have occurred in the past five seasons, including a record 854 yards in a win over Texas Tech and Patrick Mahomes in 2016.

What makes the Oklahoma offense so prolific and difficult to defend is the balance between rushing production and passing. Eight times since the start of the 2018 season, a total of 29 games, the Sooners recorded at least 300 rushing yards and 300 passing yards. The next highest total nationally is three, and the high-powered offenses of Clemson and Ohio State have done it only twice in the past two seasons.

Since the start of the 2015 season, Oklahoma leads all FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams in six offensive categories and ranks in the top 10 nationally in nine. Riley, who calls the offensive plays for OU, and the Sooners rank No. 1 in scoring offense (44.6 per game), total offense (554.9 per game), touchdowns from scrimmage (382), passing efficiency rating (189.0), passing-TDs-to-interception ratio (5.3), and yards per pass attempt (10.7).

Over the past five campaigns, the Sooners rank second nationally in completion percentage (69.1), third in passing offense (321.9 yards per game) and ninth in rushing offense (233.0 yards per game).

Oklahoma got off to another terrific start offensively in the season opener this season, totaling 608 yards (484 passing and 124 rushing).

The Sooner offense also leads the country, scoring at least 28 points in 52 consecutive games. The next longest active streak is 31 consecutive games by Central Florida.

Just imagine how good Oklahoma would have been if the defense was even half as good as the offense the past five years. That’s another story. Call it a work in progress, and let’s leave it at that.