Oklahoma Football: Jeff Lebby’s offense could end the Big 12 slowdown

In 2010, the Oklahoma Sooners ran a mean of 86.5 offensive performs per sport. Their uptempo, no-huddle sensibilities match completely in the Big 12, which was creating a well-deserved repute for offensive innovation. At the time, different convention mates like Oklahoma State and Texas Tech routinely ran 80 or extra performs in video games that always produced closing scores in the vary of 80-90 complete factors.

Fast ahead 12 years, nonetheless, and Big 12 groups have embraced a plodding model of throwback soccer. OU is a chief instance: The Sooners most popular to take their time on offense below Lincoln Riley’s watch. By 2021, OU was averaging simply 65.5 snaps per sport.

- Advertisement -

- Advertisement -

The chart above illustrates how the slowdown performed out for Big 12 groups over time. It tracks the median of the Adjusted Pace rank of convention members for yearly from 2015 to 2021. Adjusted Pace is a sophisticated statistic maintained by ESPN’s Bill Connelly that represents the distinction between a workforce’s precise time of possession per play and what could be anticipated based mostly on its run-pass fee.

Since this knowledge set consists of rankings, increased numbers suggest slower Adjusted Pace. The change in the Big 12 between 2015 and 2021 was outstanding, as the median workforce rating rose from 22.5 to 93.5 throughout the interval.

As talked about beforehand, offensive performs per sport tells the same story:

This charts depicts the yearly median of Big 12 groups’ offensive performs per sport from 2015 to 2021. It reveals a transparent development down over time, which additionally implies members of the convention slowed down on offense in that seven-year interval.

Interestingly, each Adjusted Pace and performs per sport point out offensive tempo received noticeably slower in the Big 12 from 2020 to 2021.

Why did Big 12 offenses take their ft off the gasoline? You could give you a lot of explanations. OSU coach Mike Gundy raised a compelling point at convention media days with respect to quarterback play: “If your quarterback isn’t playing good, playing fast is not a good thing.” Assuming he’s proper, maybe QB play fell off throughout the league from 2015 to 2021. (That could clarify the stark drop-off final yr, particularly.)

Then there are the schemers truly designing these offenses. More groups look like eschewing unfold personnel groupings for base units with tight ends and H-backs to suit ground-oriented methods. Meanwhile, uptempo gurus equivalent to Art Briles, Kliff Kingsbury and Dana Holgorsen steadily disappeared from the scene, changed by coaches who most popular to play at a extra deliberate tempo. For instance, West Virgina went from routinely rating in the prime 25 in Adjusted Pace below Holgorsen to a workforce that has ranked 93rd, 68th and 102nd below Neal Brown.

OU can be zigging into the zag this yr following Riley’s departure for USC. New offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby likes to burn rubber, as followers witnessed throughout the spring sport in April. In his three seasons as an offensive coordinator at Central Florida in 2019 and Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021, the groups ranked first, third and third nationally in Adjusted Pace. Meanwhile, they averaged 78.2, 79.7 and 78.2 offensive snaps per sport. Those numbers would have ranked first in the Big 12 in every of the final three seasons.

Keep a watch out for different Big 12 groups to rediscover uptempo offenses this yr, too. The Sooners aren’t the solely ones altering teaching staffs in 2022. New Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire poached 30-year-old offensive coordinator Zach Kittley away from Western Kentucky in the offseason, and the Hilltoppers ranked twenty second nationally in Adjusted Pace a yr in the past. New TCU coach Sonny Dykes fielded a squad at SMU that ranked seventeenth total in Adjusted Pace in ‘21.

Is this an excellent factor for the Sooners? If you subscribe to the concept that uptempo offenses benefit groups with superior expertise, most likely so. The concept on this case holds that taking part in sooner yields extra performs in a sport, which favors groups with higher gamers. Given that OU typically recruits higher than each different workforce moreover Texas in the Big 12, that appears like a plus.

On the different hand, don’t depend on OU gaining some sort of schematic benefit by taking part in quick. In truth, taking part in quick tends to work towards a workforce if its offense sputters. Just as a result of Big 12 groups aren’t going through uptempo offenses as continuously doesn’t imply they’ll’t deal with them. Coaching staffs throughout the league have seen the no-huddle greater than sufficient over the years – it gained’t part their groups when opposing offenses hit the accelerator.