The Football Brainiacs

Image via 247 Sports

I have to admit, I’m intrigued by the hire of Lincoln Riley as OU’s new offensive coordinator.  I remember watching highlights of East Carolina beating Va Tech earlier this year, and then they went on to get UNC while also nearly pulling off wins at South Carolina and against Florida in their bowl game.

When we first started hearing about who the guy might be, and that he was a Mike Leach air raid disciple, I wasn’t too crazy about it.  But when you start to dig deeper, you see an offense that’s gonna hit you from a lot of different angles.  They’re going to spread you out, and even though they throw it a ton, he actually ran it more than you might expect from an ‘Air Raid’ guy.

It’s very similar to a Baylor offense in that they put so much pressure on you having to defend the receivers, it empties the box and removes defenders from the run game.  I’ve been like a broken record talking about outnumbering people when running the ball and in this offense, it seems like the pass sets up the run.  The four primary backs averaged a combined six yards a carry, and you have to think that with backs like we have, who can outrun people or run ’em over, this could be an offense that could have a prolific run game.

What I did like about watching this offense is that defenses have to defend the full route tree.  There are stop routes, out routes, posts, comebacks, go routes, and a lot of play action.  There is a great deal over the middle and outside, with the offense looking to emphasize getting the ball in the playmaker’s hands quickly and letting them make plays.  There doesn’t appear to be a lot of predictability to the system that he runs.  While it’s primarily run out of an open set with not a lot of tight end use, he does utilize a tight end, at times.  It does seem like an offense that’s going to flex the tight end a lot but with the players we have, we could be multiple and go heavy when needed.

A player I think who will flourish in this offense is Durron Neal.  I’ve scratched my head for the last three years on why we’ve yet to really ever see Durron go off.  Like Sterling Shepard, Neal is a guy who needs the ball in his hands.  With the crossing routes over the middle, I think we’ll see a lot more catch and run opportunities. And Durron is someone who should benefit from those type of routes.  Michiah Quick is another guy who comes to mind.

Something else I noticed was the fact that so many players caught passes.  Six or seven guys caught nearly 20 passes or more this past season.  So while you have a guy who is your primary, it still allows your young guys get into game situations and compete for the lead role/s down the road.

My only concern is that I didn’t see a lot of power situations, but I’m hopeful we see Coach Bedenbaugh promoted to being a run game coordinator or something similar.  We have a great, physical offensive line and while I know Stoops loves to air it out, I hope we don’t have it go to waste in the run game.  With the talent we have coming in and already on campus along the offensive line, we should be able to gash people on the ground.

Lincoln Riley is a good hire in my book, and I love the energy he’s shown recruiting already after the ink barely being dry on his deal.  All bets are off folks.  Stoops bet the farm on getting us back to the top.  And after he’s seen how Bill Bedenbaugh and Jerry Montgomery recruit, he wants more of it at the other coaching spots.

This could be a lot of fun.  Grab your popcorn and lets get ready for the spring game when we get our first look at this new offense!