Going from Good to Great
- Nov 8, 2023
- 2 min read
Despite being at or near the top of the conference and the country in a lot of statistical categories, the Sooners offense has sputtered at some critical times. This is an issue that we saw happen last year but has popped back up again this season with the most glaring examples being ones that contributed to losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State.
Even with that being the case, the OU offense has been effective for long stretches, and in talking with a few sources the emphasis I hear often is that it's not a matter of the offense being bad and figuring out how to become good, it's that the offense and Jeff Lebby in particular is very good and is now in the process of making that final leap to being great.
Sources I spoke with brought up a few areas that they see as keys for bridging that gap for the 2023 version of the OU offense specifically:
Use of gap scheme run game concepts that play more to the strengths of the offensive line.
Develop a better feel for how to take advantage of when the run game is clicking and how to play off that.
Less 11 and 12 personnel and more 10 and 20 personnel.
Avoid asking Austin Stogner to block on the perimeter.
Stay away from jet sweeps in short yardage.
Use short passing game concepts to open up the intermediate passing game.
These are the things I've heard the most often when talking to sources and football people in general. And from talking to people inside the program, there's a sense that any push for Lebby to exit at the end of the season is not coming from Venables or anyone with the power to actually influence that decision.
Also, the people I spoke with over the last two days have a high level of confidence that adjustments will be made in all or most of the areas listed above that will flip the current narrative about Lebby on its head.
I have not been paying attention to the pods the past two weeks, so not sure if discussed. Of course there has been a lot of displeasure about the lack of vertical passing vs KU but not sure if there has been much said about the 3rd down deep balls vs OSU. In discussing among friends, some of that has to be laid on the QB in deciding to go deep, even if, for example, Sawchuck is open for the first down. So many things to correct, any of which could have led to a W either of the last two weeks.
Thx for the info but I’ll believe it when I see it. People say calling plays isn’t that difficult, I don’t know I’ve never done it. But I’ve also seen enough football to know that you have to have an innate feel for the game to be a great play caller, something I haven’t see from our OC.