Option adds another wrinkle
NORMAN — Football looks a little bit different now than when Barry Switzer was running the wishbone to near perfection at Oklahoma.
But Saturday against TCU, facing fourth-and-1 from the Horned Frogs’ 21, Sooners coach Lincoln Riley went back to the days of Switzer.
Quarterback Kyler Murray
took the snap and took two steps to his right, when he saw defensive end Ben Banogu bearing down on him.
Murray then pitched to running back Kennedy Brooks, who easily picked up the first down.
Banogu, one of the top defensive ends in the league, tried to catch up but was out of the play thanks to his bite on Murray.
At the 15, slot receiver Grant Calcaterra held onto a block on linebacker Garret Wallow just long enough to get Brooks inside the 5-yard line, where wide receivers Myles Tease and Charleston Rambo kept their blocks to allow Brooks to finish off the touchdown run.
For an offense that is already one of the most explosive in college football thanks to Murray’s arm and legs, targets such as Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb and a deep stable of running backs, the addition of the option can be a deadly weapon when used sparingly.
The Sooners did it twice against the Horned Frogs, both with great success.
“It’s never going to be a primary play for us,” Riley said. “We’re not going back to Coach Switzer’s era that far, but it is effective.”
Switzer liked what he saw Saturday, praising Murray as the best quarterback in the country.
“It’s a great play for him,” Switzer said. “They’re going to run a different kind of offense but when they do it, he’s really good at it.”
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy saw the play and thought back to the days when it was a regular part of the repertoire for not only the Sooners but plenty of teams.
“It’s turning the circle back, and the reason why, in my opinion, is because the defenses we’re seeing now are the same defenses that Nebraska and OU played in the ’80s.” Gundy said. “Okie defense. It’s Gary Gibbs’ defense. It’s Charlie McBride’s defense.”
The Sooners have run the play occasionally during Riley’s time, including with Baker Mayfield the last three seasons.
But Murray’s speed makes it especially dangerous no matter which running back he’s paired with.
“Everybody packs things in tight against us and we’ve got to hit people on the edges, which we’ve begun to do,” Oklahoma offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator Bill Bedenbaugh said. “It’s tough. It’s tough defending all those dudes and then you’ve got a quarterback that can score at any point in time. That’s us adjusting to people, too, because they may play us a little differently than they play a lot of people on tape.
“You make guys decide — do you want to defend the back or do you want to defend the quarterback. No matter what, it’s a tough decision. Hopefully it continues to work.” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, whose team has to figure out a way to slow down Murray and the Sooners this week (2:30 p.m., Fox), said he thought the call was one that Murray checked into as an audible based on what the defense showed.
That certainly looked to be the case on the play Brooks scored on.
“It tempers your defense a great deal because you always have to have an awareness,” Snyder said. “There’s certainly things that you might do in terms of blitzes in particular that probably don’t fit against that type of speed down the line.
“You really don’t see it a great deal, but you do have to prepare for it and you have to be careful about some of the things you do that put you in jeopardy.”