OUInsider - Owen Field

Obviously written earlier as he has Reynolds & Franks playing.

He has OU #2 in his pre-season poll and playing against FSU for the NC. He has always been high on OU...

Steele has said that his methods involve revising his magazine multiple times to make sure it's as current as possible, such as after the bowls, pre-spring, post-spring, etc. If the linked version still has Reynolds and Franks then I'd not be surprised if it's an older version from before the latest revisions.

In his forecast, all he did was review our history. Where's the forecast?

The run game will determine how good Landry Jones will be this year.

Hopefully we'll revert back to 2008 where we were not a spread offense. THat requires a good running game though to make PA more effective.

I will gladly tell Bob Stoops that because it is true. We RUN THE SPREAD we run Spread routes and spread running plays. The spread offense is a pass first offense not a run offense. The pro set is a balanced attack as far as routes, sets, blocking schemes, running plays and use of TE.

In the spread, passing is the main focus. that doesn't mean the run game is non existant, it means that we use the pass to set up the run. The lack of down hill running plays in the spread is the reason we used the pistol formation some last year!

We will be as good on offense as Landry Jones plays...... there is little debate in that...if he can throw into tight windows, make plays with pocket movement, not lock onto receivers and throw where the defense is not, make plays on 3rd down, get the ball into the receivers hands where they can run after the catch etc then we will have a special year.

Personally I wish we were more of a power I team. It would be nice to be able to run the ball on third and two instead of having to throw the dang thing because we can't pick up six feet!

OUManiac

Lets hope that Jones' comfort with the offense, his line blocking, and the work he has done this off-season to work on his pocket presence and elusiveness all come to fruition. What I like about Landry is that he recognizes the holes in his game and has gone the xtra mile to improve upon them. I expect to see a polished passer, and a Heisman run from him. Whether he gets it or not will depend on how good OUr running game is this year, because if he gets taken out this year as often as last he will never meet even his own expectations. The coaching staff needs to know this as well, I am hoping that they understand that just as Landry is investing in them, they need to invest in him and set him up to succeed. I like the belldozer, but good teams can and will start shutting it down. There is plenty of film on it, and though I think it has its uses, last year in the stretch it was clearly overused because it was our best offensive weapon. Landry needs to know that HIS arm, and HIS decision making are our best offensive weapons, because the Belldozer will not take us to a CCG.

I know what a spread offense is. We did not run the spread in any way in 2008.

With Eldrige, Gresham, Brown, and Murray we had 3 of those 4 on the field quite a bit. We also ran about 40% of our plays from under center. We had a pair of 1,000 yard rushers and another guy who ran for about 450 (Madu). Out TE caught 66 passes. We ran a lot of PA. It was not a spread offense. That's a myth. We ran 4 wide sets sometimes, but not nearly often enough to call it a spread. Not enough shotgun, too much straight ahead running, too much PA. Too many plays with extra blockers in there (Eldrige). It was more of a hybrid than anything, but much closer to pro style than spread.

We werent a spread offense in 2006 and 2007. We played smashmouth big time. That 2006 team was one of my favorites.

You left out that part about the pair of 1,000 yard rushers frequent use of lead blockers and Eldridge on the field. Way to cherry pick which items from my post you wanted to address and which ones not. No team is running a spread offense when they pound the ball as much as OU did in 2008. I like how all of a sudden the receivers run spread routes. Nice slight of hand there.