Column: Oklahoma’s Historic Offensive Woes Are Way Worse Than Just Ugly Stats

The Sooners have some of the best resources available to any college football program, but they've somehow quickly devolved into one of the worst offenses in school history.

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Seth Littrell talks with quarterback Jackson Arnold. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma is making the wrong kind of history in 2024.

Just three years removed from a head coach who regularly set new college football standards for offensive proficiency and productivity, the OU offense — like a fish carcass, or some unidentified brown sludge — rests inertly at the very bottom of this year’s NCAA statistics.

Halfway through the season, research shows that OU is one of just four FBS teams nationally — and the only team from a Power 4 conference — that hasn’t produced a 200-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher or a 100-yard receiver.

The others are New Mexico State, Wyoming and Southern Mississippi.

Southern Miss gets a pass because the Eagles have used a two-quarterback system that has split the passing yards. In one game, USM actually threw for 397 yards but spread it out among three QBs.

Oklahoma hasn’t come close to 397 passing yards in any TWO game this season between sophomore Jackson Arnold and freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. The Sooners’ season-high as a team was 186 against Tennessee.

As a team, Oklahoma has just one 200-yard rushing game (220 against Temple), with no individuals reaching 100. The Sooners have had a player at 100 rushing yards in a game, but Arnold took a 3-yard loss late in the fourth quarter and finished with 97 net yards rushing against Tulane. Hawkins had 69 yards rushing in the win at Auburn. OU’s best game by a running back was freshman Taylor Tatum’s 69 yards on five carries against Temple. Jovantae Barnes had 61 yards on 18 carries against Tulane. 

The Sooners’ top game for receiving yards was J.J. Hester’s 86 yards on three catches, including a 60-yarder, at Auburn. Deion Burks had 80 yards on seven catches against Tulane, and Jaquaize Pettaway caught three for 79 against Tennessee. The only other receiver to go over 50 yards in a game this year was tight end Jake Roberts (three for 51 against Houston).

Wyoming has had three runners go over 90 yards (Sam Scott and quarterback Evan Svoboda both did it against San Diego State), and nearly had a 200-yard passer (Svoboda had 191 against the Aztecs).

New Mexico State has been over 200 yards rushing as a team in three different games this season, but they have a committee of running backs, so no individuals have surpassed 100 yards in a game. (Former Sooner Seth McGowan leads NMSU with 392 yards rushing, 65.3 per game.)

Achieving 100 yards in a game either receiving or rushing is an accomplishment, but it isn’t anything that’s rare. OU receivers have done it 218 times. OU runners have done it 574 times.

Meanwhile, in today’s game — particularly tempo spread offenses who now benefit from in-game helmet radios and video tablets on the sideline — a quarterback should be able to stumble into 200 passing yards at some point in six games.

Somewhere, at some point in their first six games, 129 of the 133 FBS teams this season have at least had a runner (or even a receiver on a reverse) pop a 70-yarder, or a wideout slip a tackle on a screen at the line of scrimmage and break away for 80.

Not OU. 

The Sooners’ one big play was a 60-yard game-changing bomb at Auburn.

That’s a stark lack of playmakers on any college football roster. It’s alarming at a place like Oklahoma.

Here’s one big difference between OU and the other three teams on this short list: The Sooners are 4-2 and just fell out of the Top 25 this week with a loss to No. 1 Texas. They also have a loss to then-No. 6 Tennessee on their resume. OU, although heavy on the defense, is a good football team.

New Mexico State is 1-5 with a win over FCS Southeast Missouri State. Wyoming is 1-5 with a win over Air Force. Southern Miss is 1-5 with a win over FCS Southeastern Louisiana.

The dregs of NCAA offensive statistics are reserved for mid-major programs that can’t recruit, don’t have a lot of fans and don’t know how to win.

Not for teams like Oklahoma.

The Sooners have four wins so far this year despite an offense that ranks No. 125 in the nation in total yards per game (287.7), No. 101 in rushing yards (122.0), No. 123 in passing yards (165.7), No. 108 in passing efficiency (122.29 rating), No. 96 in scoring (24.3 points per game), No. 130 in third down conversions (26.8 percent), No. 116 in first downs (101), No. 110 in time of possession (27:43 per game), No. 118 in tackles-for-loss allowed (7.17 per game), No. 127 in sacks allowed (3.33 per game), No. 127 in yards per pass attempt (5.8), No. 131 in yards per pass completion (9.56) and No. 128 in yards per play (4.48).

Through six games, Oklahoma has produced just 13 plays of 20 yards or more. That is 133rd and dead last in major college football. According to online analytics platform TruMediaSports, that’s the third-lowest number among all Power 4 offenses — in the last 10 years.

Oklahoma has gained 20+ yards on 3.4% of its offensive plays this season.

Per @TruMediaSports, that percentage currently ranks third-worst among all P4 offenses over the past decade.

— Max Olson (@max_olson) October 14, 2024

There’s no way a program like Oklahoma should show up on a list of the nation’s most forlorn, unavailing and inept offenses in the entire sport. 

Why? Glad you asked.

Here’s another big difference between the Sooners and those other teams still searching for a 200-100-100 man (and many other programs): those other teams don’t have a 4-star quarterback, much less a 5-star like OU. They don’t have a 4-star or 5-star running back, or a 4-star or 5-star wide receiver. And they don’t have a 4-star or 5-star offensive lineman, according to the 247 Sports recruiting rankings.

Actually, to be fair, that’s an incorrect assumption. 

NMSU does have a 4-star running back in junior Monte Watkins, who has 16 carries this season. Southern Miss does have a 4-star senior wideout in two-time transfer Dannis Jackson, who has 24 career catches, and a 4-star o-lineman in sixth-year senior and former Florida State transfer Dontae Lucas.

But Oklahoma’s roster has 52 such players total — 26 on offense.

Nor do those programs have an $8 million head coach, or a $1.1 million offensive coordinator, or a $1.05 million offensive line coach — like Oklahoma does.

Nor do they have a reported $5 million recruiting budget, or a record $110 million in outside donations last year, or an athletic department that produced an OU-record $200 million in revenue in FY 2023, or a stadium that seats 84,000, or a conference that provides more than $50 million a year in media rights and other league revenues.

They certainly don’t have seven national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners and 50 conference titles to their credit.

What’s going on with the OU offense this year borders on malfeasance. 

Whether it’s Lincoln Riley calling plays or Jeff Lebby or Seth Littrell or Gomer Pyle, this Oklahoma team has no business being called the worst in the country.

The Sooners still face three of the nation’s top-15 overall defenses, starting Saturday when South Carolina brings the No. 14 overall defense to Norman. Missouri is No. 3, and Ole Miss is No. 13. Alabama (No. 41) and LSU (No. 71) lie ahead on the schedule as well. 

What’s the fix? Who knows. There are as many opinions about the OU offense as there are stars in the night sky. 

First and most obvious, if the five best receivers on the team were in uniform instead of the training room, this offense would not be producing in the 120s and 130s. But injuries can’t be accounted for. The replacements, young or not, have to play better.

Littrell is struggling mightily, but he did install some new concepts in the bye week before Texas that did produce some small measure of success. (Anyway, switching up the scheme was a good idea — clearly, the previous playbook was as useful as an old newspaper.) National championship captain and legacy Sooner fullback or not, Littrell will probably have to go at season’s end.

Kevin Johns, who called plays for Kliff Kingsbury and Kevin Wilson, is on staff as an analyst, but changing coordinators midseason almost never yields lasting results.

Bringing in an accomplished quarterback coach — maybe to bring Arnold back, maybe to give Hawkins a new voice — sounds like a no-brainer and needs to be addressed (behind closed doors if necessary) by Brent Venables sooner than later, but it's not going to happen in 2024. That’s a problem that, for now, must be kicked down the road.

Bill Bedenbaugh’s remaining time as offensive line coach needs to be closely examined. After a fabulous career turning 3-stars into NFL stars, Bedenbaugh has sifted through the transfer portal to find and develop one of the worst o-lines in school history. He does have a 5-star offensive tackle on the way — his first — and probably has earned the opportunity to finally coach one.

Is Cale Gundy coming back? Absolutely not. Are Deion Burks or Jalil Farooq healthy yet? Maybe, but don’t count on it. Is Littrell going to call better plays this week? No doubt he believes it. Is Arnold worthy of getting another shot? Unless he’s already worked out a deal where he intends to redshirt and then transfer, then absolutely. Should Gavin Sawchuk get the ball on the perimeter more? Yes.

Is Hawkins going to finally throw for 200 yards? Are the Sooners finally going to produce a 100-yard runner or receiver?

Statistical probabilities and random chance both suggest it has to happen sometime.