Oklahoma, One of the Progenitors of Tempo Offense, is Back in the Fast Lane vs. Flashes

From humble beginnings, college football offenses have evolved to a faster and faster pace, and Saturday's game with Kent State will match two of the game's speediest.

NORMAN — Brent Venables was chatting with his coaching staff this week when the conversation got nostalgic.

“Twenty years ago, tempo was a thing,” Venables said, “but people had a fastball package. They might run like three plays, and then that's all they did.”

Teams have practiced the two-minute offense for end-of-half situations. But that fastball package was designed to catch defenses off guard.

“We literally talked about fastball today,” Venables said Tuesday. “We were bringing up different teams and their flavors, what they do, which formation. They'd run a quick toss or something like that. And that was like a really tough thing back in the day. Things are a little more intricate and complicated now. But it's good.”

Now, of course, every college football team runs some variation of a hurry-up, no-huddle offense — “tempo,” they call it. Many go fast exclusively. Some sprinkle it in. But everybody does it.

When Oklahoma and Kent State meet on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, it’ll be a matchup of two of the fastest offenses in the country.

Buckle up.

“First of all,” said Kent State coach Sean Lewis, “got to have a quarterback. Right? You gotta have quarterback that you can trust, that you've trained, that's comfortable playing fast — so that they can think fast, know fast, do fast.

Like Oklahoma found out last week in beating UTEP, going fast doesn’t automatically mean success. After scoring three quick TDs, the Sooners had two quick three-and-outs. The result is OU ranks next-to-last in the nation in time of possession, at just 21:27 per game.

“You got to have success early on,” Lewis said. “Like, we always joke that there is no tempo unless you get a first down, right? So you got to get that first first down, because otherwise you're just going to tempo your butt right off the sideline. You're gonna be punting really fast.

“Lastly, the the piece that probably doesn't get talked about enough, is that your big boys up front gotta be in shape,” Lewis said. “Like, we all know our skill guys, those skinny butts they can run and run for days. That's what they were made to do.”

Oklahoma was one of the progenitors of the modern tempo look. In 2008, offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson went to Bob Stoops with the idea to take an offense that was extremely productive and efficient and experienced and add in a high-octane pace. They asked Venables for his input — more snaps for the offense means more possessions, and more possessions means more possessions for the defense — and Venables gave Wilson his blessing to go as fast as he can go.

OU set the NCAA record for points scored, numerous school records fell and Sam Bradford won the Heisman.

Since then, tempo has become as much a part of the college football lexicon as shoulder pads or special teams.

“It has evolved,” Venables said. “But I like those old days.”