Sooner "O" Like Nothing UF* Has Ever Seen?

[catsigater]

Not so fast, my friends...


Sooners’ Offense Is Like Something Gators’ Meyer Has Seen Before (Link) (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/sports/ncaafootball/06florida.html?_r=1&ref=sports)

Ask Meyer the wildest game he ever coached, and he will immediately snap back in time to November 2001 when his Bowling Green team won at Northwestern, 43-42, on a last-second 2-point conversion.

“It was the most damnedest thing you’ve ever seen,” Meyer recalled with a smile. “I don’t know if I’ve been part of a better game.”

Meyer’s Gators will play Oklahoma for the national title Thursday night, and that Northwestern game has been lurking in the back of Meyer’s mind. The Sooners’ offensive coordinator, Kevin Wilson, was Northwestern’s offensive coordinator that day, and his offense simply overwhelmed Meyer’s Falcons.

As quickly as Meyer can recall the wild final sequence that allowed Bowling Green to erase a 14-point deficit in the final 80 seconds, he can also break down his defense’s ineptitude. Bowling Green allowed 624 yards on 97 offensive plays. Northwestern never punted.

“That’s the only time I ever felt like we lost control,” Meyer said. “We couldn’t stop them because the tempo of the game just overcame us.”

Oklahoma’s offense has overwhelmed most teams this season. The Sooners have scored a modern-record 702 points and eclipsed 60 in five consecutive games.

They have done it using a similar no-huddle, spread attack that overwhelmed Meyer and the Falcons. Instead of Zak Kustok under center, Wilson has the Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford running the show...

...Many of Florida’s current coaches, including offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales and tight ends coach John Hevesy were on the field for the Northwestern game.

“It was so fast paced, back-and-forth, back-and-forth,” Gonzales said, “it was kind of like a basketball game.”

Mullen said that while boarding a plane to Starkville, Miss., to be introduced as the head coach at Mississippi State, he called Meyer and defensive coordinator Charlie Strong to remind them again.

“It was the fastest thing that I’ve ever seen,” Mullen said. “I don’t mean the fastest players, I mean the fastest offense, how fast they snap the ball. I wanted those guys to remember how fast that it actually goes, that’s what’s important to remember.”

Meyer has not forgotten. An obscure game from seven seasons ago has reverberated through the Gators’ preparation for the Bowl Championship Series title game.

[starclassic tama]

can't wait for thursday, not just for the game, but hopefully all these gator fans will be gone from soonerfans

[catsigater]

C'mon! That's an interesting slant. Just admit it and gimme some trollspeck. :D

[SoonerShark]

The main difference between a gator fan and a lsu tiger fan is that the gator fan has branches in his family tree.

On mother's day morning in Louisiana, a tiger fan wakes up, looks at his wife and reminds her that the two of them need to get their mom a card. In Florida, gator fans have to buy two cards.

[Knippz]

I hope Urb thinks we're just like Bowling Green. :D

[Boomer_Sooner_sax]

This $hit is getting old.

[Hot Rod]

Well, crap, I thought we were the first offense to score 60 points in 5 games.

[Sooner13]

C'mon! That's an interesting slant. Just admit it and gimme some trollspeck. :D

There's a reason you're red now....

[CaliBornSoonerBred]

If OU=Bowling Green, then we are in for a world of trouble ladies and gents. But there's a reason we're OU and have the athletes to go with the fast paced offense. You don't blow up the record books like we did without a team just a shade better than Bowling Green. I have a feeling Oscar Meyer may have to repeat his words in his post game comments...........“That’s the only time I ever felt like we lost control,” Meyer said. “We couldn’t stop them because the tempo of the game just overcame us.”

[Crucifax Autumn]

See...these guys don't get it. Our version of the spread...Our no huddle...


It's its own animal, but I hope urban doesn't realize that.

[starclassic tama]

what's most annoying about these gator fans isn't that they are over the top trash talkers or anything like that, but they are an extended mouthpiece of everything they learned on ESPN. they regurgitate the same crap ESPN pumps out every day. FLORIDA HAS SPEED. OKLAHOMA AND THE BIG 12 DO NOT. do gators really believe that top to bottom they have better athletes than oklahoma?

[Widescreen]

I can understand the optimism. I mean Kustok ~ Bradford.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

not to mention that our running backs suck, our WRs suck, our defense sucks, and our OL sucks. oh and franks is a trash talker for commenting as a CB its tougher to prepare for passing QBs.

[TopDawg]

catsigater's right...it's an interesting story. Some of you should actually read it...then you'll see that it was actually Northwestern that would be the equivalent of OU in that story...not Bowling Green.

And that's the point of the story. Meyer and several other Florida coaches have faced a Kevin Wilson up-tempo offense before. It'll help them know what to expect...tempo-wise...during the game this Thursday.

Is that an advantage? I'd say so. It may not amount to much because the players haven't been through it except in practice, but every little bit helps.

[Circle City Gator]

catsigater's right...it's an interesting story. Some of you should actually read it...then you'll see that it was actually Northwestern that would be the equivalent of OU in that story...not Bowling Green.

And that's the point of the story. Meyer and several other Florida coaches have faced a Kevin Wilson up-tempo offense before. It'll help them know what to expect...tempo-wise...during the game this Thursday.

Is that an advantage? I'd say so. It may not amount to much because the players haven't been through it except in practice, but every little bit helps.

Yup, that's what it said. In fact, it was almost entirely about a single element of a Kevin Wilson offense- how quickly the ball is snapped.

[Gatortex]

what's most annoying about these gator fans isn't that they are over the top trash talkers or anything like that, but they are an extended mouthpiece of everything they learned on ESPN. they regurgitate the same crap ESPN pumps out every day. FLORIDA HAS SPEED. OKLAHOMA AND THE BIG 12 DO NOT. do gators really believe that top to bottom they have better athletes than oklahoma?

Yes.

[theresonly1OU]

Yes.

Then for your sake, I hope they do better than the last team we played from florida for the NC that was better from top to bottom.

[starclassic tama]

Yes.

i'm actually really glad to hear that. the NFL disagrees. common sense should help you disagree. it really makes it seem like florida fans have only been watching football since 1996. the athletic talent at the top universities in college football is virtually identical from top to bottom. USC supposedly had superior athletes too after they beat us in the '06 orange bowl, then next year they go out and lose to, you guessed it, a BIG 12 TEAM. the arrogance of UF has shown through in the time leading up to the game, and i love every second.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

catsigater's right...it's an interesting story. Some of you should actually read it...then you'll see that it was actually Northwestern that would be the equivalent of OU in that story...not Bowling Green.

And that's the point of the story. Meyer and several other Florida coaches have faced a Kevin Wilson up-tempo offense before. It'll help them know what to expect...tempo-wise...during the game this Thursday.

Is that an advantage? I'd say so. It may not amount to much because the players haven't been through it except in practice, but every little bit helps.

I agree it wasn't a flame-baiting article. Actually, he gave Wilson props. I'm not sure about the teams at Northwestern, but as far as his OU teams, this one definitely gets to the line faster than any of his other teams. That may just be because it's the first time he's had a second year starter.

[TopDawg]

I agree it wasn't a flame-baiting article. Actually, he gave Wilson props. I'm not sure about the teams at Northwestern, but as far as his OU teams, this one definitely gets to the line faster than any of his other teams. That may just be because it's the first time he's had a second year starter.

Second year starter and a very experienced o-line. They have to figure things out pretty quick too. If Bradford comes back next year, I hope our new o-linemen are able to step into the no-huddle as well as these guys.

[OU4LIFE]

not to mention that our running backs suck, our WRs suck, our defense sucks, and our OL sucks. oh and franks is a trash talker for commenting as a CB its tougher to prepare for passing QBs.

Finally, someone sees the light. We are toast people. We can't compete with that kind of speed, deal with it already. We'll be lucky if we can score 2 touchdowns....and THAT will be in mop up time against their 3rd stringers.

DOOMED

[MikeInNorman]

Not so fast, my friends...

"They have done it using a similar no-huddle, spread attack..."



You know, it's hard to imagine any two things less similar than Kevin Wilson's "no-huddle, spread attack" at Northwestern, and Kevin Wilson's 2008 OU offense.

Heck, we have option die-hards on this board that are still waiting for that magic moment when we sign a running QB and KW can recreate the Wonderful Marvelous Northwestern Spread Offense circa 1999 that every undermanned team in the country runs now. The option-heads nearly had their wish with Bomar the Knucklehead, who in a stroke of incredible luck, managed to foul-up a promising 4-year career of leading OU to 9-4 records.

Anyway, I think the writer was right only in that the hurry-up IS sui generis Wilson, however, few of the plays are. The spread passing attack is still largely the Mangino/Long reality check imposed on the bones of Leach, with some successful alterations by either Norvell, Heupel or both; the I-formation downhill running game is all Chuck Long/Kevin Wilson/Old School Big 10; the play-action passing game is Wilson and Norvell; the tap-dancing zone blocking running game is fatherless for good reason. The spread running game, such as it is, is as straight KW as there is considering our QB DOES NOT RUN THE BALL, an essential and critical requirement of the aforementioned WMNWSO.

KW does what really good OCs do. He builds on what works, he understands what works, and he fits what works around the players available to him. The only time the WMNWSO was even tried was in the TCU debacle of 2005, when our first "running" QB decided that he would rather not, which takes a lot of the steam out of the zone read.

[CrimsonJim]

All right! Now you've gone and done it! Bob and the boyz give up (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/98614-breaking-news-oklahoma-forfeits-bcs-game-and-will-not-go-to-miami). Damnitall!!!