Big 12 Conference Now Has Five Top 30 Offenses

My beloved points per drive numbers have been updated, and something interesting is starting to happen. Let’s look at offenses first. Remember, these are against FBS teams only and do not include garbage time drives. All data here.

Texas Tech rose again after slipping against West Virginia the week before last. Tech ranks No. 3 in the country. Baylor is No. 8. OU is No. 9. UT and Oklahoma State are both just inside the top 30 nationally in points per drive. The only teams with better PPD numbers on offense than Tech? Washington and Western Michigan.

Now let’s look at defense.

Ohhhhhhh, Tech. They rank No. 128 nationally in points per drive allowed. Last place. OU, Kansas and Iowa State aren’t much better. Maybe that’s why there’s a petition to fire Mike Stoops going in Norman. Oklahoma State is No. 62 nationally. West Virginia is No. 16.

Carson talked about this on the podcast on Monday, but I think these two charts are where the angst from OSU fans comes in. In Big 12 terms, OSU’s defense is actually pretty good even thought it’s not nationally anything to speak of. Its defense is up there with the best in the conference (although it hasn’t played many of the great offenses yet). Its defense doesn’t seem that far away from the leader (and its not at 0.7 points per drive).

But its offense looks pretty average. Pedestrian. Run of the mill. It is over a point from being the best offense in the conference.

Mike Gundy was asked about getting James Washington the ball on offense on Monday.

“It changes each week based on the structure,” said Gundy. “Defenses have the choice, in most cases, who gets the ball on offense. It’s not like it was 20-25 years ago. Now, defenses can take away a certain part of the game, and offenses have to be able to adjust accordingly.”

OSU’s offense hasn’t been able to adjust like it has in the past. It will have to over the next few weeks as it still has three of the top five defenses on its schedule.