Is Oklahoma State Working on the Most Efficient Offensive Season in the Last 10 Years?

I’ll keep this one short because I know the interest is not wide (although it is probably high for the five of us who care about such things). Anyway, it’s come to my attention that, halfway through the year, Oklahoma State is on pace for the most efficient offensive season in college football in the last decade.

Yes, real life.

BCF Toys, my beloved BCF Toys, recently released its points per drive numbers, and Oklahoma State is No. 3 behind Ohio State and Alabama in net points per drive. Defensively, it is No. 42 in the country, just behind Texas, and offensively, well you might need to sit down.

I had OKC Dave run the numbers for me. There have been 1,360 collective offensive seasons since 2007 (as far back as BCF Toys has data), and Oklahoma State currently has the highest offensive PPD ever recorded. The benchmark is Florida State’s 2013 season in which it scored 4.06 PPD and won it all. The Cowboys are blowing that out of the water this year.

Here’s a look.

Note: These PPD numbers might differ a bit from the ones I’ve been posting because BCF Toys takes out garbage time drives and end of half drives. All of theirs are similar across years so it’s a good way to compare teams. All of my numbers are similar within a single season so it’s a good way to, for example, compare Big 12 teams in 2017. However, I don’t take out garbage time or end of half, but I do take out 0-play drives like punt return fumbles.

Anyway, here are the top 10 PPD marks since 2007.

The three best marks right now are that FSU team with Jameis Winston. The best offense in Big 12 history in the 2008 OU squad. And Wisconsin with Montee Ball and Russell Wilson was devastatingly good as well in 2011.

Oklahoma State in 2017 joins two other teams from this year in Ohio State and UCF. All three will likely drop over the final 6+ games as they face tougher teams than they saw in their nonconference schedule, but OSU is out to such a scintillating pace, that I think it has a shot at upending FSU, which is amazing.

Oh, and Oklahoma State’s 2011 team is No. 39 on this list at 3.44 PPD in case you’re wondering. The next best OSU team in this era? The 2008 team which is No. 68 of the 1,360 teams.

Here’s a look at net PPD from 2017 only.

That’s pretty impressive, and I think it provides a better picture of 1. Just how good OSU has been this year on both offense and defense and 2. What a bizarre game the TCU game was.

Or maybe it wasn’t. Who knows. I’ve gone back and forth on this a lot. On paper, OSU has been unbelievable. But then you watch the TCU and Texas Tech games, and you’re like ehhhhh, I don’t know. But then you can explain those games away (turnovers against TCU and red zone deficiencies against Tech).

Which leads me back to being confused. Only time will tell whether OSU’s slow start in Big 12 play was an aberration or just its reality for this season. For now this is a hell of a record for them to be chasing, and it will be a blast for us (all five of us) to follow it intently throughout the rest of the season to see if they really can become the most efficient college football offense in the last decade.