Strange QB Stat

Photo Attribution: US Presswire

On Monday Todd Monken said the following about Wes Lunt:

If he breaks a bunch of records, that means we are in bad shape.

That really intrigued me. Normally you think of big time numbers being big time helpful but that’s not the case in Oklahoma State football history.

Consider the six biggest passing days in school history…

Weeden – 36/46 for 502 (win vs. K-State)
Weeden – 42/58 for 476 (loss vs. Iowa State)
Weeden – 47/60 for 438 (win vs. A&M)
Lunt – 37/60 for 436 (loss vs. Arizona)
Weeden – 34/42 for 435 (win vs. Baylor)
Robinson – 30/42 for 430 (loss vs. Texas)

And honestly the K-State and A&M games could have pretty easily been losses.

The offense with Zac was way different, the structure was built around running the ball so obviously if you’re putting up 430 passing yards you’re probably not staying within your game plan.

With Weeden and Lunt though? It’s the air raid, see how many yards you can throw it for, make Dana smile!

Not so, according to Gundy:

We want to run the ball.

And Monken:

We want to be able to run the ball and control the clock.

They seem to mean it too because the correlation is there. 122 rushing yards in a loss to OU in 2010 was the third lowest output of the season. And last year OSU’s four sub-100-yard rushing performances doubled as its four closest games/loss (A&M, Kansas State, Iowa State, Stanford).

So if I’m deciphering this correctly the key to the air raid is to run the ball as often and as well as you can to the detriment of the pass and if you’re successful you’ll pile up Ws.

This is why I’m a fan and not a coach I guess[1. Among about 399,000 other reasons…not the least of which is “a one-on-one meeting with Calvin Barnett to chastise him for his personal foul count would induce cardiac arrest and they’d have to find a new coach mid-season.”].