7 Comments

  1. Will

    If a coach at one of the mid tier teams could somehow figure out how to peak when the rest of the league was down a few 7-8 win teams could turn into 10 win ones. There’s a pretty significant difference between the 2018 Big 12 and the 2019 one.

    I wanna say that last year and 2016 have been the obvious down years since WVU joined. I want to make an argument that 2013 was one too but don’t want to put in the work. But would you agree there seems to be one every 2-3 years (with the current iteration of the conference)? You’ve literally written the book on the Big 12’s history.

    Also, I know OU is OU but if there were a year to dethrone Riley any time soon this is it. New QB while every other possible contender is bringing one back. The fact that they’ve fixed some things on defense makes it a lot less likely though.

    • ianaboyd

      The cycles mostly relate to having a smart, veteran quarterback and then a weapon out wide and decent protection. If you have those three things, you’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games all else being decent. The trick would be to time your cycle, which is really hard, otherwise you need to have a plan to be as competitive as possible every year.

      Definitely 2016 and 2013 were the other two major down cycles. Which means there’s actually a 3-year rolling deal at this point.

      I think the Oklahoma offense this year has a chance to be more dangerous than last year, maybe much more dangerous, because Rattler is so much more skilled than Hurts. The defense has question marks though, I’m not sure that they’re as figured out as it appears.

      • Will

        Sigh, yes, every three years. Even at 2 AM that’s inexcusably bad math.

        Makes sense re: OU. I’m pretty sure I said something similar here after Mayfield graduated and we all saw how that went…

        Thanks, as always Ian!

  2. Andrew

    What are your thoughts on Aranda keeping what worked for BU on D instead of a gut job? His MO seems to favor personnel over scheme, so maybe he keeps what worked last year & then makes more significant changes next off-season. Of course with the quicker O they look to install compared to the plodding O they had, it may tire the D too much. Dunno…

    • ianaboyd

      Definitely seems plausible that he will maintain some of their previous structure. Particularly with the abridged offseason.

Comments are closed.