The Most Efficient Offensive Teams of the Mike Gundy Era

The Oklahoma State offense has been quite efficient for most of Mike Gundy’s tenure in Stillwater. Though it has gone through multiple iterations, the Pokes’ O has maintained a points per drive average well above the NCAA norm over the last nine years.

The numbers I’m looking at only go back to 2007 (thankfully, so we don’t have to stare at that 2005-06 offense). After a couple years meddling below the NCAA average (yikes), Gundy’s squad returned to its nine-year average of 2.67 last season when it averaged right at 2.7 points per drive (No. 23 in the nation).

Obviously OSU’s 2011 average of 3.42 was outrageous but that 3.2 average in 2008 is wildly under-appreciated. So is 3.01 in 2012 (with 58 different QBs!) You can see how the yearly NCAA average has risen over the last eight years from under 2.1 in 2007 to just over it in 2015.

The reason for the flip back to offensive prowess last year? Probably QB play, but Mike Gundy might tell you Mike Yurcich. Yurcich came to OSU in 2013, and OSU was under its nine-year average in points per drive in two seasons (2014 and 2015) before returning to normal last year.

“Mike [Yurcich] has come a long ways,” said Gundy at Big 12 media days in July. “The reason that we brought Coach Yurcich to Oklahoma State is because we felt he was a young, upcoming, innovative coach. I had been very fortunate as a head coach to have that style of a coach with Larry Fedora and Dana Holgersen and Todd Monken — guys that are innovative and strong-willed and can make a decision and Mike’s fallen into that category.

“He’s an extremely hard worker. He’s a really, really good recruiter, and he’s turned into a very good play caller. He made some adjustments, certainly different being at Oklahoma State than where he came from. He’s been willing to make some adjustments and he’s done a really good job. You see different style of play, you know, his involvement with our J.W. Walsh package last year was maybe as good of a coaching move as we’ve had at Oklahoma State in a long time.”

Hopefully we get more of the same in 2016 that we got in 2015.