I don’t know the exact time and place when it happened. Maybe I just missed all the signs—this would align with my girlfriend’s viewpoint on my attention span—but, at some point, I think Mike Gundy broke football.

Last month, I fell in love with Josh Heupel’s Missouri offense. This month, I am in polyamorous relationship with Missouri’s old offense, UCF’s new offense, and Oklahoma State’s constant offense.

I didn’t think I had any more room in my heart, but here we are.

Oklahoma State pushes the ball downfield at such a high rate that it’s dizzying. It’s not just that quarterback Mason Rudolph is taking shots on isolated deep routes, it’s that every route in this offense seems to be over 10 yards. If the ball is in the air it’s headed past the sticks.

While both offenses throw the ball down the field a ton, Heupel’s offense had a lot of pre-snap “gift” throws—high percentage six-yard throws against off-coverage. Gundy and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich throw caution to the wind and just heave it downfield all the time. 

When I really looked at this offense for the first time, I was shocked at how deep all of their routes are being run. 

I feel like, eventually, this is where football is headed. If explosive plays are what wins you football games, the best way to create explosive plays is by throwing the ball a lot and throwing it down the field. The Cowboys finished eighth in passing explosiveness and 111th in standard down run rate last year. 

The classic Okahoma State pass concept is post-dig—affectionately known as “Mills.” It’s a concept that the ‘Pokes used for a big play in almost every single game this past season. They could run it out of a million different formations. 

Here are a few that I enjoyed:

Against Oklahoma, they start in a wide stack in trips before motioning a receiver in and then using a switch release to get the most inside receiver down the field on the post route. When the safety in the middle of the field jumps the dig, it’s game over.

From a two-receiver wide split against TCU, they hit the post again. Once the defender playing on top of the No. 2 receiver hesitates for a second, the post is open.

And again.

Oh, and again.

One more time for good measure.

When Gundy and Yurcich did call a run play, they often tagged a backside slant on the play to turn it into an RPO. This is not uncommon, but what I particularly enjoy is how deep the slant is run. They’re saying, look, if we’re gonna throw this, it’s not going to be at 5 yards. We’re getting a first down. 

Against Texas Tech, Oklahoma State has a called inside zone running play. Rudolph is reading the flat defender who is lined up over the slot receiver at the top. If that defender runs with the bubble route, it opens a window for the short post/slant to be thrown. If not, Rudolph will just hand the ball off. When the Tech defender flies out to cover the bubble, this is an easy touchdown.

The 2017 version of this offense might have been peak Gundy because the team was senior-laden at the most important positions, with a pair of senior receivers and a senior quarterback. 

Mason Rudolph, James Washington and Marcell Ateman are gone now. But Gundy has shown that he can reload his offense year after year.

The quarterback battle comes down to Taylor Cornelius, going into his senior year, who only attempted 10 passes last year, and two new kids on the block: Spencer Sanders and Dru Brown. 

Sanders is a four-star freshman from Texas who is a potential star in the making. Brown is a graduate transfer from Hawaii who has played a ton of college football already. It wouldn’t be surprising if Cornelius, who was the starter in spring, sans Sanders and Brown, dropped to third string by the start of the season.

At receiver, the team really likes Dillon Stoner. He caught 44 balls last season. Jalen McCleskey also returns after a 50-catch season a year ago. The future's still bright in Stillwater when you can lose your top two receivers and still return 94 catches.  

It will be interesting to see how the offense changes without the obvious benefit of having James Washington on the other end of the deep ball. Maybe a few six-yard hitch routes do make an appearance. Maybe there will be less “Mills.”

I, for one, hope not. It’s more fun to watch the Cowboys continually dial up the deep ball and break the game of football.