We all know by now that Lincoln Riley will be making the move to USC. It’s safe to say no one saw this coming. But, let’s put his decision to leave aside for a minute or two and talk about this solely from a football standpoint. Oklahoma during his tenure as OC and head coach were notorious for running the air raid offense. You can make the case that they were the best in college football at executing that playbook. USC ran it as well, but now they have the master behind the controls.
What Is The Air Raid?
Let’s get into what goes into running the air raid well. The air raid is a shotgun driven pass heavy offense that uses no huddle pretty much 100% of the time. The formations are primarily one back formations with four pass catchers out wide. Usually there are four wide receivers. There are some variations to this, but the air raid does not always utilize tight ends as regular contributors. At OU, sometimes tight ends as well as H-back/fullback hybrids have gotten extra touches because of their skillset. Jeremiah Hall is the perfect example of that for the Sooners in 2021. Naturally the four wide model maximizes the receivers speed and athleticism to set up big plays. Just think back to what CeeDee Lamb and Marquise Brown were able to accomplish in their time in Norman.
An underrated facet of the air raid is the run game. It doesn’t happen as often, but you still need dynamic backs who can do a little bit of everything. It also helps when you have a mobile QB to open up more opportunities for the offense. The backs are either lined up right next to the quarterback or slightly behind him, and backfield formations are often used. The offensive line is also very important especially since they are spread out in this type of scheme. As opposed to being bunched together, the linemen are about a yard apart from each other forcing defensive linemen to run further to get to the quarterback.
West Coast Connections
It helps that there is already continuity on the offensive side of the ball. Riley does inherit a potential quarterback competition between the incumbent Kedon Slovis and the dark horse Jaxon Dart. Slovis was coached by Kurt Warner in high school and took over for JT Daniels when he got hurt and transferred. Slovis is more of a drop back passer while Dart has some extra electricity and mobility to his game. Whoever loses the starting battle will likely transfer.
But getting back to the coaching change, the offense at Oklahoma put up crazy numbers under Lincoln Riley. This includes three college football playoff appearances, produced three NFL starting quarterbacks, including two Heisman trophy winners, and multiple draft picks. The Trojans got the best person possible to fix the offense that struggled in 2021. USC always seems to land solid recruits so talent won’t be an issue, especially since quite a few Oklahoma recruits are switching over to head out west. Riley has been running this type of offense for quite some time while USC has only done so for a couple of seasons with inconsistent results. Many don’t like the fact that Lincoln Riley made this move and rightfully so. But from a football schematic standpoint, this is the best case scenario for USC and it should not take them long to get back in the mix.
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