OPINION

By Barry Switzer

updated 9:56 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2009

In 16 seasons as Oklahoma's coach, Barry Switzer won three national championships and 12 conference titles. But his greatest season might have come as offensive coordinator. In 1971, using Switzer's wishbone offense, the Sooners ran for 472.4 yards per game — still an NCAA record. So how does he think this year's Sooners stack up? Switzer's analysis of the Oklahoma offense:

I've seen a lot of great spread offenses. This is the best Oklahoma offense I've seen. What they do throwing the football, what they've scored, there's no question about it.

Statistically, our 1971 team blew everyone away. We averaged 567 yards per game total offense, 472 rushing. This year's team is averaging 562 yards per game, 357 throwing. We averaged 7.6 yards per play. This team averages 7.1. They throw the ball, we ran the ball.

My quarterback, Jack Mildren, couldn't play for them. Their quarterback, Sam Bradford, couldn't have played for me. The playbooks are too different. Jack could throw and run. He ran a 4.5 40. He had speed, strength and size — he started in the NFL as a safety. Running the option, we looked for a different kind of talent. You recruit to your playbooks and your philosophy. We were a ball-control offensive football team. This team will throw on second-and-3. There's no way we'd ever throw the ball on second-and-5, much less first-and-10. Obviously they can throw the ball better than we could. I can't say their backs are better than ours. Greg Pruitt was one of the greatest runners to ever play. Any where you wanted to line him up, Pruitt would be a superstar. Put him out in the slot, throw him the ball, nobody would touch him.

Same goes for Joe Washington. I remember the first time I saw him carry the ball at OU Stadium. He looked like a Pop Warner kid with shoulder pads and headgear, like a reject. They handed him the ball, and he ran through a team that was undefeated and had an outstanding defense. He ran 80 yards, and not a single person touched him. I looked at head coach Chuck Fairbanks, and he looked at me. We didn't say a word. We just stared at each other. It was like, Did you see what I saw?

The great ones do that to you. Any of the superstars I had would be superstars today, but that's not the same for the guys in the trenches. I played guys in there who weighed 220 pounds. You can't do that today. Those guys never lifted weights a day in their life. These kids are so much bigger and stronger today; you can't compare them.

So my teams couldn't play with these teams for that reason. But nothing has changed as far as Oklahoma's place in college football from my era to Bob Stoops' era. Texas is the only team in the Big 12 that has players as good as Oklahoma. The only difference is Nebraska, back then, was Nebraska. Unless I played an Ohio State or a USC as a non conference opponent, the only teams we faced with our talent before our bowl game were Nebraska and Texas.

Today, Texas has guys who could start for Oklahoma, and vice versa. There isn't a player on Texas Tech or Oklahoma State on defense who could start for Oklahoma. It's as simple as that. That's the domination Oklahoma has.

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