Texas Tech has its spread alive and well, Sooners fear

NORMAN, Okla. -- Back when he was coaching at Oklahoma, Barry Switzer was asked during one of his weekly news conferences about the challenge of facing Nebraska's option offense.

"It's not the alignment," Switzer said, "it's the alignees."

Current Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is saying the same thing about Texas Tech and its spread offense. The Red Raiders have passed their previous three opponents silly, winning all three games to get to No. 24 in the country and within one victory of the Big 12 South title.

Stoops says the success enjoyed by Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is proof that the spread offense is alive and well.

"I think it's a testament to Mike sticking to his guns," he said. "When all the reporters and everybody out there was wanting to say the spread offense is finished, everyone's caught onto it, he's proven that wrong.

"I say it a lot -- everybody has a different system and they're all good. I think it always gets down to executing. It still gets down to how you play and how they play."

Leach brings the Red Raiders to Norman on Saturday night, with the Big 12 South title going to the winner. He used this offense at Oklahoma in 1999 as the Sooners' offensive coordinator. With Josh Heupel at quarterback, Oklahoma went 7-5 to end a string of five straight nonwinning seasons.

Leach then left to take the Texas Tech job and Stoops began pressing for a better ground game. This year, the Sooners have a 1,000-yard rusher in Quentin Griffin.

Texas Tech (8-4, 5-2 Big 12) makes no pretenses about how it will attack. Kliff Kingsbury threw 60 passes in a 42-38 victory over Texas last week and is averaging 53 passes per game.

Stoops said Leach has made only minor changes to the offense during his three years in Lubbock.

"What you see, though, is a number of years with the quarterback and receivers together," he said. "They believe and know their system well, just from doing it over and over now."

Kingsbury, in his fourth year as Tech's quarterback, is No. 4 on the NCAA Division I career passing chart with 11,867 yards. He has thrown for 4,455 yards and 41 touchdowns this season, with only 10 interceptions in 634 attempts. He had 473 yards and six TDs in the upset of Texas last week.

"There's nothing that he hasn't seen, probably a couple times," said co-defensive coordinator Mike Stoops. "He's just so familiar with what they do."

Fourth-ranked Oklahoma (9-1, 5-1) is familiar with Tech as well. The Sooners have gotten the better of the Red Raiders each year that Leach has been coach, winning 27-13 in 2000 and 30-13 last year.

The difference this week, Bob Stoops said, will boil down to which team makes more plays.

"We have played very good defense the last two years we've played them," he said. We've been in the right spots, broke on the ball well, challenged receivers, blitzed well and got pressure.

"But every year you have to earn it again. We don't take it for granted that everything just stays the same."