How Arizona Plans to Handle Facing Oklahoma's Revamped Offense

The Wildcats have spend most of December researching tendencies from Seth Littrell's past stops, but at some point they want to stop "chasing ghosts" and just play ball.

SAN ANTONIO — Seth Littrell says the Oklahoma offense won’t look much different Thursday night when the Sooners play the Alamo Bowl.

The Arizona coaching staff isn’t entirely sure.

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“Obviously they're going to run their offense,” said Wildcats defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen. “Whatever they put on tape, that's what they're going to come out in. We're prepared for other things, knowing the history of the coordinator where he came from, so we're prepared in that way.”

Nansen said the Arizona coaches have been breaking down video from Littrell’s past stops. Littrell was elevated from what always felt like a temporary analyst position after Jeff Lebby took the head coaching job at Mississippi State. Littrell’s past includes a brief stay at Arizona 20 years ago, as well as short stints as OC at Indiana and North Carolina. He also spent seven years as head coach at North Texas.

So what wrinkles will Littrell stamp on the OU offense? And how far back have the Arizona coaches dug?

Pretty far, Nansen said.

“Yeah, we had time to do it,” he said. “We have a lot of GAs so we had to put them to work to get our guys ready.”

Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch admires the thorough approach, but he also realizes there’s a pragmatic approach to the process of prepping for Littrell as a play-caller.

“You can go back and chase, at Indiana, what did he do? When he was at North Texas, what did he do? When he was at Arizona, what did he do?” Fisch said. “At some point in time you have to play fundamental football and believe in what you see, say there's going to be certain principles that his lineage will bring.

“It's three weeks. How much are you going to change in three weeks? It's that fine line of chasing ghosts which all of us can do in the coaching profession, try to find, What if they do this or that, what if he changes that. We say, We have to line up in formation, line up quickly and be prepared for a system of offense.”

To complicate things even further for the Arizona defense, the Sooners have a new quarterback as Jackson Arnold steps in for the Oregon-bound Dillon Gabriel.

But Littrell will simplify it for everyone still wondering what the OU offense will look like.

“It’s all there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of what you are going to rep and what you’re going to work on. There’s a lot of things I could do and I can do, but it’s a matter of what are our players good with and how much can we implement.”

The big question is what does Littrell want the OU offense to look like?

Physical,” he said. “I think that’s the mentality and I want to play complementary football and be a physical group.”

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