Oklahoma’s Offense May Have a New Under-Center Element

NORMAN — The question has been asked by many over the offseason: Is Oklahoma going more traditional on offense? Does Ben Arbuckle want to add his quarterback going under center more to his air raid attack?

With Oklahoma's season opener just over 48 hours away, everything is anyone's best guess. If you paid attention to the chatter coming from the players during the offseason, it seems like going under center has been something the Sooners have repped a healthy amount.

Then you throw in Brent Venables' mandate that the running game return to the standard set by decades of great OU rushing attacks, and you can start to envision more of a downhill attack as opposed to the spread offense's preferred shotgun front.

"Really, it's under center that's the only thing (that's difficult with a new starter)," Mateer said during Fall Camp. "Catching it out of the gun is kind of the same, it ends up at your chest most of the time. It's really the same."

That question came during the period when the question of OU's starting center spot was still up in the air. Ryan Fodje has since won the job for the season opener but has also gone down with a minor injury — he's already returned to practice and is out for UTEP, according to a Sooners On SI source.

The assumed starter for Friday's game against the Miners is Caleb Nitta, who was more cautious with his words last week when asked about the Sooners going under center.

"I'm not sure," Nitta said. "I mean, we've done some. I really wasn't expecting, you know, are we doing some, are we not? I just kind of came in with an open mind.

Nitta did provide insight that working under center with Mateer started all the way when Nitta arrived in Norman this year.

"From the beginning, he's always like, ‘Alright, like, let's get this started. Let's, let's tell me how you like it. Where do you, where do you put the ball?’" Nitta said. "That's something from the beginning, even just in winter, even when I first got here, that's something we worked on."

Arbuckle downplayed the notion that having different centers repping snaps at practice due to injury is a cause for concern.

"I mean for any quarterback it’s a new center. But most quarterbacks will probably tell you they’ve taken snaps from a lot of people. So it’s just another guy under there," Arbuckle said on Monday.

Bringing in three tight ends with reputations for being great blockers also helps paint the picture of how Arbuckle and Venables have mapped out a slight change with their offense.

Will it take place on Friday night, or will the Sooners break out some under center work later in their schedule? Talking time is running out.

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