OU Football - Drastic change in offensive philosophy in our future?

So I'm sitting here on a Saturday morning, dreading having to wait until 8:15ish to watch our Sooners (thanks a lot ESPiN).  And as I typically do most weekend mornings, I'm perusing the interwebs for any and all things OU related. As you would expect, the local newspapers (online of course) are a couple of the regular stops.  Now I won't bore you with my personal thoughts on a majority of our local writers and my opinion on the lack of quality of their work, but the simple fact remains I have to keep going back until I receive the same kind of access to the OU program. So as I'm reading along in the Tulsa World when I come across the following headline Talented young Sooners a blessing, dilemma for coaches.  Now the guy who wrote this article, Dave Sittler, is admittedly not a favorite of mine (I'm sure that will keep him up at night) and someone I've never met.  But based on a lot of the stuff of his I've read, in my opinion is someone who has very little respect for OU fans.  Admittedly I could be off base in that assumption, but he routinely uses emails from OU fans as material for his opinion pieces articles and typically does so in a demeaning manor so right or wrong that's how I've come to this opinion.  Now I know I said I wouldn't bore you with my opinion, but allow me to briefly contradict myself and indulge me a mini rant after the jump.  And I promise I'll get to the main point of this story and the OU offense.

Please feel free to jump ahead, I promise it won't hurt my feelings.

I continue to be amazed at how we as fans are regarded as know nothing idiots who have less than zero right to question the almighty OU coaching staff.  Amazed how our opinions simply can't hold any water because we're just a fan, how could we possibly know what we're talking about?  Then you go and read these guys who conveniently switch back and forth between guy who is paid to "report" on the team and guy who is paid to "give his opinion" on the team. They seem to have a lot of trouble distinguishing between the two roles and almost always inject their opinion into what they write.  So my question is why are we supposed to care about their opinions and maybe more importantly, why is their opinion so much more credible than you and I?  The same thing happens on local sports radio all the time as well. The know it all hosts will go on and on about the OU offense struggling all game for instance, then they take a caller who complains about Kevin Wilson and they can't hang up on the guy fast enough while continuing to berate him (after they kicked him off the air mind you and with no chance to defend themselves) for being such an idiot.  Look I'm not saying I can teach the x's and o's of football better than the OU coaches, not even close.  But what I do know is that I've been watching OU football religiously for the better part of my adult life and I know for a fact we have readers that have done the exact same and done it for much longer than I have.  So the premise that in those 5, 10, 20, 30+ years it's absolutely ridiculous to assume that I/they have gleamed nothing about the game of football.  So my very long winded point is just because you have a forum like the local paper or radio in no way makes your opinion any more valid than mine or any other rational OU fan.  9 out of 10 times you're just repeating something we as fans have been saying for weeks anyway, so get down off that high horse of yours and come to grips with the fact that you're not nearly as clever as you think you are.

Okay, rant over now we can get back to the point.  

So I'm sitting on my couch enjoying a Saturday morning not subjecting myself to ESPiN Gameday and their typical lack of coverage of OU football while giving Urban The Crier and his pathetic excuse of a football team plenty of face time (ok, I might have watched a little bit).  Trying to get through Mr. Sittler's article about what a tough job Coach Stoops has trying to get all this young talent on the field (hold on, let me get my tissue) and Sittler is talking about Roy Finch getting playing time over DeMarco Murray.  Then Dave takes a left turn towards Landry Jones potentially losing his starting job next year?  Ok, I'll follow along.  He goes on to bring up the attempted Cam Newton recruitment and then tries to sneak in this little nugget of "insider" information.

Even though he missed on Newton, insiders confirm that Stoops remains enamored with adjusting his spread offense by adding the zone-read option.  The 6-4, 219-pound Jones may remain OU's starter through his senior season of 2012. But if Stoops remains set on running the zone-read option efficiently, Jones might not have the speed to operate the offense.

Now I'd like to think I follow the OU program as closely as almost anyone and while I certainly don't have any inside sources, this is without a doubt the first I've heard of anything remotely related to Stoops' desire to go to a zone read offense.  To Sittler's point, you can't ignore the fact that OU has appeared to change the type of QB they are recruiting.  Current backup Drew Allen is a guy with a big arm, but also as we saw briefly in the ISU game a kid who can pull it down and run a little bit as well.  I think most OU fans are familiar with QB Blake Bell, currently redshirting, and his dual threat ability.  Then you look at next year's incoming class and current OU legacy and QB commit Kendall Thompson.  Thompson is not his father, but he is a kid who is regarded as quite mobile and according to Sittler "a perfect fit to operate out of the zone-read option."

So to those points, you'd have to say that Sittler may have a valid point.  I was just blown away when I read it because it would be such a drastic shift in offensive philosophy for OU and Stoops.  I hate to even use the following for comparison's sake, but do we really want to see a 'Colt McCoy style' offense from our Sooners?

If you told me we've already adopted their passing game, throwing nothing but short horizontal passes, I'd have a hard time arguing with you.  In my mind I know it's not the case, but it just feels like this current Kevin Wilson offense very, very rarely goes vertical down the field anymore.  So while I like the idea of having a run threat at QB as opposed to a guy who is almost always going to take a sack if his first read isn't open behind this o-line, I have also always HATED the UT offense.  I think it stunts the development of your offensive players, specifically the QB, by asking them to do nothing but run five yard routes all the time.  Also, at least judging by the current UT example, it seems like the o-line is soft and when you need to lineup and play smash mouth football they're rarely capable of doing so.  

I hated the Colt McCoy offense, I think it's a gimmick offense, and I do not want to see OU go to anything remotely resembling that UT offense.  If the offense were in the hands of anyone other than Kevin Wilson (our Greg Davis), I'd have a heck of a lot more confidence in this type of change.  I'll refrain from turning this into a Wilson rant, but there is just no argument remaining to defend his ability to call a game.  So is there any reason to think that if OU were to switch to this style of offense that he'd be any better than Greg Davis?

So what do you think Sooner fans?  Do you think this is feasible?  Do you think OU would actually switch to this type of offense?  Do you think I'm reading way too much into that one Sittler comment?  Do you think I'm a over reactionary lunatic?  We've got all day before our kickoff, so jump in the comments and let us know your take.  I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on OU running this style of offense.