OSU football: Hurryup Holgorsen

Dana Holgorsen is a bizarro Beach Boy. The new Oklahoma State offensive coordinator gets there slow, then he takes it fast.

That’s one way to describe the offense that has landed in Stillwater.

Larry Fedora brought the no-huddle offense to OSU five years ago, but no-huddle didn’t automatically mean hurryup. Sometimes the ball was quickly snapped, sometimes not.

In Holgorsen’s spread formation, the Cowboys aren’t wasting time.

State coach Mike Gundy estimated that in the last couple of years, OSU snapped the ball 24 seconds after the previous play ended. This spring, OSU is snapping the ball 14 seconds later.

“We’ll be playing faster than ever,” Gundy said. “It surprised me they could do that this quick.”

Call it a monument to quality teaching. In spring workouts, there’s been a whole lot of talking going on.

“What I’m most impressed with is the style of teaching,” Gundy said. “It’s more laid-back. Their way is get information to players and get them to execute over thousands of reps.”

OSU usually spends the first 30 minutes of practice in walk-through mode. A slowed tempo, with Holgorsen explaining everything.

How radical will the new offense look for Saturday night’s spring game at Boone Pickens Stadium? We’ve got clues from Holgorsen’s Houston U. and Texas Tech days.

How effective will it be? We’ll see. Fedora’s 2005 offense struggled, then took off and, with a few hiccups, remained high-octane even after he took the Southern Miss coaching job.

Gundy has gone hands off, just as he did with Fedora in 2005.

“I’ve stayed away, just watching from a distance,” Gundy said. “I’ve really enjoyed watching the offense. Similar to when Larry came in. It was all new to me. I’ve enjoyed watching it. Seeing how they teach.