If others read this in another thread I'm sorry if I'm being redundant. However I think a problem may be that whether Wats and Bo got together and decided they wanted a run heavy option offense, or Bo told Wats that is what he wanted--"get it for me", I don't know. But it is pretty obvious they don't want to go with the passing game that last year's ship sank on.
However, we did not start over and put in an offense based on a power running game with slick option components. Wats simply tweaked his base West Coast Offense and said "now we are a option heavy running team". It doesn't usually work like that. As I mentioned in the other thread, UCLA's coaches decided they needed to get more run performance and decided to go to the Pistol. They scrapped the entire offense they had been running--I don't know what it was probably a pro set. Anyway they went up to nevada and worked with his staff and installed the offense to feature what they wanted to do, from the ground up, working on it in the spring and fall. Judging from the Texas game they are getting better at it.
Anyway, I think part of the problem is that what we really did, was take a one dimensional offense from last year which was pretty well shut down (Lee's passing game) when we reached conference play and replace it with a one dimensional running game that is not really slick when compared with option teams like Navy or Airforce or Ga. tech, though they didn't look good this year, they have in the past.
Anyway we will know in the next three weeks how successful it is going to be. Those huge playbooks are totally silly. What you need is a team that is so good at the one thing they do that even knowing it, you can't stop them. An example was TT spread against us last year, or Air Force against Oklahoma this year, though they lost, you could tell OU was on their heels. You knew what they were going to do and couldn't stop it. The other way is to be multiple--that is what the Pistol strives for and UCLA stopped throwing when Texas shut that down and ran it right down their throat but still had Tejas respecting the pass. Alabama with a great line and the best back in the country, still has J Jones as a wideout that keeps a D very honest. You load the box, they will kill you.
So I could be wrong and we will walk through our last campaign in the big 12 and be in that NCG that many of you are determined we are destined for. But I am afraid we are going to have a hard time repeating that early season success and you don't teach a QB to become a skilled passer/decision maker in a couple weeks. Without it, we will be much like KSU and their all american back and poor throwing QB.