Oklahoma State calls on an old friend to keep the offensive party alive

Oklahoma State set school records in 2010 for total yards, points and wins, and a lion's share of the credit fell logically into the lap of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen. The Cowboys were almost unanimously tabbed to finish at or near the bottom of the Big 12 South in the wake of massive attrition from one of the most hyped teams ever out of Stillwater in 2009, left to stagger into a third or fourth-tier bowl game at best. Instead, the decision to bring in Holgorsen to resurrect an offense that imploded at the end of '09 paid off with the most prolific attack in the high-flying Big 12 and the best finish in the final polls since Barry Sanders was on campus in the late eighties.

For Holgorsen, it also paid off in a head coach-in-waiting gig at West Virginia, a plum opportunity on the heels of his fourth straight season (going back to stints at Texas Tech and Houston) at the head of an attack that averaged upwards of 500 yards and 40 points per game. Oklahoma State's share of the deal? Another round of high expectations this fall, and all the potential pitfalls that accompany them. With "mature" quarterback Brandon Weeden and All-American receiver Justin Blackmon back to reprise the nation's most productive pass-catch combo alongside seven other returning starters on the offense, OSU figures to be back in the top 10 to start the season, with visions of more record-smashing shootouts pin-balling around fans' heads.

The man charged with making that vision a reality is Todd Monken, a former Oklahoma State (and LSU) assistant under Les Miles hired Wednesday from the staff of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He hasn't called plays before, but he has been around the block (he began his coaching career at Grand Valley State in 1989) and he seems open to pretty much anything that will work. "With all of the returning starters, it would be silly to break up what they already have going," Moken told OSU's official site. "When I was at Louisiana Tech [in 2000-01], we were no-huddle. When I was at Oklahoma State under Les, it was power running and going straight ahead. The key is to be flexible."

"Flexible" may be as good a hint as Cowboy fans are going to get as to the identity of the offense in the fall, especially if it begins to evolve into its nearest cousin, "balance." Before Holgorsen's version of the "Air Raid" lit up the skies last year, the offense remained under the thumb of head coach Mike Gundy, who consistently produced one of the most balanced attacks in the country: The Cowboys averaged over 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing per game three years in a row from 2006-08 and finished in the top 25 in total and scoring offense all three years – most notably in 2007, when they mastered the art of balance by putting up 243.2 yards per game on the ground and through the air. Even in the most pass-happy season of Gundy's tenure, the Cowboys were able to produce the Big 12's leading rusher, Kendall Hunter, a consensus All-American at running back. Through the mediocrity of Gundy's first three seasons as head coach, the problem has almost never been the offense.

The glaring exception to that run was 2009, the year of high expectations, when the offense sagged into the bottom half of the conference and eventually collapsed under the weight of key injuries and other attrition at the end of the year. It was after back-to-back debacles against Oklahoma (a 27-0 OSU loss) and Ole Miss (21-7) to close the season that Gundy decided – likely under some pressure – to hand over the controls to an outsider. Obviously, the injection of new blood was exactly what the offense needed.

Still, the prevailing question for the next six months is how much of last year's major resurgence can be chalked up to Holgorsen, and how much goes with him to Morgantown. Not we're talking about a "collapse" situation here: With so much proven talent in place and a pair of veteran hands on the controls, the only glitch in the system is in comparison to the extremely tough act it has to follow. But opposite a suspect-as-usual defense, the bonanza under Holgorsen wasn't just extravagant window dressing. The Cowboys won two games in 2010 in which opponents scored at least 35 points, and put 41 on the board themselves in both of their losses. With six starters gone, the defense isn't likely to improve, and may take a step back. If the offense takes one, too,

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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