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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/tomdawg0022 on 2023-10-18 15:45:30.
The 70’s were the heyday of the wishbone and option offenses in college football thanks to Darrell Royal, Barry Switzer, and Emory Ballard. Running was winning in those days (Brian Ferentz wants to know where a time machine is) and passing was rarely in vogue except for a few far-flung guys out at BYU or in some other pass-happy pockets of the country.
The 1973 Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns played a total of 21 regular season games (Oklahoma 11, Texas 10). Oklahoma threw the ball 103 times (completing 42), Texas 102 (completing 51). Combined, they totaled 1727 yards of passing.
How much did they run? Texas ran 638 times; Oklahoma 755. Oklahoma had two guys with over 1000 yards in an 11 game season (one of them, Joe Washington, went on to have a pretty good NFL career) and a third with over 800 yards. Texas’ Roosevelt Leaks ran for over 1400 yards and finished 3rd in the Heisman.
In comparison, Oklahoma has thrown the ball 210 times so far in 6 games this year, Texas has thrown 192.