What's Gavin Sawchuk's ceiling in 2024? Can Sooners keep momentum in 2025 recruiting?

Intro Gavin Sawchuk finished the season quite strong but what's the ceiling let's find out on locked on Sooners you are locked on Sooners your daily podcast on the Oklahoma Sooners part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day what's up sooner Nation welcome to lockon Sooners and thank you for making lockon Sooners your first listen every single day today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more new customers join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $ five or more wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started my name is John Williams you can follow me on Twitter John N Williams my buddy here is Josh Hummer you can follow him on Twitter at Josh Onre you can also hear him Monday through through Friday from 9:00 to noon on the KF Sports app and Josh Gavin Sawchuk had a very nice season in 2023 finished the year with five straight 100 yard games over that stretch averaged Sawchuk in 2023 more than seven yards per carry and finished the year as one of pro football focus's top 10 graded freshman running backs yeah he's right there uh toward the the top of the list with West Virginia's Jahim Wy and IUS Taylor of Minnesota all the way down to obviously Sauk according to Pro Football Focus at uh number seven and probably without knowing a ton about all of the names in front of him you could probably make an argument he was as impactful or more imp impactful than a number of those guys I'm sure on that list John and yet uh just in the the grading that they did he wasn't the top R freshman running back but certainly well within the uh the top 10 he did uh he did have a a strong finish to last season and I think it's the biggest reason right why we feel pretty good now all of a sudden about what's going on with Oklahoma at running back going into 2024 which uh didn't necessarily feel like that's something we were going to feel which is sort of wild we spent all of last off season ahead of 2023 feeling great about what Oklahoma had at running back and then it didn't play out that way throughout the the front half of the Season whether it was offensive line if it was running backs Collective Health if it was performance of running backs it was a slow start for U and then of course the rapid finish for Gavin satuk you have to be excited about what SATA can bring to the table and really just the entirety of Oklahoma's running backs I feel like we're kind of back to a lot of the feelings that we had last offseason John Dew feel pretty good about the running back room yeah I think you got to feel good about the running back room especially the way Sawchuk finished the season I think if it were still kind of up and down throughout the 2023 season you'd probably still have a bit of trepidation about where the depth chart's heading even though you're bringing in a Taylor Tatum the number one running back in the country and an Xavier Robinson who was incredibly productive in his uh years at Carl Albert High uh but with what Sauk was able to do you feel great about it because I mean this was a guy that wasn't just you know good I felt like he was really really good good especially because he was able to break a lot of long runs for the Sooners which was a bit of an issue early in the season you know he didn't play much in the first half but by the end of the year I mean he was probably one of the more productive players you know over that five game stretch uh that he played I mean he was I gotta say he was probably one of the best running backs in the country during that stretch of games and it was just long run after long run after long run and obviously the offensive line kind of being unsettled for the first part of the Season also didn't really help the running back situation but it it seemed like once they finally got Gavin Sauk healthy and they settled on him that things kind of took off I mean Toby Walker had been playing good ball you know for much of the first half of the season but they were ready to let Sawchuk loose and once he got on the field in a more regular role he provided and he rewarded DeMarco Murray's and Jeff levies and Brent Venable's faith in him to be a productive Runner and so the the future is very exciting for him you know I think you know you look at the running back position and obviously he's your rb1 going into next season now you get javante Barnes healthy that gives you a a stable option as a you know onea 1B situation or just a backup runner for you and then you bring in a guy like Sam Franklin who's productive at the FCS level you bring in Taylor Tatum who's probably going to factor in at some point in his you know freshman season but with Chuck you've got to feel good now it's just a matter of keeping him healthy so that he can continue to develop his game so that he goes into 2023 or sorry 2024 and just kind of ready to run you know not having to work his way into things midseason he can hit the ground running week one and then just take off to your point about the long runs the uh long runs his his longest run through the Kansas game uh on the season with was 30 yards okay to end the season these are games against Oklahoma State West Virginia at BYU TCU Arizona long of 64 long of 30 long of 29 long of 41 long of 62 so it really was yeah that point forward every single game he was ripping off a a chunk run for Oklahoma and uh I obviously got into the end zone uh you know rushing the football two5 six times and uh and really finish the season strong so he was scoring touchdowns John ripping off chunk runs and uh racking up a 100 yards plus every single game and I think that's the expectation now right for SAA going into this next season is okay he's your number one guy Tatum is he gonna step right in and because he's the five-star kid uh Uber talented freshman is he gonna take uh you know legitimate snaps away from these other guys or is it more javante Barnes or is it a Franklin who you touched on briefly what does everything around Sawchuk look like because right now going in he's uh he's the oddson favorite to get the bulk of the carries next season because that's things ended in 2023 he turned into the explosive track star runner that we were anticipating in what he had the the touchdown run at BYU was particularly encouraging too right because he showcased the strength on that run down in Provo so it wasn't just the track speed it was okay I've got some some strength to me as well so I guess the question if it's how good can Gavin Sauk be I think he can be uh you know in line with the Rodney Anderson's in recent memory for Oklahoma if he keeps on this type of trajectory John yeah and I don't see any reason why he couldn't keep on that trajectory I mean he again he was really really good this past season you know you look at Breakaway percentage it's a a Pro Football Focus metric that looks at just you know the runs that are are Breakaway runs they're greater than 15 yards and Gavin satuk ranks favorably if you look at Runners who had at least what 84 carries sorry uh 59 carries in the 2023 season Gavin Sauk came in at number 14 in Breakaway percentage he had 14 runs for over 15 yards the dude was just Dynamic once he got past the line of scrimmage and I expect you know with a veteran offensive line group and maybe you have your answer as to what your offensive Line's going to look like week one as opposed to having to shuffle guys because you're not sure what your left guard situation is going to be about maybe Gavin Sawchuk hits the ground running like I said and he's not dealing with okay I I get a big run one run and then I get a one yard run the next run or I get dropped for a loss because the offensive line Situation's not great not settled and so I'm looking forward to what he can do going into year two again for him for javante Barnes It's about staying healthy during the off season because you got to continue to build physically and and build upon what performance you had if you can't stay healthy in the offseason it's going to be difficult for you to grow and and continue to get better at your position and then be able to just kind of Jump Right In week one because they're going to need them I mean going into the SEC you're going to need to create big plays you cannot rely on driving the football eight 10 12 14 play drives and expect the score with much regularity you got to hit big plays and he's a big play threat every time he touches the football the Oklahoma sers have also been big play threats on the recruiting Trail in the 2025 recruiting class but what does that fast start mean FanDuel for the Sooners as they just finished with their first Junior Day this past week weekend we'll discuss that next coming up here on lock on sooner is your team every day Super Bowl 58 it's uh nearly upon us the Kansas City Chiefs will Square Off versus the San Francisco 49ers and it is a happy Super Bowl to all of us who celebrate from 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cycle for the 2024 class we didn't get our first commitment until March 23rd that was Jeremiah Nukem and then kind of the ball started rolling over the next six months and the class started to really come together you got Kevin sper committed last March to this class and the ball started rolling so what does the fast start mean for this recruiting class because they sit here now they're number five if you look over at 247 sports team rankings uh with nine prospects committed five of those being Blue Chip the fourstar variety and quite a few four five-star prospects that they're still very much heavily in the mix for guys like Jonah Williams a guy like Landon rink a guy like Caleb Cunningham uh very big names that Oklahoma's going to be pursuing it's going to be a long road between now and next year's national Signing Day but I think Oklahoma is really off to a obviously they're off to a fantastic start but they've got the ball rolling now as they head into spring spring yeah just looking at the 247 Sports ranking uh number five overall according to 247 Sports I don't have rivals in front of me I'd be curious to know where they sit there but uh initial response what does it mean well number one it means they're off to a totally different path than they've taken in the the prior classes under Brent vinales right I mean this is happening rapidly as you you mentioned John but the other thing I think that it means is don't you feel pretty confident that Oklahoma's going to stack another top 10 class here and really maybe we're in the ballpark of talking about is Oklahoma staying right within the top five and potentially climbing a little bit higher than that I think if you mix what you've already done with this recruiting class and uh mix and match it with some onfield success immediately in the SEC that could be the ingredient to really tip this thing over the top and make it a you know a memorable class again for Oklahoma so my expectation would be with them off to the fast in in no small part instate start to this class right is a big part of a lot of it I I think it sets the table sets the stage for Oklahoma to again make this a top 10 top five maybe even higher than that class yeah they're gonna have to stay in the top 10 you know when you're in the top 10 in the National recruiting rankings that doesn't necessarily mean you're a top five team in the SEC so you have to be at least in the top 10 that that is kind of the floor for your recruiting you've got to be able to land talented players every single year and stack those classes together otherwise you're going to have a really really hard time competing with Georgia competing with Alabama competing with Ohio State now Alabama the thing has changed a little bit now that sabin's gone and and Kaylin dbor is in but I expect Kaylin dor to recruit well especially on the offensive side of the ball uh with Ryan grub and to as offensive coordinator and we know Alabama's going to do a pretty good job recruiting defense as well so you're still going to have to contend there but you have to put together good classes after good class after good class and all things considered Oklahoma looks on that trajectory again to have at least a top 10 class and pushing for the top five if they're able to land some of these five star prospects that they're pursuing now it's still very very early in some of these recruiting battles but with what Oklahoma's already done in this cycle it wouldn't surprise me to see them land a big time Prospect over the next four or five months you know spring game is obviously going to be a big deal uh the champu barbecue will be a huge huge recruiting event as well as it always is and then we'll probably see a lot of these guys that are that are prospects you know wait on some official visits you know in the in the fall to come to game day and see see what a game day atmosphere is like with the Sooners but I mean I'm not really worried you know with what Oklahoma's been able to pull off in Brent Venable's you know two full recruiting cycles for the 2023 and 2024 class and then his two-month recruiting cycle uh at the end of the 2022 cycle I mean what's not to like really obviously you want to get everybody you're not gonna get everybody that's not going to be the reality but you're getting a lot of really good talented players and you're doing it on both sides of the ball there's a lot of balance to what you're doing you've you've landed a five-star quarterback a festar running back you've landed a five-star Edge a five-star defensive tackle I mean you're Landing blue chips on the offensive line at linebacker defensive line wide receiver defensive back I mean now it's just a matter of getting these guys on campus and developing them so I expect in 2025 for them to continue to be a top 10 recruiting class now recruiting rankings are subjective you know what one organization likes in a player another organization may not like in a player as we're seeing with the on three David Stone controversy but I mean you can even go look at the team recruiting rankings right now Rivals has Oklahoma at number five on three our friends over on three they have him at number 11 in the team recruiting rankings at this point in the 2025 cycle but again it's subjective and we're going to trust the evaluations of of the coaching staff along the way because yeah okay maybe a guy like Daniel Aken Kumi maybe he's a three star but there's a lot of talent there and there's a lot of upside with that kid that could come in and be a big time player for you maybe not year one but at some point in his Oklahoma career he's going to be starting some Big Time games for you so it's a process and it's a Stars Matter long process and yes the Stars matter at the same time we're also going to weigh those coaching evaluations too if they like a kid whether he's got a three or four star or five star we should trust that they kind of know what they're doing a little bit sure yeah and hopefully as uh these next couple of years go along we'll be even more confident in saying that because we'll have seen the proof more and more right as some of these guys develop and and turn into success stories for Oklahoma obviously they're GNA be able to recruit wide receivers I mean I that much has been pretty clear ever since emit Jones took the gig he's been just crushing on the recruiting Trail and off to a fast start with nickens with Thomas and with Grayson Harris already I really love the uh Kamari Moore commitment just because again that has to be the foundation for uh for what you do in the SEC and really if uh you want to make it the ACC or you want to make it the Big 10 or even if you were sticking in the Big 12 the foundation of championship football starts with kids like Kamari MO more in your class right 61 295 definition of plug and stop a gap so they're off to a great start they obviously got to continue and continue to add uh Blue Chip high-profile kids but they're in the mix for a lot of that they're gonna have to win those high-profile recruiting Wars which it sounds like you probably took a couple of nice steps forward and in several recruitments with the junior day recently and I would think having a number of names already in tow if you're asking okay what does it mean well feel like that gives you a chance to really snowball things the more ears that or the more voices you have in said ears that helps you right the peer recruiting we've talked about it a lot in the past that that has been a key component for Oklahoma and you've got a fast start with that in this class yeah if there's one guy just one final thought on this you mentioned Kamari Moore if there's one guy that could have a fast rise over the next year or a big time rise it's Kamari Moore the the dude's got traits that are really really impressive along the defensive interior and I think you could see this kid end up as a fourstar by the time we're all said and done here Oklahoma bounced back Oklahoma Bounces Back with a big win over Kansas State on the hardwood we're going to talk about that here on lockon Sooners I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life but can we talk for just just a moment about preparing for real life according to the FDA pharmacies are running out of antibiotics like amoxicillin right in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade I know what you're thinking scary stuff I can't imagine a more helpless feeling than one of the loved ones in my life my fiance Amanda not being able to get the life-saving medication they need because of a supply chain issue thankfully we'll be okay because of Jace medical the Jace case is a pack of five different antibiotics to treat a long list of bacterial illnesses such as UTI respiratory infections skin infections among others any of these things could happen to any of us visit jal.com jal.com and complete your physician encounter it'll be reviewed by a board certified physician and your medications will be dispensed by a licensed pharmacy at a fraction of the regular cost it's never been more important to be prepared than today go to Jas medical.com use offer code locked on to get $20 off your order the Oklahoma sers bounced back with a huge win on Tuesday night over the Kansas State Wildcats 73- 53 in this game Oklahoma jumped out quick scoring the first eight points of the game and holding Kansas State to nothing for the first five minutes uh held K State to under 25% shooting in the first half and Oklahoma shot 50% you do that you're going to put yourself in a position to have a 16-point lead at halftime now the Wildcats brought it to within seven with about eight minutes left to play in the game and then the Oklahoma sers proceeded to go on a 22 to seven run 22 sorry 22 to nine run to close the game so a big- Time Kansas State Performance yes Kansas State's not ranked but they've had some good wins so far in Big 12 Play they've had a winning record in big 12 Play you're coming out of a two- game losing streak to Texas and Texas Tech had to have this game and Oklahoma came through well it uh certainly didn't play out at least from one standpoint the way that maybe I would have thought Milos yuzan and OTA o combining to shoot two for 16 and uh score six points that probably wasn't the recipe I would have drawn up for you but a lot of the other items you mentioned uh were for U right obviously the defensive first half set the tone by night's end Kansas State shoots 30% in its own building 14% from three yeah that's gonna win you a lot of basketball games and oh by the way Oklahoma won the turnover margin 9 to4 K State coughed it up 14 times Oklahoma took care of the basketball and uh over the years thinking back to brainage Coliseum being a house of horrors there's a lot of times where Oklahoma turned it over a heck of a lot more than nine times in a b BB game in Manhattan Kansas so they did a much better job in that regard and then obviously the important piece was jvon McCollum being the JV and McCollum were accustomed to with 21 Jaylen Moore had another big- time performance with 23 Godwin had a good game sorz another really efficient performance and uh Oklahoma set the tone came out and and you know this is yes not a ranked K State team John as you said but this is a Kansas State team that was equally desperate to Oklahoma they were coming in riding their own two game losing streak with the the return inside the friendly confines of Manhattan in bramage Coliseum thinking okay we're gonna write the ship tonight and Oklahoma spoiled the party so a big time win for U and now let's see if they can double down later this week and go get another nice Road win over UCF yeah the defensive effort was better you saw guys closing out on Shooters a lot better staying with their guys not getting beat off the dribble as much and there was a lot better help when that was there you just didn't see K State get a lot of easy buckets you know even when they made their run in the second half and they were kind of closing in on the Sooners nothing was easy for Kansas State and that's because Oklahoma's playing really good defense Jaylen Moore man the dude is a highlight reel first of all but I love his game because he's getting to the basket he's getting you easy buckets yeah he shot three three-pointers but he was also pretty good at it two of three on the night so you know when this team has needed a bucket he's come through in a big way and you need him to you need to have an interior presence and I was impressed by Sam Godwin's per performance as well even though he didn't shoot great from the free throw line I think he missed six free throws he he provided you a scoring option inside with some of his postgame and you need him to do that you can't just have a guy out there that doesn't provide you much in in the way of scoring he just looked like a more confident player down actually you know trying to work for his own shot and not just you know looking for putbacks or easy layups you know off the feeds no he was you know backing guys down and using that jump hook and it was effective for Oklahoma so if they can get more of that and they can have more balanced attack and not solely rely on jav and McCollum takea o or Milo suzon or even Jaylen Moore they can get more out of that that number five that Center then it's going to help them a lot moving forward but yeah it was a really really good performance youi needed to have something like this uh to get maybe Kickstart the second half of Big 12 play and and take you into March because you're you're GNA have a lot of battles over the next however many games You' got to be able to win some of these and this was a big win it was a gut check win you know we talked about it maybe on yesterday's show as being a must-win it felt like that going in and Oklahoma responded they responded very very well don't want to get too out over our our skis here because Texas and Texas Tech and you know a couple weeks before that the road trip to TCU in Kansas where had a great first half really for the most part at KU but didn't didn't uh double it down in the second half so we've seen weeks where Oklahoma goes missing right it loses both games I kind of think though if you you go win at UCF you've got a chance to get on a little bit of a rle here where you welcome a good BYU team the next week inside the lnc uh a not very good bad Oklahoma State team you got to take care of business there so there's a a situation I can see arising here for U where all of a sudden we look up and they're on a four-game winning streak heading down to wakeo who knows take care of business there then you talk about you're you're riding maybe a five gamer when when KU comes to town so I do think that possibility exists for Oklahoma but obviously you got to stack Road winds you gotta first things first this weekend go take care of business at UCF I think the big takeaway from tonight or from Tuesday night was that they closed they had a strong second half this team against Texas against Texas Tech they kind of faded in the second half you could say the same thing against Kansas you know the the TCU game was so long ago I can't remember exactly what that score was at halftime but it it had become a troubling trend for Oklahoma to not play as well in the second half as they did in the first well that wasn't the case they continued to take it to Kansas State both on both ends of the floor and they were attacking the glass and completely dominated the boards especially on the offensive end Jaylen Moore and Sam Godwin combined for nine offensive rebounds between the two of them which is gonna it's gonna help you you're gonna win a lot of games when you have that and then obviously you win the turnover battle that helps too but just maintaining that same level of effort and play and efficiency that's going to be huge the the stretch where you know Kansas State started to kind of close in on Oklahoma's lead they got a little bit lack I felt like maybe you know taking some quick shots they weren't finishing at The Rim it didn't look like the same Oklahoma sers that we'd seen in the first half so but they rided it they rided the ship again went on that big run to close the game and you get a 20-point win on the road in the Big 12 and it's all smiles but you got to turn around and take care of business against UCF because if you don't this win will be for not it really will be and and it'll keep everybody in that same place of just owe you basketball I guess but no you gotta keep putting wins together and you've got an opportunity like Josh said to make a run here and they're in a pretty good spot in terms of I mean look uh they're not knocking down the door of the top four seeds line yet right so you're you're not uh playing in a favorable spot in terms of where you would start an NCAA tournament birth out where fans can you know travel and make it easy easily accessible yet but Oklahoma before this win was uh 34th in the 33rd in the net rankings this is going to probably wind up as a quad two win at Kansas State Kansas state was right there at 73 quad one would be uh anything on the road 75 or higher I'm gonna guess that with the loss Kansas state will fall back below 75 but it's you know a pretty good OU team in terms of the net rankings so maybe they'll stay right there and it will be a quad one win bottom line it's going to help Oklahoma's resume they're in a pretty good spot with that they're very clearly on the right side of the bubble for the Inc tournament this is what we said right you're still pretty comfortable right now but you can't keep losing games well they they slowed the skid they halted it got the dub that they needed to get at K State now go take care of business and then get on a role and we can start having the okay what does this game or that mean mean for seating it less about okay are they gonna get into the NCAA tournament yeah it's uh you know the end of January now so we've got what four weeks five weeks till March Madness it's all it's all coming down to this you got to take care of business and the games that you have to win and then go steal a game or two that you're not supposed to win to make your resume really really nice and juicy for the tournament selection committee that's going to do it for today's episode of Locked on Sooners thanks so much and tuning into the show and being the part of the show subscribe wherever you get your podcast we're free and available on all podcast platforms follow Josh on Twitter at Josh Onre myself at John N Williams the show is at lockon Sooners but until next time he's Josh I'm John Boomer merer