DeMarco Murray Has A REALLY Good Problem This Fall! | Oklahoma Sooners RB Room

the Oklahoma running back position is looking really strong looking really solid heading into 2024 what's the hierarchy look like who could be a big-time contributor we'll discuss coming up next here on lockon Sooners you are locked on Sooners your daily podcast on the Oklahoma Sooners part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and thank you for making lock on C your first listen of the day for your second listen enjoy the locked on college football podcast Spencer mofin gets you ready for an exciting season on the grid iron with discussion on the upcoming season and the everchanging landscape of College athletics including CL conference realignment the transfer portal nil new college football expanded playoffs and more locked on college football is available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day again thank you for subscribing to the show wherever you get your PO Jay the running back situation for the Oklahoma Sooners is looking really really good we've got a program we've got a team that I mean you look at where it starts with Gavin Sawchuk and then maybe Javonte Barnes Taylor Tatum Sam Franklin who looked really good in Spring you got Xavier Robinson and then you've got Andy bass who's injured gonna be recovering he'll be he'll medical red shirt this year where does running back start for you what is the thought that you have when you start thinking about the running back position I think the biggest thing for me is it's not even you know even asked the question about rb1 being solidified it it goes into rb2 like who's going to be the second guy on the field who's going to be potential third down back who's also going to be potential PowerBack right we have multiple options this year because it looks like we're healthy right gavonte Barnes was out there today at the practice and you saw him moving around some of the Insiders and uh the local media got the go watch a little bit they put out some videos and you get to see him move I'm like oh wow he's kind of looking like Javonte Barnes of Florida State the one we were hyping up before you know his his entire freshman season like okay this going to be the dude that's probably going to be next in line and so all right hopefully he gets healthy so for me it's that second position who's going to be there next to Gavin souchu because we know sawchuk's got it lined up he's healthy right now knock on wood and he gave us those five straight games of 100 yard plus so even with quote unquote makeshift uh offensive lines he made the magic happen and so we asked this question of what is Sawchuk going to uh is Sauk going to continue to hold on to that position is it going to be Barnes at number two is Caleb Hicks going to take it Sam Franklin he transferred in for a reason right who's all going to play and then of course you goes to the Freshman which we can talk about them in just a minute but I ask you who do you think is going to be that number two dude that we will see going into I'd say Tennessee because I think the first three games is when we'll figure it out yeah I thank you for mentioning Caleb Hicks that was an oversight on my part because that's a guy that's been running with the second team uh and I think right now probably you're seeing Gavin Sawchuk Javonte Barnes getting a lot of the first team reps just because they're the veteran players they've been around you know uh Barnes just two years ago had over 500 yards rushing emerged as the rb2 behind Eric gray and looked really really good uh again he had three 100 yard games I want to say had five games with more than 50 yards had a bunch of games with more than 10 carries I think it was four games with more than 10 carries on the season in 2022 so a really really productive Runner it's just that 2023 year I mean he just really got hindered by the injury bug so I think you know it's Gavin Sawchuk Pro I'm gonna say it's Javon Barnes and then I think you're looking at Caleb Hicks and Taylor Tatum as as the next guys up for Oklahoma Brent venables spoke highly Taylor Tatum and they said he's going to be a guy that helps us and they got to figure out ways to get him on the field I thought this quote on Taylor Tatum was really really interesting from Jackson Arnold when he met with the media on Tuesday Jackson says I thought he's been really good and I think Taylor adds a unique passing element to our game whether you line him up and empty or do whatever put him in the passing game he's very versatile he's definitely gonna be a good option for us this year sort of along those lines so I think Taylor Tatum's going to have a role even though he just arrived in the summer everybody's been very complimentary of what the work has been looking like with Taylor Tatum obviously he was the number one running back in the 2024 cycle for a reason he's real good so I think you'll see him a lot yeah and and mentioning that coming out the back field I know that in some Seth lro offensive sets we he's thrown out there two running backs right so how intriguing would it be to have a Taylor Tatum in the back field next to a Gavin Sawchuk or Javonte Barnes and then you go ahead and motion him out there to be the wide receiver and that linebacker's following him he don't know what to do Tatum's a 4440 guy right so he's fast so he's going to get out there be able to outrun the linebacker as they cross everybody around him and then boom could potentially be gone for the touchdown and so leveraging that versatility of the young guy it's going to be awesome cuz he can't catch right I remember us watching him in high school in one game he threw a touchdown caught a touchdown and he ran for it touchdown it's like dude like what what are you what are you what are we doing here right that's the best part about getting the number one running back in the country that's seen as a big- Time athlete is that he's doing so many versatile things and so I like the fact that we're looking at leveraging him like that that's going to that's going to really be impactful for the different sets that Seth latr is going to be able to show because ain't nobody seen Seth latrell's offenses in a bit so it's going to be it's going to be difficult for some of these SEC schools to figure out what we're going to do well I think it's beneficial because you've got a guy like Sauk who's going to get your 15 carries a game and DeMarco Murray is gonna want to play multiple guys I mean Murray knows as much as anybody any running back coach in the country what it looks like when you get over used that the Dallas Cowboys did it to him back in the 2014 season he was never the same again they gave him 390 something carries I mean had a big big year was offensive player of the year that year but it that workload really took a toll on him physically for the remainder of his career so you're going to see two three running backs getting opportunities throughout the season and so I think it's gonna be satuk I think we're GNA see a lot of Barnes and then I think depending on how these first three non-conference games go Caleb Hicks Taylor Tatum or a mix between the two of those guys throughout the season I don't think they're going to concern themselves with you know preserving a red shirt for Taylor Tatum if he can help them win football games he's going to be out there on the field helping them win football games they're not going to worry about that now a guy like Xavier Robinson he might red shirt just because of the depth that you have at running back you don't you don't have to burn all of the red shirts and he kind of does a little bit of what gavonte Barnes does from a physical standpoint another interesting quote uh this one uh from uh javante Barnes about Seth Latrell and his offense he says he loves to run the ball and he mentioned that since day one as soon as he got the OC job he's going to run the ball and ever since fall camp and Spring ball started it's been no doubt that we've been running the ball and before you jump off and be like okay we're going back to the Barry Switzer Wishbone days no we're not doing that Jackson Arnold's too good the wide receiver room is too stinking good to not throw the ball a bunch as well but I think what this says is you're gonna have an opportunity to see a pretty even split and they're going to look for significant balance in their rushing and passing attack I wouldn't mind a flex bone or a wishbone coming back right it be fun right it's funny because I was listening to with Michael Hawkins you could do it I mean hey you could do it with Jackson Arnold like don't get it twisted dke can move right he can he can run an option on that triple option and get you right and know I was listening to uh I was listen to Dominique Foxworth from ESPN and he was talking about playing against his son on uh college football 25 right you know as you get older and you play your kids they start to cook you a little bit because you you're way more Rusty than they are so he decided to go pick Navy to go up against his son who's playing with Maryland and he's just triple optioning him to death cuz video games can't figure it out just like most schools can't actually figure it out whenever you got dudes that are actually of size and strength I mean we know the service acmy have to have smaller guys just because of requirements for you know being in the military but we get dudes that actually have that size hey man there's a good chance you could start start disrupting things but no it's going to be awesome to see and that we're going to run the ball because there was a lot of situations like last season that just about any sooner fan will say they got tired of us not running the ball and burning some clock right in some situations just let the clock run don't even try to hurry it up run it down their throat pound pound Pound and just let it ride because in those situations you could close out games Kansas you could have ended up winning the game you're supposed to win on said road yeah I think having a little bit more compliment football just a little bit more understanding of when it's time to take the foot off the gas at different points you know our defense was just on the field for eight nine plays and five six minutes okay we're gonna slow the thing down we're g to take the tempo down a little bit just to give our defense a bit of a breather but they've got the dudes to have a really really good rushing team from the running back perspective and I think the offensive Line's going to come together that's going to help them have that as well so I think this is going to be a a good running team we'll see how good they're going to be in the 2024 season y'all know me I love my sports as we just talked about the coaches poll I'm looking at Oklahoma's win total at over 7 and a half still here on FanDuel and I'm going be honest man it's an intriguing one it's one of those you may need to take advantage of because what's there to lose Oklahoma has set themselves up to be successful and so I mean like I said as much as I love love my sports man I don't want them to stop luckily the Olympics are happening right now so you have a little bit of something but with everybody's focus on that and the playoffs have winded down we're getting fewer games and they're not sporting like the way we want but FanDuel is going to keep me in the sports going wherever I want all I have to do is open up the app dream up whatever bet I want and boom make the magic happen and so this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with the booster bonus daily that is right there's something for everyone every day all summer long as summer is starting to come up so head over to fanduel.com and uh start making the most out of the last parts of this summer because football is on the way get those bets in before football season happens so FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball