Mason Young
Tulsa World OU Sports Reporter
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NORMAN — One of the main concerns coming out of OU’s 24-17 win over Auburn on Saturday is the lack of potency in the Sooners’ rushing attack.
Oklahoma ran for just 32 yards in its 2025 Southeastern Conference opener, its fewest in a win since it had 25 rushing yards in a 2005 victory over TCU, per soonerstats.com.
Quarterback John Mateer was OU’s leading rusher versus Auburn, carrying 10 times for 29 yards and a touchdown. Tory Blaylock ran 11 times for 13 yards and Jovantae Barnes toted the rock one time for zero yards.
Fixing the run game figures to be an OU priority during the bye week, before the Sooners resume play Oct. 4 versus Kent State. Receiver Deion Burks is confident that the rushing attack will come around, and unprompted he singled out a teammate he thinks will help in Jaydn Ott.
“The running game is going to get going,” Burks said postgame Saturday. “We’ll see what the boys do. They’re great at practice. They’re deep, actually. Number two, you’ve got my boy, Ott. Ott’s gonna come back and show you a lot of work. But I’m not worried about the running game.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Blaylock played 52 offensive snaps against Auburn, Barnes played 12 and Xavier Robinson played three. Ott didn’t play any.
Ott dealt with a shoulder injury in fall camp, but it’s still been stunning how miniscule the highly-regarded Cal transfer’s role has been for the Sooners. He has nine carries for 17 yards through four games.
The former All-PAC-12 talent has played just 32 offensive snaps this season. He had four snaps in the fourth quarter of the season-opener against Illinois State. He started and played 22 snaps in Week 2 against Michigan, then regressed to playing six snaps in the fourth quarter at Temple.
Head coach Brent Venables remarked after the Temple game that he wished Ott “was further along in every way.” It’s been difficult to gauge whether Ott’s still injured, in the doghouse or just not as good as OU’s other running backs. And yet, Burks has confidence Ott can still be a factor for the Sooners in 2025.
“He’s in a great head space,” Burks said of Ott. “A great dude. He brings everybody up in his room, he’s always cheering for everybody else. I know when his time comes and he gets the ball, it’s going to be a great thing to see.”
Against Auburn, OU was able to make up for its rushing struggles with its short passing game. Mateer went 15-for-20 on passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, according to Pro Football Focus data.
“You look at the NFL, that’s the NFL,” Venables said. “The efficient offenses do really well at catching the ball and getting rid of it, and so efficiency is staying on schedule, being able to throw it and catch it. Some of it’s ways to keep people on their heels and keep people off balance but stay into a rhythm offensively. It’s not always there. Windows are small.
“When you go against good people, the gaps are smaller, the windows are smaller, the time is less. You’re on the clock, and it’s a very fast clock. You have to be timely in your execution and physical at the right moments too. I thought we really were. For me, it’s just battling and believing and finding a way, figuring it out. You can’t put a value on that.”
Still, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle doesn’t want his offense to become one dimensional. The SEC is a trenches league.
“You wanna establish the line of scrimmage,” Arbuckle said. “You wanna run the ball. Like I’ve said before, there’s a million different things that really go into running the football. I was really proud of how hard those guys played up front, the tight ends, the running backs, the receivers. I think they all played really, really hard. Whenever we needed to in crunch time, we got the job done. That’s ultimately all that really matters. So really proud of those guys’ effort today.”
Ott wasn’t part of the rushing effort Saturday, but perhaps it’s too soon to close the book on his potential impact. His teammates still believe in him.
“I love Jay,” Barnes said before the Auburn game. “I take it as somebody who was an All-American and rushed for 1,300 yards and somewhere I want to be at in my career. I looked at it as I can learn and take any information or knowledge from him. And I think he’s been doing a good job of just coming in and any weak areas I have, he’s letting me know like I can work on that or tweak it a little bit or anything like that.
“So I think he’s done a good job with just being able to speak from experience and come in with a good mindset and work. I think summertime was a good time for him. He works every day and never complains or anything like that. So I love Jay-O.”
mason.young@tulsaworld.com
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Mason Young
Tulsa World OU Sports Reporter
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