Sooners Wire is going to review notes from fall camp and the first week of the season as Oklahoma is set to begin Big 12 play on Saturday.
One of the bigger question marks of the 2020 offseason for Oklahoma was where the production at running back was going to come from.
The thought accelerated whenever Kennedy Brooks opted-out of playing after Trey Sermon transferred and Rhamondre Stevenson having to serve a suspension for the first half of the season. All that was left is T.J. Pledger, Marcus Major and incoming freshman Seth McGowan.
It’s a room that Lincoln Riley wasn’t too worried about heading into the season.
“It’s a good room,” he said during fall camp. “It’s definitely a good room. T.J. Pledger is setting the pace right now in that room. He’s really practiced well. He’s been our most consistent player. He’s in the best shape he’s been in here, healthy, just really doing some nice things.”
Pledger, though, missed the first game of the season due to COVID-19 implications. And in that, a budding star looked to be born.
“Exactly what we expected from him,” said Spencer Rattler after McGowan’s 61-yard performance on nine carries in the season opener. “That dude’s a monster. I even said before the game, if he touches the ball four times, he might score four times. And I think he almost did that tonight. He’s a great player.”
Stevenson, who was, probably, Oklahoma’s most talented running back on its roster heading into 2019, will return at some point in the next month for the Sooners. Pledger, under extreme circumstances, may have seen his chance go by the wayside due to a pandemic after waiting for his turn for two years.
Major played against Missouri State, too, but nothing looked like what McGowan brought to the table in his debut.
“We’ve known he’s a talented kid and has done some good things,” Riley said after that game. “The moment wasn’t too big. He was able to take some things he’d done on the practice field and carry them over to the game field. I thought those were the biggest positives. When you don’t have hesitation at a young age, that’s a great quality.”
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