Lincoln Riley: Kennedy Brooks, Jalen Redmond will return to Oklahoma in 2021
Any case for Oklahoma having a chance to make a national championship run in 2021 just got a lot stronger.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said Friday that running back Kennedy Brooks and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond — who both chose to opt out of the 2020 season — have told him their intention is return to the team in 2021.
Kennedy Brooks
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Riley commented during a Zoom call with OU beat reporters Friday to wrap up the 2020 season.
“Jalen and Kennedy both have informed us they’ll be back," Riley said. "They’ve both informed us they’ll be part of the team moving forward. Excited to welcome those guys back."
The 5-foot-11, 214-pound Brooks is a two-time 1,000-yard runner at OU from Mansfield, TX, with 18 career rushing touchdowns and a career average of 7.5 yards per carry during his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Brooks tallied 1,056 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2018 and 1,011 and six TDs in 2019, and has nine career 100-yard games, which ranks 14th in OU history. In just two seasons, Brooks ranks 30th in school history with 2,067 career rushing yards.
Redmond is a former 4-star recruit from Midwest City, OK, who was arguably the Sooners’ best young defensive lineman in 2019, when he had 11 tackles for loss and team-high 6.5 quarterback sacks among his 23 total tackles.
Riley said Redmond even came back to the team and took part in bowl practices even though he knew he would not be part of the the Sooners’ trip to Arlington for the Cotton Bowl.
"Jalen actually came back and practiced with us during the bowl game, on his own accord," Riley said. "We didn’t feel like it was the right thing to let him travel to the bowl game, since he wasn’t with the team the other part of the season. But he actually came back and jumped over there on the scout team and got some reps and got some work in. Great to see him, great have him back. So that was a real positive.
"Then Kennedy was not with the team, but was up here separate times throughout the year, training with our strength and conditioning staff, working."
Redmond’s opt-out made medical sense because he has a history of blood clots and he wants to avoid exposure to the Coronavirus.
Jalen Redmond
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OU’s defensive line depth for 2021 is already strong. Every player — even juniors Ronnie Perkins, Isaiah Thomas and Perrion Winfrey, who could explore their future in the NFL, and senior LaRon Stokes — can come back next year if they want.
But given the scope of the Sooners’ last 12 months, Friday’s news is huge for the OU running back room.
While sophomore Marcus Major’s performance against Florida in the bowl game (nine carries, 110 yards and a touchdown after gaining just 77 yards all season) is encouraging, there hasn't been much good news to celebrate.
Junior T.J. Pledger, second on the team with 451 yards and five touchdowns, including 131 against Texas and 122 against TCU, already announced he’s entering the transfer portal.
It’s widely expected that senior Rhamondre Stevenson will head to the NFL next year rather than take advantage of the NCAA’s relaxed eligibility rules for 2021 and come back for a second senior year.
Stevenson played in just six games after missing the first five while serving an NCAA suspension from last year’s Peach Bowl, but he still led the Sooners with 665 rushing yards this season — an average of 110.8 per game that ranks 18th in the nation. That includes his MVP performance in the Cotton Bowl: a career-high 181 yards rushing and a touchdown.
Adding in Stevenson’s 211 receiving yards, he also led the team this year with 146.0 all-purpose yards per game.
OU spent the first half of 2020 light on running backs after 2020 freshman Jase McClellan flipped his pledge from Oklahoma to Alabama on National Signing Day (he had the Crimson Tide’s longest rush of the season, an 80-yard touchdown against Arkansas), senior Trey Sermon transferred to Ohio State (he rushed for a school-record 331 yards in the Big Ten Championship Game and will play in Friday’s College Football Playoff game against Clemson), Brooks opted out and Stevenson was suspended.
OU also got some bad news just before Christmas when Camar Wheaton — SI All-American’s No. 2 running back in the nation — committed to Alabama over Oklahoma.
