Lloyd Avant Hoping to Make Oklahoma's Run Game Better After Transferring

NORMAN — After Colorado State’s coaching staff turnover midway through last season, which saw for Oklahoma assistant Jay Norvell fired and eventually Jim Mora hired, Lloyd Avant knew that he needed to move on.

The running back from Humble, Texas, entered the transfer portal without much in the way of expectations after running for 417 yards and five touchdowns and adding 261 yards and a touchdown on 24 catches as a sophomore in 2025.

“When you get in the portal, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Avant said. “You know, the portal was so big and so many people in the portal, but you’re just looking for the right place — the right place to get you to the next level. That’s all I was looking for.”

Avant feels like he found that in Oklahoma, though it hasn’t exactly gone how he thought it would early in his tenure.

That comfort level came from a conversation with Sooners coach Brent Venables during a visit after Oklahoma was the first team to reach out to Avant when he entered the portal.

“When I talked to Coach V in his office, he talked about God and we just had a real deep conversation, man-to-man conversation,” Avant said. “That really just proved where I wanted to be.”

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When Avant arrived, DeMarco Murray was the Sooners’ running backs coach. Not long after, Murray left to coach running backs with the Kansas City Chiefs and was eventually replaced by Deland McCullough.

“God pushed Coach McCullough here for a reason,” Avant said. “Coach McCullough is a great man. He reminds me of a coach I had out of high school. Great guy. He’s a hard coach but he wants the best for everybody.. He’s a detailed guy and he takes everything one step at a time. That’s what I love about him.”

Avant said he models his game after Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.

“He can do it all,” Avant said. “He can block, he can pass, he can catch out of the back field, he can make a man miss down the field. … I’m a downhill runner, I’m durable, I can run between the tackles and I can catch the ball out of the backfield.

Oklahoma’s running game wasn’t good last season, averaging only 118.5 yards per game with no rusher with more than Tory Blaylock’s 480 yards on the ground.

“The whole group knows what happened last year,” Avant said. “We know what the numbers were last year. … Things are getting better now. We’re watching film, we’re figuring out what problems we had, what were the mistakes we were doing. Progress is on the way.”

One of Avant’s biggest contributions in 2026 could be on special teams.

Over his first two seasons in college — last season at Colorado State and 2024 at Tulsa — Avant has 25 kickoff returns for 680 yards and a touchdown.

The Sooners returned two kicks last year for just 16 yards.

OU special teams coach Doug Deakin said Saturday that he hoped the Sooners could return more kicks this season and that Avant could be a part of that equation.

Avant said his role was also to be a mentor to young backs like freshmen Jonathan Hatton Jr. and DeZephen Walker.

“Knowledge,” Avant said. “I can show the guys how to come in and execute the game plan, how to approach practice,; how to approach film and just how to be an all-around football player — blocking, running the ball and just catching the ball out of the backfield.”