Oklahoma RB Jaydn Ott's Path to Oklahoma Included Triumph, Pain and a New Self Awareness

NORMAN — Jim Nagy knew about Jaydn Ott. So did Ben Arbuckle. But Ott didn’t know a whole lot about Oklahoma — the football team or the state — outside of Adrian Peterson, Baker Mayfield, Joe Mixon, DeMarco Murray, and even Barry Sanders.

Now, after Nagy once identified the former Cal running back as a strong candidate for the Senior Bowl, and after Arbuckle watched from the Washington State sideline in 2023 as Ott “had his way with us,” Arbuckle said, Ott is impressing his new team every day in preseason practicce as well as outside of the facility.

Ott, who ran for 1,315 yards and 12 touchdowns as a Bears sophomore in 2023 — including 167 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Arbuckle’s Cougars — transferred to OU after spring practice and has quickly emerged as a team leader and an intense competitor.

Oh, and the badly sprained ankle that limited him in 2023 is “doing great,” he said.

The Path

Ott grew up in Chino, a Southern California suburb just east of Los Angeles. He’s a city boy, he said, so Oklahoma’s slower pace has been quite the adjustment.

“It’s been different,” he said. “ … You got bugs — a lot of bugs — out here. I had a hornets nest by my garage the other day. I had no idea what to do; I almost hit it down, but a couple people on Instagram said it would be a bad idea. Other than that, there’s no distractions out here. I’ve been getting into fishing, doing a couple of country things.”

After three seasons, Ott decided to leave Berkeley.

“I had a good time at Cal, good experience, and I just really wanted to grow as a player,” Ott said. “So I decided to take a look at some other schools and other options into the portal. I really kind of had my mind made up. It was between here and Georgia.”

On the path to Athens, the Bulldogs had won the national championship during Ott's senior year in high school in 2021, then repeated as national champs when Ott was a Cal freshman in 2022.

On the path to Oklahoma, the Sooners were 22-17 overall and lost three minor bowl games while Ott was at Cal.

Still, Ott said when he talked to the coaches while in the transfer portal, “it went down fairly quickly. It felt like a spot for me here.”

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He met with head coach Brent Venables. He also met with Nagy, the Sooners’ new general manager, and Arbuckle the new offensive coordinator. Arbuckle dusted off the Cal-WSU game in 2023, showed Ott a clip where he lined up in the slot, came inside to catch a pass and cut upfield to score a touchdown — then showed showed him the same play in the OU playbook.

"The most I remember about that game is I had two fumbles, man,” Ott said. “That was a tough game. But I was able to help my team get the W.”

Another edge for OU: Washington State’s young backup quarterback that day was a guy by the name of John Mateer.

Mateer barely played in that 42-39 Bears victory at Cal Memorial Stadium — he completed his only pass for 4 yards and ran one time for a 5-yard touchdown — but then a year later, after Cal joined the ACC, Mateer lit up college football with 44 touchdowns and 4,232 yards in his first year as a starter.

“John played a big part in my decision coming here as well my familiarity with Arbuckle and his system,” Ott said. “ … I think they have something good going on.”

The Competition

Ott and Mateer are neighbors in Norman. They’ve also become good friends.

Sometimes their conversation even turns to that game in 2023.

“I get on Mateer a lot,” Ott said. “I probably need to chill out so his feelings don't get hurt. We talk a lot of smack back and forth."

Ott said on the first day he showed up for a summer workout at OU, strength coach Jerry Schmidt pulled him aside and told him he needed to be more of a vocal leader.

“He got on me because I wasn’t talking enough,” Ott said. “Like, literally my first day of workouts, he pulled me aside and was like, ‘Hey, you need to talk more. This ain’t enough. This ain’t good enough.’ I’m like, ‘Dang dude, this is the first day and you want me to yell at these dudes? That’s crazy.’ I took his advice, and he was right in the end. I feel like he helped me to have a great summer.”

In the short time he’s been a Sooner, Ott has gained nearly 10 pounds of muscle and says he’s faster than ever.

As Mateer has helped Ott and all his new teammates learn the intricacies of Arbuckle’s playbook, they’ve grown close. So close that they compete against each other in the most innocuous ways. Like jumping rope — almost every night.

They’ll start the clock and see who can get to 1,000 jumps first. So who wins?

“Man, me. Me,” Ott said. “Under six minutes. Yeah, so, ask him.”

How long does it take Mateer to get to a thousand?

“I won’t speak for him,” Ott said with a grin, “but it’s not under six minutes.”

Still, Ott has been impressed with his new QB.

“He’s very competitive. He’s sneaky athletic,” Ott said. “I didn’t really expect him to be that athletic, but watching his film last year and seeing him work out in the building, it’s surprising. He’s a great leader. It just comes naturally for him, so I’m excited to play with him.”

The Challenge

Oklahoma’s offense was in disarray last season. The offensive line and the wide receivers were gutted by injury. With no targets and little protection, Jackson Arnold had no chance to succeed at quarterback. And the running backs were certainly nothing special.

Assuming growth on the line and a refresh downfield, and given Mateer’s gunslinger tendencies, the OU running backs this season could have a huge year. And Ott, a senior, would be the catalyst.

“I knew he was a talented kid,” Arbuckle said. “The eye test – he can pass that. … The thing that has impressed me the most is how diligent he is with his work and how intentional he is with everybody. He doesn’t waste time. He does exactly what he needs to do in order to put himself in the best position possible.”

“He’s got a great presence to him,” Venables said. “And … has shown tremendous work ethic. Again, the natural things that you see on tape — his pace, his speed, his explosiveness, his ability to break tackles, his instincts, his ability to do a lot of things out of the backfield, pass-protect, all of those things, lends credibility. … He’s going to have a chance to have success in this conference.”

Ott said one of his early priorities is building chemistry with the other running backs, like senior Jovantae Barnes and sophomores Xavier Robinson and Taylor Tatum. Another is establishing himself with the offensive line, learning their communication verbiage and protection calls and blitz pick-ups. Then, it’s about adding to his foundation with Mateer.

“So yeah, it's gonna be a big fall camp,” Ott said. “ … I mean, that's just why I came here, to be surrounded by playmakers. I think we have a really good chance to be in a national championship this year and, do good things on our offense and get Oklahoma back to what it's used to.”

For his part, Ott sounds confident in his abilities and is eager to master Arbuckle’s system and exploit Mateer’s dual-threat skills.

“Just getting me into space,” Ott said. “His spread offense is really exciting. … I just like to get into open space, man. Once I see that green, like, I get to high-stepping. I want to run the ball and then also get out wide. I feel like Arbuckle has implemented a couple things into the playbook this year to get me lined at slot and wideout. So that will be fun.”

In three years at Cal, Ott caught 95 passes for 736 yards with six touchdown receptions. As a college freshman, he hauled in 45 grabs. Last year at OU, Bauer Sharp led the team with just 42 catches. The most productive wide receiver, Deion Burks had just 31 receptions. And Barnes led the running backs with 17. An offense with 45 catches by the running back hasn't been seen in Norman since Murray and Mixon roamed the OU backfield.

“The game is changing, and running backs have to be more versatile than ever,” Ott said. “And that’s what I bring to the room. … Watching the guys this summer during OTAs and walkthroughs and stuff and throwing on the weekends with John and the other quarterbacks, you’ll see a lot of the running backs being used out wide.”

The End

After a great freshman season (1,242 yards from scrimmage, 11 touchdowns) and a huge sophomore season (1,484 yards from scrimmage, 14 TDs), Ott was preparing to jump to the NFL after his junior season.

But he said his injury — a Grade 3 high ankle sprain and a Grade 1 knee sprain — was worse than anyone thought. He thinks it was misdiagnosed, and he said there was miscommunication between the medical team, the coaching staff and himself about how much he could actually contribute on the field.

It lingered all season and never got fully healthy. In a three-week span, instead of sitting out and healing up, Ott carried the football seven times for just 2 yards against Miami, 10 times for just 11 yards against Oregon State, and 14 times for just 23 yards against Wake Forest. He also had games of 10 carries for 11 yards against Auburn and 10 carries for 17 yards against Stanford.

Even all that pain, struggle and disappointment, Ott said, was a teaching moment.

"Yeah, it was very tough during that injury,” he said. “So now I take that and use what I learned from last year for the rest of my career.

"It was a mix of my injury being misdiagnosed and the little bit of the communication not going the right way on staff. But I blame myself for not trusting my gut and listening to my body. … I feel like if I would have sat out a couple weeks and took the time to really heal, it wouldn't have been nagging me up until the last game of the season.”

Now, instead of laboring in an NFL training camp as a rookie, he’s preparing for his final shot in college football, his senior year. It’s easy to see that he’s beyond excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.

When Ott parks his car every day and heads into the Switzer Center, he strolls past the seven statues, folk heroes 12 feet tall, Heisman Trophy winners from five different decades guarding the east entrance of Memorial Stadium in OU’s magnificent Heisman Park.

To a kid from the LA suburbs, such a thing leaves an imprint.

“To see that,” Ott said, “to see the history behind this place, it just makes me want to step my game up and keep the standard high.”

That was one of the obvious and immediate differences that Ott noticed between Cal and programs like Georgia and Oklahoma. But there are other differences — more subtle, perhaps, than a bronze statue, but just as deeply woven in the fabric and culture of the program.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “There’s a different way that they do things in this program, which is what attracted it to me in the first place.

"Biggest difference? Man, I don't know how to put it nicely. Biggest difference? These guys care. Not saying that my former teammates at Cal don't care. But there's levels, and it shows in the way guys treat their craft and how often they're taking care of things outside of the facility in order to be good within it."

Resilience is another painful lesson Ott picked up in 2024. No one wants to have to endure trials and tribulations, but the growth that occurs during those times can produce tremendous progress.

Lo and behold, 3 1/2 months later, there was Venables describing the very thing that pushed Ott through last season’s travails and eventually led him to Norman.

“Coach V was talking about resiliency yesterday in our team meeting — our 2 ½-, 3-hour long meeting — and yeah, man, that’s something that’s very important. At the end of the season, those are the teams that wind up on top, those teams who are resilient. I think that our room is very resilient as well, and the whole team as a whole is resilient, and that’s one of the best traits you can have being a player and on your team.”