Oklahoma RB Will Enter Transfer Portal, Per Report

This one has been expected for a while now.

Oklahoma running back Jovantae Barnes made official what everyone has anticipated since October: that he’ll be entering the NCAA Transfer Portal when it opens on Jan. 2.

That’s according to a report Tuesday from On3 recruiting insider Hayes Fawcett.

BREAKING: Oklahoma RB Jovantae Barnes is entering the @TransferPortal, he tells @On3Sports

He totaled 1,469 yards and 13 TDs in his time with the Sooners

Repped by @lvrgfootball https://t.co/RlUbB6Fk7q pic.twitter.com/3o9pY377nS
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 23, 2025

But it’s also according to Barnes, who essentially opted out of the 2025 season after he played sparingly in the Sooners’ first few games, and thus was able to preserve a redshirt season.

He played just 23 offensive snaps against Illinois State, 23 against Michigan, 20 against Temple and 12 against Auburn — then didn’t see game action again for the rest of the season.

Barnes was listed as “out” on SEC GameDay Availability Reports prior to the South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri and LSU games, although an injury was never clarified.

Barnes played 193 offensive snaps as a true freshman out of Las Vegas, according to Pro Football Focus, and was able to rush for 519 yards and five touchdowns. He did experience an injury in 2023 and was limited to eight games (just 94 offensive snaps), but then took over the starting job in 2024 and was on his way to a breakout season when another injury set him back.

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Barnes started six of the Sooners’ first nine games as he rushed for 577 yards and five touchdowns and added 17 receptions for 123 yards and a TD.

But it was his career-performance against Maine — 203 rushing yards and three touchdowns — that ultimately knocked him out of action. He missed the rest of the season with a foot injury, then never was able to get back onto DeMarco Murray’s two-deep.

Barnes finishes his four-year OU career with 1,281 yard and 12 rushing touchdowns to go with 28 catches fort 188 yards and one TD through the air.

According to PFF, Barnes never graded highly as a running back.

He posted season grades of 63.2 this year, 68.2 in 2024, 66.2 in 2023 and 69.9 as a true freshman in 2022.

During his four seasons in Norman, Barnes was notoriously easy to tackle, rushing for just 758 yards after contact, per PFF — just 2.84 yards per carry after contact. His career-long run was a 74-yard burst against Maine, an opponent from the FCS.

He was one of two running backs signed in Brent Venables' first class. Gavin Sawchuk led the Sooners in rushing in 2023, rushing for 977 yards and 11 touchdowns before transferring to Florida State in 2024.

Barnes is officially the seventh Sooner to join the transfer portal exodus so far.

New rules this year limit the general transfer portal to just one two-week period, Jan. 2-16. If there is a head coaching change, players must wait five days after a new coach is hired, then have a 15-day window to announce their intentions to enter the portal.