Oklahoma's Running Game Shows Improvement, but big Test Awaits in Michigan

NORMAN — One of Oklahoma’s biggest priorities in the offseason was improving its running game.

“At the end of the day, for us to be who we want to be, the vision that we have, we have to run the ball a hell of a lot better than we have the past couple of years,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said at SEC Media Days in July.

Oklahoma did what it needed to do on the ground in the opener, running for 179 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries, averaging 4.4 yards per carry.

It wasn’t spectacular, but it was steady.

The Sooners had just four negative plays, with nine others that went for 0-2 yards. Twenty six plays went for three or more yards, including five of 11 or more.

“I thought there was some good urgency in the run game, just in the lines of scrimmage, just kind of all the emphasis that we put on it — not just throughout spring ball, fall camp alike,” offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “I thought the urgency was high. I thought there was, at times, really, really good pad level, good velocity off the ball, but do I still believe that we can get a whole lot better in those areas and we need to? Absolutely.”

Part of that will be helped with reinforcements along the offensive line, where Ryan Fodje and Jake Maikkula are expected to return for Saturday’s showdown between the 11th-ranked Sooners and Michigan. Michael Fasusi, however, is unlikely to play.

“Just the willingness, urgency, and mindset to go out there and continue to move people off the ball, move people off the line of scrimmage, run violent whenever the ball’s in my hand, go get those dirty 2-, 3-, 4-yard runs that the more violent you run, turn into more 5-, 6-, 7-, 15-yard runs,” Arbuckle said of what we would like to see from the running game. “We have to continue stressing that, continue stressing the ball security that goes into that too. … I thought a lot of things that have been emphasized really came to life, just position-specific. That’s what we have to do; we have to continue building off that.

“It’s going to be a really good test this week.”

According to Pro Football Focus, 111 of the Sooners’ rushing yards came after contact.

Lloyd Avant ran for an average of more than 3.7 yards after contact. Avant finished with 79 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

“I thought Lloyd was who Lloyd’s been,” Arbuckle said. “And that’s reliable, physical, you can count on him.”

Western Michigan ran for 132 yards against the Wolverines last week. A year ago, the Sooners ran for 146 yards against Michigan, with quarterback John Mateer accounting for 79 of those.

No Sooners’ running back had more than 24 yards on the ground in last season’s 24-13 win.

Avant and Xavier Robinson figure to continue to get the bulk of the carries at the position, with some carries by freshman Jonathan Hatton Jr. here and there while Tory Blaylock is still working back to full speed.

“I’m just excited to continue watching them work,” Arbuckle said.

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