As you may have heard, I have a hard time believing in Ben Arbuckle, Sooner offensive coordinator, and much of it stems from listening to him talk.
For instance, earlier this week when asked if he learned anything new about his running backs after getting five of them into Oklahoma’s 51-0 victory over UTEP last Friday, he failed a truth test.
“I don’t know if I necessarily learned anything new,” he began. “Lloyd [Avant] was who Lloyd’s been and that’s reliable, tough, physical, you can count on him.
“It was cool to see [Jonathan] Hatton get out there and get to have some carries … You know, X Rob in there getting to play, I love watching X play. But just that whole room.”
All right, “X Rob” is Xavier Robinson and I love Xavier Robinson and for a long time have felt too many carries have gone to Tory Blaylock instead of Robinson.
Yet, against the Miners, and to my chagrin, Robinson gained 30 yards on seven carries, which was no great shakes on a night Avant went for 79 on 15, the anonymous Ben McCreary went for 40 on six and Hatton went for 21 on three, all 21 coming on his first carry.
When Arbuckle says something like that, saluting a player after a bad game, it makes me wonder if he can’t think on his feet, if he’s looking out for everybody’s feelings to the point of looking silly or, worst of all, if he didn’t see what the rest of us saw.
Whatever it is, it’s a bad look.
Why can’t he just answer the question?
“The whole room.”
Come on, man.
He was also asked about his offensive line, about which he named nobody and did not offer much, though a slight bit of balance.
“I thought the urgency was high. I thought there was, at times, really, really good pad level, really good velocity off the ball,” he said. “But I do still believe that we can get a whole lot better in these areas and we need to, absolutely.”
He might have gone into OU being without two starters, Jake Maikkula and Ryan Fodje, and having to remove another, Michael Fasusi, after just 17 snaps, and offer praise to his running game for performing as well as it did — 39 carries, 188 yards, 4.4 per carry — given such challenges.
Maybe he forgot.
Well, and now we’re getting to it, that running game, though saluted by Brent Venables and Mateer, both, Friday night after the win, still needs to be much better.
Consider this.
Nebraska played what would seem to be a much better team than UTEP opening day, facing Ohio, the No. 4 preseason pick (of 13 teams) by MAC coaches, winning 49-21, pulling away in the fourth quarter, netting 523 yards of total offense along the way, 248 of it on the ground, gaining 5.9 per carry.
Can’t OU be as good on the ground as Nebraska?
Dr. Tom retired a long, long time ago.
Facing Michigan at 11 a.m. Saturday morning in front of 100,000-plus at The Big House, OU should be better equipped on the line.
The belief is both Maikkula and Fodje should return to the fold, though Fasusi is less clear, despite Venables pronouncing him “great” after OU dispatched UTEP.
As for the running backs, SoonerScoop reported that while Tory Blaylock may be ready to play after not facing UTEP, an ankle injury may slow Hatton, who did not practice on Monday and rehabbed his ankle during Tuesday practice.
Nevertheless, whoever’s ready, two things should happen Saturday and every Saturday after that.
The line should get better and better, and the best Sooner running back available should get the most carries.
Sounds simple, right?
On the second of those things, at least, it hasn’t been.
For example, last season, while Blaylock gained 480 yards on 120 carries for an even 4 yards per carry, Robinson carried 83 times for 421 yards, or 5.1 per carry.
Why the carry discrepancy?
That’s between Venables, Arbuckle and the departed DeMarco Murray, the responsible trio.
During the 2024 season, Jovantae Barnes carried 122 times for 577 yards, or 4.7 per carry, while Taylor Tatum received only 56 carries that he turned into 278, or 5 per carry.
I couldn’t remember if Tatum got hurt, so I looked it up. He did, missing two games. You know who missed more? Barnes, missing four.
Blame Venables, Seth Littrell, Joe Jon Finley and Murray for that.
The 2023 season was an interesting one.
Gavin Sawchuk carried 120 times for 744 yards, 6.2 per carry, though his average was propped up by five runs of 30 or more yards, those five accounting for 227 of his total. Meanwhile, Tawee Walker carried 102 times for 513 yards, 5.0 per carry, while only once carrying for 30.
If you absolutely needed 3 or 4 yards, Walker was the best choice. Maybe he should have carried the ball more often. Go figure.
I digress.
Often, trying to understand how long it’s been since the Sooners claimed a legitimate big-time back, we recall Kennedy Brooks, who was terrific on Lincoln Riley’s last OU team, gaining 1,253 yards at 6.3 per pop in 2021.
That, though, is wrong.
Eric Gray was by far the best offensive player on a bad Sooner team, Venables’ first, in 2022, gaining 1,366 yards on 6.4 per carry, despite being keyed upon in a way Brooks wasn’t.
Still, offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby suffered many other challenges that season and the next one, too, and Sooner fans should be happy Mississippi State took him off their hands.
Wait, I may have missed another point.
How is it OU can’t find another Gray, or Brooks or, before him, Rhamondre Stevenson, who ran for 51 yards and caught for 44 against Seattle Wednesday night as the NFL opened its season.
Who knows, but they haven’t.
Hopefully, Hatton will be fresh by Saturday. Hopefully, his coaches will realize his first carry against UTEP was much more exciting than anything Avant or, again to my chagrin, Walker managed.
Murray, now gone, had a history of holding back young talent and Venables and Arbuckle, by association, do, too.
It’s time for them to get over it and finally, finally, finally present an exciting run game to Sooner fans and, eventually, SEC opponents.
They have not had backs who can break a tackle or elude defenders for big runs consistently under the current head coach. Nor with breathtaking speed. When you think of all the great runners to have played at OU, none played after Stoops retired.