The Oklahoma Sooners Will Lean On Their Run Game In 2026
After a terrible season of running the ball in 2025 the Oklahoma Sooners will lean on their improvement of their run game in 2026 in order to get back to the College Football Playoff. If they have legit hopes of winning a national championship, you can't just rely on your defense and John Mateer and company will have to add an offensive spark to the team.
Video Transcript
The Oklahoma Sooners have a big season ahead of them, and I think it's all relying on kind of two things to happen.
One, John Mateer needs to be what we all know John Mateer can be because of the talent that he has.
But we're not here to talk about that.
We've talked about that enough.
The main one is the run game.
Last year, the run game was terrible, one of the worst in the country.
The offense was one of the worst in the country.
And I think we can all agree that if the run game is better in 2026 by even the slightest of margins, it's a decent run game, a run game that you can rely on, nothing crazy.
I think it's safe to say that this team should be a national championship contender because if this team has a good offense and the defense is very relatively similar to what we saw last season, who's stopping this team?
And recently, Dusty, we all know Dusty, said something that really stood out.
He was on the Oklahoma Breakdown podcast, and he said, Chad Smith got the quote here.
He said, since 2007, every national champion has averaged at least 165 rushing yards per game.
Take out 2019 LSU, one of the greatest passing offenses ever, and the floor is closer to 180 yards.
Most champions were at 200-plus yards per game.
In 2025, Oklahoma averaged 118 rush yards per game, which was 13th in the SEC.
That's got to be better.
And if you want a legit shot at winning the national championship because your defense can get you to the college football playoff.
We've seen it last year.
The defense quite literally carried this team to the college football playoff.
That's as far as it went.
If you want to get further than that, you want to win a game, you want to win two games in the college football playoff, you're going to have to have some offense.
And that's going to have to be by way of the ground because I don't think anyone thinks that this team can replicate what that 2019 LSU team did through the air with Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and Justin Jefferson.
I'm not sure anybody is predicting that or putting money on that to happen.
So on the ground, you know, they have made changes to the tight end room and tight ends blocking in the run game were a big issue last year.
They got Hayden Hanson, Rocky Beers.
Both those guys are great run blockers.
And then in the running back room, they obviously are bringing in Jonathan Hatton, who everybody thinks could play a lot as a true freshman.
You're getting a healthy Tory Blalock, hopefully.
Yeah, everybody in the running back room is supposed to be healthy now.
So this is a year where the rushing offense should be significantly improved.
Not to mention you have John Mateer, hopefully healthy for most of the season, running the ball as well.
We'll have to see what happens.
