Oklahoma Sooners' likely starter in 2025 is starting to favor one of the best players in the NFL during his spring practice
The Oklahoma Sooners need their offense to get back to where we all remember it being before Brent Venables was at OU. And that's not a shot at Venables, but since he's been at OU, the defense has been pretty good, and the offense has not, whereas with Lincoln Riley, it was flipped. However, Riley […]
The Oklahoma Sooners need their offense to get back to where we all remember it being before Brent Venables was at OU. And that's not a shot at Venables, but since he's been at OU, the defense has been pretty good, and the offense has not, whereas with Lincoln Riley, it was flipped. However, Riley still won football games more often.
Last season, if there was a good part of the team's offense, it was the running game, but that got better as the year went on, and a lot of the action that was successful in that area of the game was through the quarterback. Obviously, the running game needs to continue to improve if they want to open up the pass game in 2025. With John Mateer, they have a guy who can throw and run at the QB position.
Then, they have a pretty good RB room, with Jovantae Barnes likely leading the charge. And, Barnes has been putting in work.
Sooners' Jovantae Barnes looks like Derrick Henry
Jovantae Barnes joined the team in 2022. From Las Vegas, he was a four-star recruit out of Desert Pines High School and chose Oklahoma over schools like Alabama, thanks to running backs coach DeMarco Murray. As a freshman, he played 11 games, rushing for 519 yards and five touchdowns, with a strong 108-yard game in the Cheez-It Bowl against Florida State.
In 2023, injuries slowed him down, and he only played eight games, getting 140 yards and one touchdown. He came back in 2024, starting six of nine games and running for 577 yards and five touchdowns before an ankle injury ended his season early. His best game was against Maine, where he gained 203 yards and scored three times.
Barnes has played 28 games in three years, totaling 1,236 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, plus 27 catches for 172 yards and one touchdown. He missed the 2024 Armed Forces Bowl due to the injury, but he’s a tough runner who could do big things in his senior year as Oklahoma plays in the SEC, if he stays healthy.
He's focused on his physique this year. The dude looks like former Tennessee Titans and now Baltimore Ravens star RB Derrick Henry. Barnes is jacked, and that could definitely help him in 2025.
2026 4-star running back committed to Oklahoma Sooners just got a very enticing offer from SEC foe
That would be a crazy flip.
