Brent Venables may have spilled the beans on an issue everyone is wondering about with the Oklahoma Sooners offense
Brent Venables let everyone know about Sooners RB Jaydn Ott.
On Sunday, the Oklahoma Sooners beat the Temple Owls, and we saw the offense explode for 42 points. However, we also saw the offense have a hard time running the ball late in the game when Jaydn Ott was in. That’s not something Brent Venables is happy with, especially considering they start SEC play against the Auburn Tigers this next week.
In fact, Venables kind of spilled the beans on what’s going on with Ott.
“You wish he was a little further along in every way, but you get in there, whatever opportunities you have, you get in there, you’re ready,” Venables told reporters after the game. “You’ve got good juice, energy, aggressiveness. Having an attack mindset, all those things, everything adds up, everything matters. So we’d love to get him going. If all things are good in that regard, that I just said, his instincts, his speed, all those things, can be a real weapon.”
That can mean so many things, and none of them sound good.
Sooners still don’t have best version of Ott
Venables saying they would like Ott to be further along in every way means a couple of things.
First, he’s obviously talking about Ott’s health. He was injured during fall camp and missed most of fall camp. Against Illinois State, they didn’t play him much to let him recover. Then, against the Michigan Wolverines, when it was thought that he would be more available, he didn’t play much at all. Of course, we all saw what he did against Temple.
The second part is it sounds like Venables could be talking about Ott’s mental preparation, too. Maybe Ott doesn’t know the offense yet. Or, maybe he’s dealing with some things that we just don’t know about. Either way, it’s obvious the Ott we have seen thus far is not the same Ott, or even close to the one we saw last year at Cal, and definitely not the same one we saw the year before that.
The Sooners will really need Ott this season, especially when they get deep into SEC play. They still have to play the LSU Tigers, Missouri Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas Longhorns, and Tennessee Volunteers. All are great in the trenches and fully capable of stopping the run. Luckily for OU, they have a true freshman running back in Tory Blaylock, who has been absolutely stellar.
On Saturday, Blaylock had 100 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He has clearly taken over that RB1 spot over Barnes, and could be the guy over Ott, if he doesn’t ever get healthy. Regardless, you need depth in the SEC at the RB position. Oklahoma needs all hands on deck.
Oklahoma Sooners News
Oklahoma Sooners still have one big problem to worry about despite beating Michigan in what could have been a blowout
The Oklahoma Sooners clearly don’t have Jaydn Ott healthy.
