Sooners should drop everything they’re doing and get ready to offer elite transfer portal player who’s local to Oklahoma
The Sooners don’t necessarily need a running back, but Hawkins is almost too good to pass on.
The Oklahoma Sooners don’t necessarily need another running back for the 2026 season. Well, that is the assumption before anything happens in the crazy transfer portal, which opens up on Jan. 2 and closes on Jan. 16. However, it wouldn’t hurt to check in on maybe the best running back available in former North Texas RB Caleb Hawkins, who’s also an Oklahoma native.
Sooners should offer Hawkins once the transfer portal opens
Hawkins totaled 1,581 yards and 26 touchdowns this season. 25 of those touchdowns were rushing touchdowns, which was the most in the FBS. He was the AAC Rookie of the Year, a First Team All-AAC, an On3 Freshman All-American, and broke school and national records.
With Jonathan Hatton Jr. and DeZephen Walker coming into Norman with the 2026 recruiting class, and the guys that should be returning like Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock, there’s not a huge need for another running back.
Javontae Barnes is transferring out, and Taylor Tatum could transfer out to look for a new start after all the injuries he’s had. However, Hawkins is so good that it would almost be coaching malpractice not to at least talk to him and gauge his interest.
Hawkins is going to be a sophomore in 2026 and was a top-five running back in the country last season. Take away that he played at North Texas, and don’t even think that the kid can’t convert that over to the SEC. Hawkins is 6’2, 200 pounds, and is a very similar back to Robinson in that he’s a patient runner who breaks tackles, runs through contact, and if he does make a guy miss, then he can hit that top speed downfield.
Fans may think the Sooners don’t need two guys who run the same. However, their running back room is already diverse. Adding Hawkins to the mix, with the two guys we saw this last year, could get scary for the rest of the SEC, especially since OU’s run game was non-existent.
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