OU battled Tulane in a surprise home opener and claimed a 40-35 victory. Here are our highlights from the game:
Filmed and edited by Justin Jayne
Kennedy Brooks didn’t look like he hadn’t played in 616 days.
The redshirt junior running back reminded Sooners fans of his ability, and why he rushed for over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons from 2018-19 during OU’s 40-35 win over Tulane. Despite not getting the start, Brooks took his second carry of the game — a run on fourth-and-two — for 32 yards. He displayed his ability to burst through holes and slip off defenders, like Sooners fans are accustomed to seeing.
Kennedy Brooks gets a lot on 4th and short. pic.twitter.com/eqc75FEcS3
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) September 4, 2021
The Mansfield, Texas, native finished with a team-high 14 carries for 87 yards and a touchdown last Saturday. Brooks was a bright spot for OU’s offense, and his consistency was something redshirt sophomore quarterback Spencer Rattler could lean on when his play — two interceptions and nine incompletions — wasn’t up to his Heisman-hopeful level. Brooks was leaned on late in the fourth quarter when he sealed the game on the final drive with two eight-yard rushes.
“You have trust in him even though he wasn’t here last year,” Rattler said after the game. “He knows how this thing goes. He’s been in a lot of games like this. He carried the ball well at the end, made a lot of stuff where he should have been tackled and got out of it and got positive yards out of it. We have to be better around him. We have to trust in him, and he did a good job in converting those first downs. He played well today.”
In 2018 and 2019, Brooks didn’t start either season opener in favor of former Sooners Rodney Anderson and Trey Sermon. Nevertheless, he eventually led OU’s running backs in rushing yards both years. When asked about being overlooked to start each season, Brooks' response was simple.
“I’m just that type of dude that I go out there and do what I can for my teammates no matter what it is,” Brooks said.
Brooks, who’s hesitant to speak highly on anything but his teammates, wished he scored on OU’s longest run of the day during the second quarter, but said he was excited nonetheless to play the game he loves again. During the preseason, Brooks said “it’s just a game,” when asked about his nervousness about absorbing tackles again, showcasing his steady persona that’s allowed him to perform so well with the Sooners.
Junior Eric Gray, who rushed for 1,311 yards in two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Oklahoma in the spring, finished with nine carries for 27 yards against the Green Wave as the co-headliner in Oklahoma’s backfield.
Despite averaging just three yards per carry against Tulane, Riley mentioned Gray made some eye-popping plays, turning negative run blocking from the offensive line into positive yardage.
“He was solid,” Riley said Tuesday. “I thought a couple of his best runs honestly were runs where there wasn’t as much there and he made a few things happen. He had a couple really good, just tough, active runs for us that really stood out.”
As the season progresses, the Sooners will have to rely primarily on Brooks and Gray, as the duo are the lone scholarship running backs on the roster.
“With (Brooks and Gray) we’ve been admittedly a little conservative throughout fall camp,” Riley said. “And kind of felt like in a way we had to. You feel like you’re an idiot if you’ve got two scholarship backs and you’re just there running them into brick walls every single day.”
Walk-ons Todd Hudson and Jaden Knowles, who are listed as No. 3 and No. 4 on the depth chart, respectively, did not play against Tulane. Riley hasn’t planned on moving other players to running back, instead reinforcing that Hudson and Knowles would get their chance soon.
Against Tulane, Oklahoma struggled to display the potential that ranked it No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. Other than the second quarter, where the Sooners outscored the Green Wave 23-0, OU squandered 35 points opposed to its 17, later resulting in a fall to No. 4 in the poll. Oklahoma had just 27 rushing yards in the second half opposed to 89 in the first.
The Sooners’ run game, which took just 23 carries opposed to 39 pass attempts from Rattler, accumulated only 116 yards, which all came from Brooks and Gray. The rushing yards would’ve ranked third-to-last among OU’s games from last season.
For the Sooners’ offense to continue to be the stalwart it’s been during Riley’s reign, Brooks and Gray’s health and production will be key moving forward.
“Their dynamic (is) great,” Riley said. “They play off of each other well. We could’ve started either one, it’s a coin flip on who we’re gonna start and they’re both going to be big contributors for us.”
