Post Spring Position Analysis: Running Back

STILLWATER – On the opening day of spring football the Cowboys offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn, who doubles as the receivers coach and loves to see the ball in the air heading to his guys, didn’t talk passing game. Dunn, who is heading into his second season of calling plays, talked run game and what his goal was for the spring and for next season.

“You know we were productive the year before in the run game, especially with Spencer (Sanders) in the read game. And we hit a bunch of explosive runs in 2019,” Dunn set up his message. “You know we have to get that explosiveness back, specifically in the run game. That is the focus for me right now.”

Dunn may have checked up and down the roster and looked for a goal, an area that was sure to impress and saw that running backs coach John Wozniak’s room is full to the brim of talent.

L.D. Brown never made a formal announcement about coming back as a “super senior.”

“You guys know I’m back now,” Brown said to the media the last week of spring practice. Brown has 1,044-yards rushing in his career with eight touchdowns and the speedy track guy has averaged 5.7-yards a carry.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Dezmon Jackson in spring practice

Then there is powerful Dezmon Jackson, who rushed for 235-yards and three touchdowns last season against Texas Tech in his starting debut. Jackson had 547-yards for the season and averaged 5.5-yards a carry.

Sophomore Dominic Richardson is the “pup” in the room and he ran for 169-yards and three touchdowns at Baylor and averaged 5.1-yards on 44-carries as a freshman.

Finally, Jaylen Warren transferred in and if you missed the spring game you missed the smoothest hurdle that I’ve ever seen of a defender on the football field. He looked like he was on the track running the 110 highs. Warren had 96-yards in the spring game and brings in a career total of 823-yards and eight touchdowns from two seasons at Utah State. As a sophomore at Snow Junior College, he ran for 1,435-yards and 15 touchdowns.

Pat Kinnison - Chief Photographer

Most impressive hurdle that I’ve seen on a football field.

"It's special. Especially when, like you said, you have four,” answered offensive line leader and starting left guard Josh Sills when asked to talk running backs. “You have L.D. (Brown), you have Dez (Jackson), you have Dominic (Richardson), and then you have Jaylen (Warren). That's just my opinion, but I think you have the most impressive running back room in the country. Each one has their own shake and sugar that they put on everything. They're all really quick. Just the dynamic that they bring to our offense, as far as not only playing running back, but you can also move them out to the slot. They move well in space. Pretty well, they form a dynamic one player."

Sills is right about that. Brown is the fastest of the back and a home run waiting to happen. Jackson is the most powerful and a bull between the tackles. Richardson in kind of combo of Brown and Jackson. Warren is a different breed of cat. He is an excellent receiver, fast, strong, and at 5-8, 215 pounds he is small enough to hide behind offensive linemen.

“We deep, we deep,” Brown said of the running back room. “We’re all confident and we know we can go out and make plays. We got each other’s backs too and that makes it fun.”

Post-Spring Running Back Depth Chart (First four are 1st-team caliber)

Mike Gundy came out of the spring game bragging about the fifth-team back in Zach Middleton. A red-shirt freshman out of Tulsa’s Bishop Kelley and a player they were having a hard time finding a spot for. Middleton moved to running back in spring starting with the bottom unit and carries and showed he could be a bull and was capable of making yards even on the top defense.

The Cowboys even have talented and versatile backs on the way with Ollie Gordon, C.J. Brown, and lightning quick Bixby standout Braylin Presley committed in the class of 2022.

Dunn was right, time to run the ball with plenty of explosion, afterall, don’t they still call Oklahoma State “Tailback U.” After this season they may be doing it more frequently than they have in sometime.