Oklahoma State “Just Felt Like Home” to Ollie Gordon
STILLWATER – By 8 a.m. CT on Dec. 15, 16 of Oklahoma State’s 17 commitments had signed, including the surprise commitment from Choctaw’s Desean Brown. The one remaining? The top running back out of the Lone Star State, four-star Ollie Gordon. There’s no question the minutes turned into hours waiting for Gordon’s Letter of Intent to come through, but it did shortly before 8:20 a.m., certainly allowing for a sigh of relief for Todd Bradford and the rest of the recruiting and coaching staffs.
There were some teams who jumped in on Gordon the past few months, some teams who have played some pretty good football recently like Baylor, BYU and Houston, plus a blue blood like USC.
However, in listening to Gordon tell Robert Allen why he chose the Pokes, there certainly didn’t seem to be any doubt.
“I chose Oklahoma State because they’ve been there since the beginning no matter what,” said 2022 running back Ollie Gordon. “They didn’t wait until I had a big game to offer me, they offered me from the beginning. They saw a couple of games they liked, and they offered me, it wasn’t like I had to have a big game to come and offer. Then after they offered, they just always stayed in contact with me they also text and check up on me, or just made sure I was good. So, that’s really why chose Oklahoma State.
“After I took the visit, it really just felt like home.”
Gordon is a 6-1, 210-pound running back out of Euless (TX) Trinity and is easily one of the top running back prospects, not just out of Texas, but the entire 2022 class. John Wozniak has had a knack of bringing in really good backs, including Utah State transfer Jaylen Warren, who burst onto the college football scene this year for more than 1,000 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.
Of all the prospects who signed on Wednesday, I’m most excited about Gordon as he rushed for 2,376 yards and 35 touchdowns as a senior this past season. Those numbers bring his career total up to 4,878 yards and 68 touchdowns. In a playoff game last season against Allen, yes, that Allen, Gordon rushed for 456 yards and six touchdowns.
Following his junior season, he was tabbed First Team All-State and will no doubt earn that distinction this season as well.
Oklahoma State has a long tradition of producing some of the best backs in college football. Going back to the days of Terry Miller, Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, then more recently Tatum Bell, Kendall Hunter, Chris Carson and Chuba Hubbard, it’s something Gordon took notice of during the recruiting process.
“That also played a part,” Gordon said of OSU’s history of great running backs. “I had to look at what teams were really producing backs and Oklahoma State was one of those teams that really were producing backs.”
Gordon told Pokes Report and Triple Play Sports Radio he’ll be on campus in Stillwater in June, but will fill his time with something that will no doubt further his development.
“I’m just gonna work out and lift a bunch of weights and I might run track. Most likely I’m running track.”