Ollie Gordon II and Others Like Brooks, Harvey, Neal and Reese Have Changed the Big 12

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – There was a time when all the media, inside and outside, the Big 12 footprint could talk about were quarterbacks and wide receivers. Mike Leach had introduced the no huddle, a wide-open spread offense as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and then took it to West Texas as head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. His disciples like Dana Holgorsen, Kliff Kingsbury, Sonny Cumbie and others aided with the crusade. 

However, it looks like the cycle of offensive football is swinging the other way bringing back memories of Barry Sanders, Ricky Williams, Adrian Peterson and Darren Sproles. 

The new league coverboy is a Cowboy! Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II caused himself a setback with poor judgement when he was arrested and charged on June 30 with multiple driving violations the most serious being under 18 DUI. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy decided to take Gordon II to the Big 12 Football Media Days this week in Las Vegas. Gordon II is being punished. One part of it was putting a planned Heisman and award campaign on hold. The launch was going to be Tuesday when Oklahoma State met with the Big 12 media, but Gordon II is still the face of a very talented array of runners in the Big 12. Running backs are the position that is “poppin”. 

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Ollie Gordon II was on multiple preseason magazine covers including Phil Steele.

“I feel like it is huge from the season we’re coming off last year,” Gordon II started. “For them to pump that out I think it is great, but I see those, and I know I have to work even harder to make it come true again. I use it as a stepping stool to know I have to work hard every day.”

Last season Gordon II led the Big 12 with 1,732-yards, 6-1 yards-per-carry and 21 rushing touchdowns on 285 carries. Not far behind were Texas Tech’s bulldozer Tahj Brooks (5-10, 230) with 1,538-yards on 289 carries. R.J. Harvey (5-8, 195) of UCF actually averaged 6.3-yards-per-carry with a total of 1,416 on just 226 runs. Devin Neal of Kansas had 1,260-yards and his teammate Daniel Hishshaw, who may play some wildcat quarterback and even some tight end this season had 626-yards as the back-up. 

D.J. Giddens of Kansas State had 1,226-yards, Cincinnati’s Corey Kiner had 1.047-yards and the trio of running backs Jaheim White and C.J. Donaldson with quarterback Garrett Greene totaled 2,412-yards for West Virginia. 

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R.J. Harvey in the UCF win over OKlahoma State last season.

“It is very cool,” Harvey said. “It just means more eyes will be watching this conference. Every defense has to step up because every week they are going to play against a great running back, maybe a couple some weeks. It puts more pressure on defenses.”

The offenses still spread the field, but they run out of it a lot more than they throw it. Last season, including the new schools coming into the league only seven schools passed the ball more times than they ran. Dana Holgorsen was still at Houston, so that explains the Cougars. Baylor, TCU, and Arizona State trailed in games and had to throw. Colorado trailed and the head coach’s son is the starting quarterback and an NFL prospect. Their best player goes both ways and is a wide receiver. Arizona’s best players on offense are quarterback Noah Fifita and receiver Tetairoa McMillan. The seventh is Oklahoma State and they threw for 3,871-yards.

Still, the Big 12 is now more of a running backs league where Gordon last season earned the conference their biggest national award with the Doak Walker Award for the best running back in the nation. It could happen again.   

Gordon is listed in every preseason Heisman Trophy top 10 list of candidates. 

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Richard Reese modeling Baylor’s new uniforms at Big 12 Media Days.

“Yes, that’s big-time and Ollie won the (Doak Walker) award last season and he was deserving of it,” Harvey admitted. “That just means I have to work harder because I want to win the award this year.”

“I’m determined because I didn’t have as good a season last year. I want to be the best running back in the Big 12 and that means more now than it did when I was a freshman,” Baylor’s Richard Reese said in part because of what Ollie Gordon did. “I give Ollie credit. He had that kind of season and he earned it, but there are others of us out here in the Big 12 that can do that too,”

Reese was the national offensive freshman of the year in 2022 because he ran for 972-yards and scored 14 rushing touchdowns. But it was the 2023 season where the momentum really changed for the guys carrying the football. Some of the league’s best running backs are happy that their position is the one the league is pushing.

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Tahj Brooks talks to Pokes Report at Media Days.

“I hope so,” Brooks said of a running back battle royale in the Big 12, said Red Raiders back Tahj Brooks, who had an awards campaign and website launch on Tuesday. “I’m kind of happy that the guys in the Heisman, in the preseason Heisman race that some of them are running backs. I want to be up there because I want to become a Heisman candidate with the success that I’ve had. Just the running backs in the Big 12, we’re all deep at every school. I promise you that every school has at least an 800-yard rusher on their team and every school is going to come and be ready to compete.”

“I’m on the side that he's the best running back in the country. I'll argue that,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said of Brooks. “This is going to sound funny, but he's like the security blanket. When everything, chaos is going on and a lot of things are happening in the game, we've been through some injuries at quarterback, he's the guy that's there and is steady. He's the same guy every day.

The coaches are well aware of the change in the cycle. Coaches know that football is cyclical and that while the spread offense was the rage that there would always be a time where defenses caught up and offensive football would cycle back to gap scheme runs, play-action passing, and more tight ends.

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Gundy in front of a group of reporters in Las Vegas.

“When you play somebody that has a running back of that caliber, one other person has got to play the run,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said when asked about the Big 12’s move to six yards and a cloud of dust. “When that happens, you become susceptible to the pass. (Last season) as the season went on, we became a much better passing team at Oklahoma State because Ollie Gordon, became a much better running back.

“It's a numbers game,” Gundy continued. “You can get him up there and stop him. You can let him rush and stay back, or you can try to play guessing games, which most people do. But basically, you have to get somebody else back down there to stop the run. That's the advantage of having a good running back, allows your receivers to be much better players.”

“When you have great balance offensively -- I just heard Coach Gundy talk about it -- man, you really force the defense to have to defend the entire part of the football field,” “Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell added. “So, I think really, really important for us. And again, when we've been at our best, we've been able to run the football as good as anybody.”

Campbell has a good young running back at Iowa State in Abu Sama III, who ran for 276-yards in the snow in the final regular season game, a 42-35 win at Kansas State. Speaking of the Wildcats they have their own really talented back in D.J. Giddens and added a scatback in Dylan Edwards, who transferred from Colorado. Still, K-State head coach Chris Klieman knows all too well about Gordon II. 

“He's a tremendous talent. He's got really good speed. He's a home run hitter, as well as he can run through arm tackles,” Kleiman said of Gordon and playing against him last season. “He's a terrific football player, and we're glad we play him in Manhattan and not Stillwater. But that's the nature of our league, you're going to face really talented running backs each week. Ollie got us on a couple of big ones, and we've got to prevent that.”

Gordon II ran for three touchdowns last season in a win at West Virginia. He covered 16-yards, then 46, and finally 53-yards to lead Oklahoma State to the win.

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Neal Brown talking to SXM at Big 12 Media Days.

“I think offensive football is about getting your best players to the football any way possible. And so, we have Jahiem White coming back who I think is dynamic,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown explained. “He finished the year off really strong, and he's only going to be a sophomore. So, I think he's ready to take the next step, be a premier player. CJ Donaldson was kind of beat-up last year. He's a big, powerful running back. I think he'll go back and show, remind our fan base and college football fans across the country what he showed as a freshman and the type of potential he has. And then Garrett Greene (quarterback) is an elite runner.”

Yes, that is the triple-headed running back and quarterback combination for 2,412-yards. Just know that this season there is going to be a lot of that kind of offense going on throughout the Big 12. The trend kind of started with Ollie Gordon II.