Can Jaydn Ott put together a resurgent season for the Oklahoma Sooners?
But Mateer won't, nay can't, have it all in his plate. As much as football can often be defined by how well a quarterback plays, it takes so much more for a team to have success. For Oklahoma's offense to be good in 2025, it's going to take a good ground game.
In 2024, the Sooners averaged just 3.9 yards per carry and 155.2 rushing yards per game, which was 11th in the SEC.
General manager Jim Nagy made a splash in the transfer portal by bringing in former 1,300-yard running back Jaydn Ott from Cal. After an injury-laden season in 2024, Ott's looking for a bounce-back performance before he enters the NFL draft in 2025. Now healthy, Ott will be a difference maker for the Oklahoma Sooners.
With so much attention being placed on Mateer and what he'll be able to do, Ott's presence may mean just as much. Because of Mateer's ability to run the ball, teams will have to key in on him in the read-option game. At the mesh point, the quarterback must decide whether to keep the ball or hand it to the running back, based on how the defense is reacting. Because teams know Mateer can beat them with his legs, there will be better running lanes for Ott. And that's where he can create big plays.
He'll be a direct beneficiary of Mateer's dual-threat ability and the amount of attention he's received this offseason. However, there will also be an inverse effect. As Ott gets going, he'll open things up for Mateer in both the read-option game and the passing game. Teams will also have to respect Ott's ability to create big plays on the ground. In 2023, Ott had 16 runs of 15 yards or more and 32 runs of 10 yards or more. By comparison, Gavin Sawchuk, Jovantae Barnes, Taylor Tatum, and Xavier Robinson combined for 31 runs of 10 yards or more and 14 runs of 15 yards or more.
Ott is an electric player who is going to have a huge impact on the Sooners' offense. Mateer is what is driving a lot of the Oklahoma optimism that's palpable at SEC media days. Jaydn Ott has a chance to have a big year in Ben Arbuckle's offense and with Mateer standing next to him in the backfield.
So much of college football has shifted to aerial attacks to lead the way for their offenses. But with the defense that the Sooners deploy, Oklahoma will want to be able to run the ball to milk the clock and keep their defense fresh. Ott's ability to carry a heavy portion of the workload and his experience are just what the doctor ordered for an offense that hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since 2022.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
2 minutes ago
- USA Today
Iowa football Big Ten home opener among ESPN's top conference games
As the 2025-26 college football season approaches, ESPN released an article featuring the top 10 Big Ten games of the season, with one particular Iowa football matchup involving an upward-trending conference opponent. While the beginning of the season features many high-profile matchups in both conference play and non-conference action, ESPN has listed Iowa's Sept. 27 game against Indiana from Kinnick Stadium as one of its top matchups. Indiana is fresh off one of their most successful seasons in program history in 2024, where the Hoosiers finished with an overall record of 11-2, an 8-2 conference record, and qualified for the program's first-ever College Football Playoff appearance in head coach Curt Cignetti's first season. While ESPN did not provide much of an explanation as to why they chose the Sept. 27 game against the Hoosiers over the other impactful matchups on the Hawkeyes' slate, the clash between both former Big Ten West division foes will be Iowa's first significant challenge of the season and be a precursor for their ability to compete against the conference's top programs later on. The article also took a deep dive into each Big Ten program's outlook for the upcoming season, identifying Iowa's need to win close games with its consistently stingy defense, as the strength of its newly improved offense is still unknown. With six games projected within one score and visits from Penn State and Oregon (you know Iowa will scare at least one of them), close games will make the difference between potential CFP contention and finishing 7-5. But it's almost comforting knowing exactly what the Hawkeyes are going to look like regardless. - Bill Connelly, ESPN The Hawkeyes open their 2025-26 campaign on Aug. 30, when FCS-level UAlbany visits Kinnick Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on FS1. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions. Follow Scout on X: @SpringgateNews.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Iowa football 2025 schedule preview: Week 3 vs UMass
Following a tough challenge on the road against Iowa State, the Hawkeyes will return home to Kinnick Stadium in Week 3 for their final non-conference game of the 2025 season. The UMass Minutemen will make the trip over to Iowa City to try and steal a big road win. It won't be easy for them, as they've been one of the worst FBS football schools over the past decade. UMass hasn't won more than four games in a season since it joined the FBS in 2012. They're 6-46 since the 2019 season and have struggled to gain any traction over the past decade and a half. They're currently coached by Joe Harasymiak, who was hired in December to be the 32nd head football coach in the program's history. UMass plays its home games at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium in Hadley, Massachusetts. It's going to take a lot of things going right for UMass to pull off the upset. For starters, they'll have to lean on some solid veterans returning for the 2025 season. Who are some of the key returners for UMass? Who are some exciting newcomers for the Minuteman? History between the Hawkeyes and Minutemen Iowa and UMass have never faced each other in football before, so the winner of this Week 3 matchup will hold the edge in this matchup for a while. It's a game the Hawkeyes should win, but that doesn't mean Iowa fans should pencil in a win just yet. They'll need to go out and take care of business to set themselves up in a good spot entering Big Ten conference play. Kick-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on September 13. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Zach on X: @zach_hiney
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Oklahoma Sooners among The Athletic's top 5 football programs since 2000
It was December of 1998 when new Oklahoma Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione and the program introduced former Florida defensive coordinator Bob Stoops as the next head football coach at OU. Stoops replaced John Blake, who'd led the program through three rough years before being fired by Castiglione following the 1998 season. However, Stoops was really the hopeful replacement for the legendary Barry Switzer, who had resigned after the 1988 season. There were ten dark years in Norman, as the program shuffled through head coaches Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger, and Blake from 1989 to 1998, losing an unacceptable number of games in the process and fading from the national spotlight. None of those coaches was a suitable heir to Switzer, who had been OU's head coach from 1973 to 1988 and won three national championships. Switzer had been at OU since 1966, serving as the offensive coordinator before his promotion to head coach. Castiglione and the Sooners believed they had their next successful head coach in Stoops, and they were more than right. What has followed is 26 years where Oklahoma has been back in the spotlight, typically among the nation's elite teams from 1999 to 2021. Although Stoops retired after the 2016 season, the success he set in motion has positioned OU at the forefront of the sport. The Athletic took on the daunting task of ranking the best college football programs of the 21st century last week, and obviously, the Sooners were very high on the list. Oklahoma was ranked third, falling behind only Alabama and Ohio State. Though the list doesn't include Stoops' first year at the helm, it includes the rest of his head coaching career, and that of Lincoln Riley and Brent Venables. Stoops led the Sooners to the first national championship of the 21st century, with a perfect season in 2000. The year concluded with a win over Florida State in the title game, giving Oklahoma a total of seven national championships. Although Oklahoma hasn't won it all since then, it has been among the top-performing programs in America over the last quarter-century. The Sooners have played for three more national titles and made four trips to the four-team College Football Playoff. The program won four Heisman Trophies and had four other players finish as finalists for the award. OU won 14 conference championships, and a bevy of All-Americans put the Sooners as a no-doubt top-five program since 2000. The standard was set in Norman well before Stoops arrived. Coaches such as Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Chuck Fairbanks, and Switzer defined what it meant to win in college football and at OU. However, after one of the worst decades of Oklahoma Football in the 90s, it was Stoops who quickly showed that he and the program could meet that standard again. Oklahoma Football is still feeling the effects of his excellence over a quarter of a century later. Yes, the program has had some tough times lately. The handoff from Stoops to Riley looked so good for so many years, but the program was quietly slipping under Riley's watch. When he bolted to Southern California, Venables was hired to take the reins. It's been a rough go under Venables at times, with the only two losing seasons since the Blake era happening under his watch. But Venables had no easy task taking over for Riley, and he's doing his best to get the program back to its Stoops-era winning ways. He has the defense ready to contend, but the offense took a hit in 2024 with a bevy of injuries limiting the team's potential. But Venables and his staff have positioned themselves to be much better in 2025. It's a big year for Venables and a big year for this program in 2025. Though the straits aren't as dire as they were when Stoops took over in 1999, Oklahoma's backs are against the wall this season. However, the blueprint is there for the fourth-year head coach, who leads a program that has defied the odds plenty of times before, and is clearly one of the elite programs in all of college football. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
