Oklahoma football: Counting down to the 2018 season kickoff (-6)

Over the next six days, we will be counting down to the kickoff of the 2018 Oklahoma football season and the home opener with Florida Atlantic with a series of short subjects to get you ready for another Sooner gridiron campaign.

We start off our final week of preseason with some thoughts about what is sure to be a new-look Sooner offense, but one that could be…wait for it… even more explosive and difficult to contain than the one led by Baker Mayfield last season that led the country in total offense.

If you aren’t already revved up as a Sooner fan for the start of another college football season, the thought of an OU offense that might be even better than a year ago should get your motor running.

It’s not a big surprise that the Oklahoma offense will have a different look and game plan without Mayfield behind center, where he was a fixture for the past three years, but how could it possibly be better, you ask?

For one thing, OU will again feature one of the best offensive lines in the country, which, above all, protects the quarterback and sets up everything a team is able to do on offense.

Since Bob Stoops came on board as the Sooners’ 21st head coach, Oklahoma has basically been a pass-oriented offense, but with enough of a running attack to balance things out and give OU big-play opportunities through the air.

With dual-threat quarterback Kyler Murray winning the starter’s job this season, opposing defenses are going to see a heavier dose of the run game, which will only make Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid offense even scarier because of the respect opponents will be forced to give to the Sooner ground game.

More from OU Football

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• Oklahoma football: Sooner ‘D’ grading well, but real test begins with Big 12 play
• Two Oklahoma football players receive Big 12 weekly honors
• Oklahoma football: Sooners’ stock rising fast in ESPN prospective rankings
• Oklahoma football: Sooners leaving opponents in the dust early and often

We’ll be commenting on the OU receiving corps later in the week, but today our focus is the embarrassment of riches with which the Sooners come into the 2018 college season at the running back position.

Oklahoma is at least five deep in its stable of running backs, and all are strong, physical ball carriers with exceptional speed and elusiveness. In addition, the OU running backs are skilled and blessed with good hands as receivers coming out of the backfield, which is a major enhancement to the passing game.

Rodney Anderson gets the most attention of the Sooner running backs. The 6-foot, 1-inch, 218-pound running back from the Houston area led Oklahoma in rushing a year ago with 1,161 yards, All but 82 yards of that total came over the final eight games of the season and featured a 201-yard performance against Georgia, the country’s fifth best defensive unit in 2017, in the College Football Playoff.

Anderson is deserving of the No. 1 spot, but right on his heels is sophomore Trey Sermon, who could start for most every other team in the country. Sermon averaged 6.1 yards per carry and gained 758 net yards from scrimmage last season. He reminds Sooner fans a lot of Joe Mixon, who a couple of years ago was paired with OU’s career rushing leader in Samaje Perine. The dynamic tandem of Anderson and Sermon brings back memories of the two seasons Perine and Mixon were together.

Sermon is someone to keep a close eye on in 2018, especially if you are a defensive coordinator. The Georgia native delivered some big plays in several of the Sooners’ biggest games in his freshman season. He ran for 62 yards and caught a touchdown pass in just his second collegiate game, a 31-16 Oklahoma victory at No. 2-ranked Ohio State. He totaled 148 rushing yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns in a road win over Baylor, and his 53-yard touchdown run helped clinch OU’s 62-52 win over in-state rival Oklahoma State.

Senior Marcelias Sutton, who mostly returned kickoffs a year ago as a junior-college transfer, appears to have earned the No. 3 spot in the Sooners’ running back arsenal. And if that’s not enough, a pair of speedsters, redshirt freshman Kennedy Brooks and true freshman T.J. Pledger are in a competitive battle to be the next men up.

And, oh yes, there is also the scary running ability of quarterback Murray, who in the Sooners’ final regular-season game last season broke off a 66-yard run on the very first play of the game that led to a follow-up four-yard touchdown by Anderson.

Anyway you look at it, Oklahoma is loaded in the offensive backfield, something that has become a Sooner standard over the years and a strength OU is counting on in 2018 in its quest for a fourth consecutive Big 12 championship.