Oklahoma football: Which unheralded Sooner is ready to emerge in 2021?
By Chip Rouse
Even on an Oklahoma football team that is loaded with individual talent, including the leading candidate to win the Heisman Trophy in 2021, there are always unheralded players poised to step up and have a breakout season.
The Sooners have several candidates — on both offense and defense — who would fit into the ready-to-emerge category in the coming season. The one I have my eye on, however, is redshirt sophomore running back Marcus Major.
Rhamondre Stevenson, T.J. Pledger and Seth McGowan are gone from OU’s running back depth chart a year ago. Kennedy Brooks is back as the Sooners’ lead running back in 2021 after opting out the 2020 season out of health and safety concerns, and Eric Gray, a transfer from Tennessee, where he led the Volunteers in rushing last season slots in as the No. 2 OU running back for next season.
After that, the running back competition for the upcoming season appears wide open, but it really isn’t.
Barring injury or some other unforeseen circumstance, Brooks and Gray are going to see the vast majority of the offensive snaps. But a third name you’re going to be seeing and hearing much more of in 2021 is Major’s.
He showed what he is capable of in the Sooners’ Cotton Bowl win over Florida, and Lincoln Riley and running backs coach DeMarco Murray are confident we will be seeing more performances like that this coming season.
Major was injured most of his true freshman season in 2019 and played in just three games, gaining 28 rushing yards on 10 carries. The 5-foot, 11-inch, 224-pound running back, who hails from nearby Oklahoma City, played in 10 games last season, but showed up in the box score in just four games.
He gained 77 yards on 26 carries during the regular season, but he had a breakout performance against Florida in the Sooners’ 55-20 blowout win over the Gators, with 112 rushing yards on nine carries, an average of 12.2 yards per attempt, and a touchdown.
Major also had a notable performance earlier in the season in the annual Red River rivalry game with Texas. He scored a touchdown after a blocked punt and gained 43 yards on 12 rushing attempts.
In a press conference this spring, Riley suggested that Sooner fans should not sleep on Major despite his limited playing opportunities so far.
When it came time for next man up, the Sooner head coach said, Marcus showed he was ready.
“All of a sudden here it comes up to the bowl game, he gets his opportunity and is lights out in the Cotton Bowl against Florida,” Riley said.
"“I give Marcus a lot of credit, man,” he added. “A lot of young guys might have went in the tank and started thinking about all kinds of stuff: ‘Poor me. Should I transfer?’ All he did was stay back and work and work and work. And he got better, although it wasn’t necessarily on Saturdays on the TV screen.”"
Major came to OU rated as a four-star prospect by both Rivals and ESPN. He chose to stay close to home and play for the Sooners over offers from USC, Texas, Arkansas among others.
He’s got every skill that you could want in an elite running back, the OU head coach said, “and his confidence and his game has really come along with it.”
Expect some big things from running back with jersey No. 24 this fall. His number will be called, and he’ll be ready.