Oklahoma football spotlight: Freshman RB Gavin Sawchuk

With a 22-member 2022 recruiting class and 13 additional players picked up from the transfer portal, almost one-third of the Oklahoma football roster for the coming season is made up of newcomers. We will introduce you to these new faces periodically into the summer months Today, we present incoming freshman RB Gavin Sawchuk. Gavin was rated the number four RB in his class, and 61st overall prospect according to ESPN.

Who is Gavin Sawchuk?

Gavin Sawchuk is a 5-foot 11-inch 185-pound freshman running back from Littleton, Colorado. Sawchuk was a unanimous four-star prospect across all of the recruiting services. He chose Oklahoma over programs like USC, Ohio State, and Alabama among others. He had at least 26 offers from programs in the FBS. He was originally committed to Oklahoma while Lincoln Riley was still head coach but stayed committed to the Sooners and RB coach DeMarco Murray despite the change in staff, and an offer to come aboard at USC from Riley. As a junior in 2020, Sawchuk helped lead his team to the Colorado 5A State Championship game. He also ran indoor track as a freshman and sophomore in high school.

Depth chart and playing time

Sawchuk is very talented but did not enroll early, which puts him at a disadvantage in body development and learning the offense compared to his fellow freshman RB Jovantae Barnes. However, Sawchuk is the kind of talent who will not sit long, most likely I would expect him to redshirt this year, with Eric Gray and Marcus Major taking the bulk of the snaps. Barnes will likely get plenty of snaps as well and ultimately the four-game rule will allow Sawchuk to see the field. He has a bright future in the crimson and cream, it just likely won’t be realized in 2022. However, in 2023 he and Barnes could be one heck of a one-two punch the likes of which OU hasn’t had since Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine.

Scouting

Sawchuk is a one cut-style running back who is speedy. He can also run inside the tackles but is expected to be much better on the edges of the defense. He is a tremendous athlete who catches the ball well out of the backfield and has good contact balance. He typically doesn’t go down on first contact. Still, would not describe him as a power back, more lightning than thunder. Highly productive in high school as he racked up more than 5,000 yards and 80 touchdowns in his career. Shifty and elusive, has a variety of moves he uses to create separation on routes and to get by would-be-tacklers.