Oklahoma football: Eric Gray has brought life to Sooners’ run game

Running back Eric Gray, an Oklahoma football transfer from Tennessee, is having a career year in his second season as a Sooner.

Seven games into the 2022 season, Gray has been a bright spot in an otherwise sub-standard Oklahoma football year. The 5-foot, 10-inch, 210-pound senior leads the Sooners with 695 rushing yards and is on pace for his first 1,000-yard season.

A year ago, with Kennedy Brooks manning the lead running back spot for the Sooners, Gray’s playing time was limited as a backup. He did gain 412 yards on 78 carries, but because his touches were limited in the run game, there were concerns whether he would be able to shoulder the lead role and deliver the production level the OU rushing attack requires to provide balance in the offense.

Gray and junior Marcus Major were the two returning running backs offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was counting on to lead the OU rushing attack this season, and Gray quickly emerged as No. 1 on the depth chart. He literally hit the ground running this season, going over the 100-yard mark rushing in three of the Sooners first four games, and this past weekend against Kansas, the shifty, quick hitting running back set a career high with 176 rushing yards, two touchdowns and averaged 8.8 yards per carry.

A sequence of two plays late in the second quarter is representative of the power and confidence in Gray’s performance running the ball on Saturday. Late in the second quarter, Gray scored on an apparent 18-yard touchdown run, only to have the play negated by a Sooner holding penalty. The ESPN announcers covering the game remarked that as well as Gray was running the ball, they ought to just hand it to him again.

No problem. That’s exactly what OU did, and Gray provided a replay, this time going 28 yards for a touchdown to extend the Sooner lead to 35-14.

Gray was asked postgame how he felt about his performance against the Kansas defense, ranked 39th in the country against the run coming into the game:

"“(Running backs) Coach DeMarco (Murray) talked about winning the one-on-one battles. At the end of the day, they can’t block everybody. We have to make one miss. I was able to do that today. Big props to the O-line for getting me to the second level.”"

Gray’s previous best season coming into 2022 was his sophomore year at Tennessee in 2020, when he ran for 772 yards and four touchdowns, averaging, 4.99 yards per rush, and also caught 30 passes out of the backfield for 254 yards and two touchdowns.

So far this season, Gray ranks third in the Big 12, trailing just Bijan Robinson of Texas and Deuce Vaughn of Kansas State, and 13th nationally with 695 rushing yards. The Sooner senior is sixth nationally with 7.2 yards per attempt and ranks fifth in the country in runs of 10 yards or more.

The Oklahoma rushing attack is averaging 222.6 yards through seven games. That is 17th best in the country among FBS teams and is an ideal complement to the Sooners’ passing offense, which averages 249.3 yards a game.

"“Any time the run game is being dominant, it opens up a lot for us, it allows us to do a lot of things,” OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel told reporters earlier this season.“So having him (Gray) and the O-line setting it up for him, when you give him open pathways or just good one-on-ones, he usually wins them.”"