The Oklahoma Sooners are about to get the full Tory Blaylock experience in the backfield at just the right time.
OU head coach Brent Venables revealed on his weekly coach’s show on Monday that the running back is healthy again, which should mean a lot more production out of Blaylock soon after a quiet first two weeks of the 2026 college football season.
“Tory wasn’t able to really practice with the team until late last week, but when he’s 100% healthy, which we think he is now, he’s a dynamic player,” Venables said.
Blaylock, a sophomore, just made his season debut this past week in the No. 24 Sooners’ 17-10 loss to Michigan. He was sidelined for OU’s season opener against UTEP because of a hamstring injury that hindered him most of the offseason.
When Blaylock was down, Colorado State transfer Lloyd Avant surprisingly asserted himself as RB1, while Xavier Robinson was the clear RB2 in the first two weeks of the season. Freshman Jonathan Hatton Jr. also turned some heads early, but Venables mentioned on Monday that Hatton was banged up throughout last week, which influenced him being off the field against Michigan.
A healthy Tory Blaylock could unlock Sooners' dormant running game
Even with all that talent in the running back room, the Sooners have still been stuck in cement when trying to run the ball, at least they were against their only real challenge so far in Michigan. The Sooners ran for 100 yards and averaged 3.4 an attempt against the Wolverines. That’s even lower than last season’s average of 118.5 rushing yards per game, which was 113th of 136 FBS teams.
The Sooners were definitely trying to ease Blaylock into action against Michigan. He got just one three-yard carry and played only five snaps. No OU running back really got much of a chance to get going on Saturday, though, and that falls on offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, not the players (for now).
OU’s backfield combined for 13 total carries against Michigan. Avant led the group with nine rushes for 35 yards. Robinson had three attempts for six yards. The trio of running backs averaged 3.38 yards per carry.
The Sooners have New Mexico next at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday in Norman. The Lobos aren’t pushovers at 2-0, but it’s still OU’s last chance to get its run game functioning before a trip to No. 2 Georgia, then the Red River Rivalry against No. 1 Texas.
OU will take any extra reinforcements for its ground attack right now, and Blaylock could be the weapon that gets the Sooners firing behind an experienced offensive line and revamped tight end group. Hopefully, there’s also an emphasis on running the dang ball the rest of the season, unlike Week 2.
Blaylock led the Sooners with 480 rushing yards last year as a freshman. He averaged 4.0 yards per attempt on a team-high 120 carries. He also caught 13 passes for 77 yards.
Freshman RB Tory Blaylock was a lot of fun to watch on Saturday
— Josh Callaway (@JoshMCallaway) August 31, 2025
Kid runs really hard and will definitely try to run guys over - exhibit A: pic.twitter.com/ecEqPNUDCL
Based on what we saw in 2025, if new running backs coach Deland McCullough wants to feed a bell-cow back to jolt the run game, it should be Blaylock, especially since Avant and Robinson already had their chances.
The Sooners really only went all in on Blaylock three times last season. He broke out against Temple in Week 3 with 14 carries for 100 yards. He took 15 rushes for 78 yards against Kent State and ran for 101 yards on 19 carries against South Carolina. He didn’t get more than 11 touches in any other game.
Blaylock delivered every time the Sooners let go of the reins.
Maybe, just maybe, the Sooners’ backfield hasn’t exploded yet because the best one of the bunch just hasn’t been healthy yet. Freeing Blaylock could also mean unlocking the running game.
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