[h=1]Why Oklahoma has nation's best run game[/h]
ESPN PLUS ($ MATERIAL)
At the heart of every offense is a quarterback. At the heart of the Oklahoma offense has been back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners who were no strangers to highlight-reel passes with deep throws placed perfectly in receivers' hands well downfield.
At the heart of the Oklahoma offense in 2019 will be a different, albeit extremely talented, quarterback in Jalen Hurts. It's true that the Oklahoma faithful will have to get used to a new brand of football with Hurts at the helm after Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray went from Norman to No. 1 overall NFL draft picks.
It's also true that the Sooners will have the nation's top rushing attack with Hurts and the country's best 1-2 punch at running back.
Hurts is a much different quarterback than his predecessors, even if he is the third consecutive transfer quarterback to start in head coach Lincoln Riley's offense. He enters with the most experience of the three, after being pushed out of the Alabama offense by the emergence of Tua Tagovailoa. Hurts still finished with an incredible 26-2 record at the helm of the Crimson Tide. A much better runner than he was a passer under Nick Saban, Hurts unleashed 34 big-time throws (PFF's highest-graded pass attempts) in his entire Alabama tenure, a number nearly matched by Mayfield and Murray in their Heisman-winning seasons alone.
His passing statistics aside, he is a more than capable rusher, both on designed carries and when he breaks the pocket and scrambles. In fact, since 2016, no active quarterback at the FBS level has forced more missed tackles on the ground than Hurts. He's broken 76 tackles on his 338 career carries, averaging 0.22 missed tackles forced per attempt. Hurts is also first among that same group with 2,206 rushing yards, and he's second on the list of active quarterbacks with 1,088 of his yards coming after contact.
Those numbers are great for a running back. They're outstanding for a quarterback.
At PFF, we track every player in every game, grading them along the way. That process also includes tracking the play design. Hurts has taken off on 228 designed carries and another 110 runs that came when he scrambled on a passing play. He's gained 1,317 of his yards on those 228 designed carries for an average of 5.8 yards per attempt, while his 889 yards on 110 scrambles have netted him an average of 8.1 yards per attempt.
In Norman, Riley has upped the amount of RPOs (run-pass options) he's called in each of the past three seasons, capping out at 113 called RPOs in 2018, a trend likely to continue with Hurts at the helm. He'll have the chance to succeed in Riley's prolific RPO attack, as the Sooners set the PFF college record for most expected points added per RPO carry a season ago, averaging 0.44 EPA per play.
While at Alabama, Hurts was no stranger to a ridiculously talented group of players behind him in the backfield. But he never had the conference's top two highest-graded players returning to action breaking the huddle with him. Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks are arguably two of the best running backs in the country, let alone in the Big 12.
Sermon and Brooks get it done almost the same way: elusiveness, balance and terrific vision.
Brooks had just 119 carries last year but gained 1,053 yards for an incredible 8.8 yards per attempt. He forced 37 missed tackles on the ground and averaged 5.29 yards after contact per attempt. At 5-foot-11 and 205 pounds, Brooks is actually the smaller of the duo yet plays much bigger.
Sermon is already in the PFF record books, seeing the second- and fourth-highest average of missed tackles forced per attempt in the past two seasons. He averaged 0.33 missed tackles forced per attempt in 2017 and followed that up by averaging 0.35 per carry in 2018. The PFF record holder and current Chicago Bears rookie David Montgomery is the only one who has bested those figures.
Sermon may have the best jump cut in college football, and Brooks may be the nation's best all-around back per carry.
The duo each graded out with elite-level grades and finished above 90.0 overall while picking up a combined 95 rushing conversions (first downs and touchdowns). No other duo comes close to their level of production on a per-play basis, and when you add in Hurts' ability to not only direct the rushing attack on designed carries but also when a pass attempt breaks down, then we're talking three elite runners in the backfield for the Sooners.
And that's something we've never seen before at PFF.
ESPN PLUS ($ MATERIAL)
At the heart of every offense is a quarterback. At the heart of the Oklahoma offense has been back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners who were no strangers to highlight-reel passes with deep throws placed perfectly in receivers' hands well downfield.
At the heart of the Oklahoma offense in 2019 will be a different, albeit extremely talented, quarterback in Jalen Hurts. It's true that the Oklahoma faithful will have to get used to a new brand of football with Hurts at the helm after Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray went from Norman to No. 1 overall NFL draft picks.
It's also true that the Sooners will have the nation's top rushing attack with Hurts and the country's best 1-2 punch at running back.
Hurts is a much different quarterback than his predecessors, even if he is the third consecutive transfer quarterback to start in head coach Lincoln Riley's offense. He enters with the most experience of the three, after being pushed out of the Alabama offense by the emergence of Tua Tagovailoa. Hurts still finished with an incredible 26-2 record at the helm of the Crimson Tide. A much better runner than he was a passer under Nick Saban, Hurts unleashed 34 big-time throws (PFF's highest-graded pass attempts) in his entire Alabama tenure, a number nearly matched by Mayfield and Murray in their Heisman-winning seasons alone.
His passing statistics aside, he is a more than capable rusher, both on designed carries and when he breaks the pocket and scrambles. In fact, since 2016, no active quarterback at the FBS level has forced more missed tackles on the ground than Hurts. He's broken 76 tackles on his 338 career carries, averaging 0.22 missed tackles forced per attempt. Hurts is also first among that same group with 2,206 rushing yards, and he's second on the list of active quarterbacks with 1,088 of his yards coming after contact.
Those numbers are great for a running back. They're outstanding for a quarterback.
At PFF, we track every player in every game, grading them along the way. That process also includes tracking the play design. Hurts has taken off on 228 designed carries and another 110 runs that came when he scrambled on a passing play. He's gained 1,317 of his yards on those 228 designed carries for an average of 5.8 yards per attempt, while his 889 yards on 110 scrambles have netted him an average of 8.1 yards per attempt.
In Norman, Riley has upped the amount of RPOs (run-pass options) he's called in each of the past three seasons, capping out at 113 called RPOs in 2018, a trend likely to continue with Hurts at the helm. He'll have the chance to succeed in Riley's prolific RPO attack, as the Sooners set the PFF college record for most expected points added per RPO carry a season ago, averaging 0.44 EPA per play.
While at Alabama, Hurts was no stranger to a ridiculously talented group of players behind him in the backfield. But he never had the conference's top two highest-graded players returning to action breaking the huddle with him. Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks are arguably two of the best running backs in the country, let alone in the Big 12.
Sermon and Brooks get it done almost the same way: elusiveness, balance and terrific vision.
Brooks had just 119 carries last year but gained 1,053 yards for an incredible 8.8 yards per attempt. He forced 37 missed tackles on the ground and averaged 5.29 yards after contact per attempt. At 5-foot-11 and 205 pounds, Brooks is actually the smaller of the duo yet plays much bigger.
Sermon is already in the PFF record books, seeing the second- and fourth-highest average of missed tackles forced per attempt in the past two seasons. He averaged 0.33 missed tackles forced per attempt in 2017 and followed that up by averaging 0.35 per carry in 2018. The PFF record holder and current Chicago Bears rookie David Montgomery is the only one who has bested those figures.
Sermon may have the best jump cut in college football, and Brooks may be the nation's best all-around back per carry.
The duo each graded out with elite-level grades and finished above 90.0 overall while picking up a combined 95 rushing conversions (first downs and touchdowns). No other duo comes close to their level of production on a per-play basis, and when you add in Hurts' ability to not only direct the rushing attack on designed carries but also when a pass attempt breaks down, then we're talking three elite runners in the backfield for the Sooners.
And that's something we've never seen before at PFF.
