OU football RB Tory Blalock credits preparation to early success
For OU football RB Tory Blalock, preparation is key to his rapid rise with the Sooners, which resulted in a big day in the route of Temple.
- OU true freshman running back Tory Blaylock had a career-high 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Temple.
- Blaylock leads the Sooners’ running backs with 166 yards and three touchdowns so far this season.
- Prized Cal transfer Jaydn Ott has had an underwhelming start, finishing with only 11 yards on four carries in the game.
PHILADELPHIA — Tory Blaylock planted his foot at the 8-yard line with a window of open field and a tackler to beat on his way to the end zone.
OU’s true freshman running back charged toward the gap, lowered his shoulder and threw a nasty stiff arm at a diving Temple defender. The second-quarter sequence put Blaylock in the end zone for what became his first career multi-touchdown game during a dominating ground performance by the Sooners on Saturday.
Blaylock registered a career-high 100 rushing yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns during the Sooners’ 42-3 blowout win over Temple at Lincoln Financial Field. He averaged 7.1 yards per rush against the Owls and continues to give Arbuckle zero reason to quit feeding him the ball.
“I trust Tory Blaylock,” Arbuckle said bluntly.
The confidence Arbuckle and OU’s offensive staff have in Blaylock is what separates him. He doesn’t act, prepare, train or run like someone who less than a year ago was playing high school football.
The Sooners started veteran Jovantae Barnes, who rushed five times for 14 yards. Xavier Robinson received increased playing time, registering 26 yards on five carries. But, prized Cal transfer Jaydn Ott — whose first snap came late in the fourth quarter — finished with only 11 yards on four carries during another underwhelming performance.
Outside of his maturity, Blaylock has been OU’s most consistent and productive runner on the field thus far. He leads OU backs with 166 yards and three touchdowns. And Venables said postgame Blaylock still isn’t 100% healthy after suffering a minor injury against Illinois State.
“His mindset, the way he shows up every day in the building and out at practice and how he understands everything that the offense asks — he’s not a true freshman,” Arbuckle said.
“He’s a stud and he prepares like a stud.”
Instead of seeing him as inexperienced, Arbuckle looks at Blaylock as a player who arrived in the program nine months ago and has attacked his work every day since. Blaylock trusted Jerry Schmidt’s offseason training plan to get over 200 pounds and his maturity captivated coaches during training camp.
“Preparation, film study and all the hours staying late, being the first one in and the last one out, trying to be better,” Blaylock said when asked about what’s led to his early success. “Talking to those other guys, we’ve got great leaders in the room. … That helps me a lot, too, to be ready to play.”
His toughness sticks out to Venables.
First, Blaylock led the team in explosive plays during spring ball. Then, there were times during the preseason when he and Barnes were the only two healthy running backs and had to take on the brunt of hits from the Sooners’ violent defense.
“He loves to compete,” Venables said of Blaylock. “He runs through trash, he’s got great speed. He got on the edge and you saw his burst.”
While Blaylock’s emergence isn’t surprising to those who have been around the program since the winter, it’s shocking for most everyone else to see him carry the ball 10 more times than Ott in Week 3.
Ott, thought to be one of the most significant transfer portal coups nationally, arrived on campus in June and missed most of camp with an injury. But when he’s been on the field he hasn’t looked the part yet.
“You wish he was a little further along in every way, but you get in there, whatever opportunities you have, you get in there, you’re ready,” Venables said. “You’ve got good juice, energy, aggressiveness. Having an attack mindset, all those things, everything adds up, everything matters. So we’d love to get him going. If all things are good in that regard, that I just said, his instincts, his speed, all those things, can be a real weapon.”
Arbuckle added: “Jaydn has been having great weeks of practice. Our running back room is playing really well. And I said last week, whenever you’ve got a lot of guys you trust, you’ve got to keep on finding ways to be creative and get people the ball at the end of the day.”
When Blaylock’s name popped up as RB2 after OU released its initial depth chart, some scoffed. It’s early, but Blaylock is making a strong case he should be the Sooners’ bellcow. After all, Arbuckle has reiterated time and time again that he doesn’t believe in going away from the hot hand.
The scary fact is that Blaylock is just getting started.
“Every game I’m getting under my feet,” Blaylock said. “As a freshman and getting out there, you’re a little nervous and shaky at first, but with more games under my belt, obviously, I’m gonna get more comfortable.”
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today atsubscribe.oklahoman.com.
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