The Next Great OU Tailback
Oklahoma Sooners RB Gavin Sawchuk might not be the hero we deserve, but he's the hero we need.
The liberation of Gotham has begun!
- Penguin, Batman Returns (1992)
The 2023 season was a puzzling one for the Oklahoma Sooners RB room. The year began with an evisceration of the Arkansas State Red Wolves—a one night stay in Committee City utilizing a three-man rotation—with Jovantae Barnes leading the charge with 13 carries, and Tawee Walker scoring all the points with two TDs.
The following week, the pig signal was ignited, and the second year man out of Sin City, Tawee Walker, monopolized the rushing touches with 21 carries for 117 yards. Rejoice could be heard in every room of VP manor. A new Volume Pig was born!—err… not so fast.
Walker did not register a stat the following week vs. Tulsa, and then carried the ball five and four times over the next two outings.
Once a potential success story, this backfield descended into a multi-week stay in Gotham—excuse me—Committee City, an urban jungle rife with dubious coaches harbouring suspicious intentions. A festering cesspool where teammate-on-teammate CFF crime is as common as Steve Sarkisian’s tampering in the transfer portal (hello!).
Barnes and the second year player out of Colorado—Gavin Sawchuk, were now sharing the load. Barnes once again led the way with 13 carries for 68 yards and a score vs. Tulsa in week three. Unfortunately, he would later go down with injury, and only return on October 28th.
In typical 2023-OU fashion, Sawchuk—despite a growing role vs. Tulsa—registered zero stats the following week vs. Cincinnati. Hmm…
Speaking of Tawee Walker, he would retake the lead pig mantle once again on October 7th vs. Texas. Walker rushed 15 times for 46 yards and two scores (scored 20 points total in 1PPR formats). He followed that up with a 23 carry, 146 yard and one score performance vs. Kansas (20.6 points).
It appeared at the time that the mayor of OU and his lackeys— HC Brent ‘The Penguin’ Venables and then-OC Jeff ‘Alfred’ Lebby, had heeded the pig signal that I and the VP interns lit up in a desperate attempt to save the innocent young RBs trapped in Committee City.
But once again, things fell back into disarray. After two stellar performances, Walker—seemingly at random—was relegated to a secondary role behind Sawchuk, rushing only eight times for 59 yards and a score, while Sawchuk rushed 13 times for 111 yards and a score.
Evidently, Sawchuk’s performance was enough for the coaches to go ahead and give him the green light as the lead back, as he would go on to carry the football 22, 14, 22, and 15 times in his final four games. Adding in receptions, he averaged 20 touches a game in this final stretch. He also went over 100-yards in each. These two conditions sounding familiar? That’s right, they are the prestigious SOAP conditions.
Note: Sawchuk dealt with a hamstring injury in the offseason that went unreported for a long time, which is likely why the staff eased him into the rotation early in 2023.
Despite a tumultuous season, it appeared—finally—that the innocent people of Oklahoma had liberated themselves from the derelict Committee City. A brand new Volume Pig was born.
OU Makes a Change on Staff for 2024
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 16 — OC: 15.5 (Sample: 2018-2023)1
Before getting into Sawchuk, we should first look at the staff in place. While the core nucleus from 2023 largely remains intact, OU did make one major change that will impact the RB position. Former OC Jeff Lebby took the head coaching position of Mississippi State. He is replaced by former OU analyst and North Texas head coach, Seth Littrell. TEs coach Joe Jon Finley was also promoted to co-OC.
Littrell spent last season as an offensive analyst for the Sooners, after he spent seven seasons as the head coach of North Texas. Littrell was unfortunately one of the many aforementioned corrupt officials occupying leadership in Committee City. During those seven seasons, only two RBs went over 1000 yards, and only one was the clear lead back (DeAndre Torry in 2021). Jeff Wilson was the other runner to do it in 2017, but he only carried the rock 188 times, while the RB2 carried the pig 138 times.
During this stretch, excluding the COVID season, Littrell’s RB1s averaged 178.5 carries, (remarkably) 1000.5 yards, 11.33 TDs. That stat line is actually pretty neat, considering only two runners broke 1000-yards during that span; and, despite low carry volume, the output numbers would average about 14 PPG in 12 games or 12.9 over 13. That’s not so bad all things considered. The reason the yardage numbers work out like that is because the lowest output from Littrell’s runners was 807, and two finished with 936 and 977 yards.
If we go back further to Littrell’s time at UNC (OC from 2014-15), things are a bit brighter. Elijah Hood led the Tarheels with 219 carries for 1463 yards and 17 rushing scores. The next leading RB finished with 66 carries. The previous season (2014) was a committee.
Littrell’s two seasons at Indiana (OC from 2012-13) were also split backfields on aggregate, though he did have Tevin Coleman average 16.6 touches per game over his nine games that year, and he finished with almost 1000 yards (958) and 12 scores. That’s a good season.
His three seasons at Arizona (OC in 2011, co-OC in 2010, RBs coach in 2009) were unremarkable.
The co-OC, Joe Jon Finley, has previously served solely as a position coach (TEs) or pass game coordinator. He’s probably going to have more of a hand in the pass game than the run game if I had to guess. We just don’t have anything to go off of with him so regardless of how involved he is with the RBs, there’s not much to say here.
The RBs coach is former NFL’er DeMarco Murray. He’s been with the program since 2020, and he’ll probably have some say in the rotation as well. If we count Sawchuk in 2023, the Sooners have had one lead pig in the backfield every season Murray’s been there (excluding the COVID year).
Gavin Sawchuk & Other OU RBs in 2024
Gavin Sawchuk (5’11, 200) — 2023 PPG: 12.6
Before getting into Sawchuk, I should mentioned that last year’s momentary pig—Tawee Walker—has moved on to Wisconsin this offseason. However, Jovantae Barnes returns, and the Sooners also brought in UTM (FCS) transfer Sam Franklin. So the floor has not necessarily been completely cleared for Sawchuk, but his main competition transferring out is a good sign, on top of the fact that he already took over late in ‘23.
Fun fact: UGA RB and former Florida Gator Trevor Etienne recently mentioned on a podcast that OU were the very first team to contact him when he entered the portal, apparently FaceTiming him within one minute of his name being officially listed. Having asked a few OU buddies of mine what their interpretation of that was, the sentiment seemed to be more about what the staff thought of Etienne as a player, rather than a specific need in their RB room.
Thankfully, Etienne ended up choosing the #1 program in CFB—the UGA Bulldogs, as that would have been disastrous for Sawchuk’s 2024 profile, and I don’t think the good people of Oklahoma could deal with another season in Committee City—it’s simply too dangerous for such an extended stay.
As for the man himself, Sawchuk was a four star (momentary five star) from the 2022 cycle out of Colorado. Blair Angula, of 247 Sports, had this to say in his initial evaluation of Sawchuk coming out of high school:
Well-proportioned frame with narrow build and strong lower half. Elite top-end speed and lightning-quick reflexes. Explodes through running lanes and separates in open space.
Lethal beyond the second level and touchdown threat from anywhere on the field. Turns corners well, cuts up the field seamlessly and makes defenders miss. Shows decent vision to run between tackles, but appears more comfortable breaking to outside. Above average pass-catcher out of backfield. Could still improve patience in allowing blocks to line up.
Potential to be an instant impact player at Power Five level and eventual NFL Draft candidate.
Closing
The arrow certainly appears to be pointed up on Sawchuk. The bad news here—and I don’t like to be the bearer of bad news—is that OU only returns 17% of snaps from a year ago on the OL. They did bring in a (likely) upgrade in former Missouri Tiger Caden Green, who will probably play one of the tackle positions.
It’ll also just generally be harder to rush the football playing in the SEC. The Sooners get Texas (as usual), Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU and Tennessee as the headliners in their in-conference schedule. They do have a leisurely out-of-conference slate, with Maine, Temple, Houston and Tulane rounding out the opponents. I wouldn’t say I’m overwhelmingly worried about the SEC schedule; Alabama will probably be tough to run the football on, but the others shouldn’t be so bad as to render Sawchuk (or whoever else) as unplayable during those contests.
Another consideration is that the Sooners will be working in a new QB in Jackson Arnold. Typically, teams who are doing this will rely on the run game a little more, especially early on in the season. Arnold—while sporting a high pedigree as a recruit—is still largely unproven, and could struggle this season. From that angle, it’s good that Sawchuk has demonstrated a keen ability as a receiver, because there might be a lot of dump-off passes coming his way.
Overall, I am operating under the assumption that Sawchuk will be lead pig for the Sooners in 2024, and I view him as a potential PPR monster with a green QB being worked in. The offensive line’s ability to withstand and excerpt force in the SEC does worry me slightly, and this could ultimately come to bite Sawchuk shareholders in the rear come the season if they’re not up to the task.
I’m comfortable drafting Sawchuk as high as the second round in standard and bestball formats as things currently stand. His ADP according to Campus2Canton is 53.3, or about the middle of the fourth round.
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These numbers come from one of the subscribers’ models: Joe Arpesi. The averages are non-PPR.