Spring Position Preview: Cowboys’ Rebuilt Running Back Room Has Strong Ties to UNT, Oklahoma

Like a few position groups, the Cowboys had to rebuild their running back room from scratch this offseason.

Spring ball starts in about a week and a half, and Oklahoma State has a quintet of backs on its roster, none of whom were in orange and black last season.

We continue our spring position group breakdowns with a look at OSU’s tailbacks.

Spring Position Previews: QB | RB |WR | TE

Returners

None

Incoming Transfers

Freshmen

Career FBS Stats

Overview

Although the entire room is new to Stillwater, there are some throughlines of familiarity with the coaching staff’s transition from North Texas and the state of Oklahoma.

On the UNT side of things, Caleb Hawkins, Ayo Adeyi and Dennis Moody III have all spent time in Denton, with Hawkins and Moody coming straight over from the Mean Green while Adeyi rejoins the staff after spending the past two seasons at James Madison.

Hawkins (and running back coach Patrick Cobbs) is in the middle part of the Venn diagram between the state and UNT, having played his high school ball at North Rock Creek. He joins fellow Okies KD Jones (Jenks) and William Mason (Coweta) as Oklahomans in the Cowboys’ backfield.

Tre Page III is the only running back on OSU’s spring roster who hadn’t spent time at UNT and isn’t from the state of Oklahoma.

Two-Deep Prediction

RB1: Caleb Hawkins
RB2: Ayo Adeyi OR KD Jones

You feel confident Hawkins will be the Pokes’ featured guy, but what happens behind him will be interesting to watch develop.

Adeyi is the only other guy in the room who has taken an FBS handoff, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only guy with experience.

Page ran for 839 yards and seven TDs last season at Tarleton State. Moody took 101 handoffs in two seasons at North Alabama, running for 355 yards. Mason ran for 1,627 yards across the past three seasons at UCO. So, any of those guys able to smoothly transition to the level of competition could be in line to compete for carries.

Eric Morris has also proven he isn’t afraid to play freshmen — look no further than Hawkins last season. With Jones’ pedigree, I find it possible for him to be in the fight to battle for carries, so I split him and Adeyi with an OR for the time being.