Gundy Touts Justice Hill as Maybe the Best Running Back in the Nation

If Baker Mayfield was the best player on the field in Bedlam on Saturday, then Justice Hill wasn’t very far behind. “Five” (as Gundy calls him) was maybe a half step behind “six” (as Gundy calls him), and he put up 228 yards on 30 carries plus a pair of touchdowns.

He was sublime for most of a game that featured over 1,000 passing yards.

“I’d like for somebody to show me a better running back than five,” said Gundy on Monday. “Anywhere. I’m just saying. He’s pretty good. I can say it for him. He’s not going to say it. He’s too humble, and he doesn’t hardly talk.”

Hill has carried a heavy load. He ranks No. 15 nationally in attempts per game and is starting to sniff the 6.0 yards per carry mark. Only Tatum Bell and Kendall Hunter have done that since 2000 while also carrying the ball 175 or more times in a season, and Hill is on pace to blow away both of their attempt totals.

At times, in fact most of the time, it felt like OU had no answer. Hill had seven carries of 13-plus yards on Saturday. But on the most important drive of the day with three minutes left and the season on the line, OSU only went to him once.

Gundy explained why on Monday.

“Not to show our cards, but we have very few runs,” said Gundy of the plays. “We have a lot of reads. Mason (Rudolph) has become fantastic at putting us in the best plays. Can we do it? Yes. But was it feasible based on the defense we were getting at that time or the most prominent looks? No.

“Like I said, we go based on what we have. Well, people always say you can always add more, but you can only do so much. You can’t be in a ‘run and shoot’ and then run a triple option.”

This is something I think people have been missing a little bit all year. Gundy (for the most part) has little to do with the plays. Even Mike Yurcich doesn’t have much influence as you think. It’s actually Rudolph who has the biggest hand in whether OSU runs or passes it based on the defense he sees on the field.

On Saturday, 30 times (or maybe less) he saw that Justice needed to be called upon, and “five” delivered on the majority of those. Is he the best back in the country? I don’t know. But I do know that at a school not short on great backs, he has stood out as much as anyone this century, and has a chance to go down as one of the best to ever do it in Stillwater.