‘Somebody Else Has to Step Up’: With Gordon Gone, Who Will Ascend in OSU’s Running Back Room?

STILLWATER — The Cowboys’ running back room is one of the most interesting position groups on a team filled with intriguing position battles.

Gone is Doak Walker winner Ollie Gordon after he ran for 2,612 yards and 34 touchdowns across the past two seasons. The room he left had a few young, promising pieces in it, and Oklahoma State’s new staff has added to it this offseason through the transfer portal.

Trent Howland, Sesi Vailahi and Rodney Fields Jr. all return after contributing in spots last season. OSU added Oklahoma transfer Kalib Hicks in the opening transfer portal window, and then Georgia State transfer Freddie Brock committed to the Cowboys last week. OSU also has redshirt freshman Jaden Allen-Hendrix after he took a redshirt last season, but Gundy mentioned earlier in the spring that he is out with an injury.

Gundy said last week that he feels comfortable with one guy getting about 20 carries a game to get established while having others guys help carry the load.

“I love them — love them to death,” Howland said. “They’re my brothers. I had Rodney and Sesi last year. And Kalib, he’s a new guy – he’s quiet, that’s why we call him ‘Zip’ – but I feel like he’s more comfortable around us, so he’s starting to open up more, and I’m bonding with him as well.”

Fields was dynamic in the four games he played in while redshirting last season. He sat until the Cowboys’ October trip to Provo, a game Fields carried eight times for 38 yards. On one drive in the third quarter, Fields had runs of 10 and 22 yards. In the fourth quarter, he was trusted with a 4th-and-1 carry, where he was able to get the necessary yard. That was part of the Cowboys’ go-ahead drive that took nearly eight and a half minutes off the clock.

He scored his touchdown in the Cowboys’ shootout against Texas Tech, breaking free for a 19-yard score.

In a position group where guys are often referred to as either thunder or lightening, Fields falls into the lightening category at 5-foot-9, 195 pounds, but he is tenacious, according to his head coach.

“He’s a tough one,” Gundy said. “He took more hits than anybody. I think he took 100 hits last year in August. So he’s took a lot of hits.”

In the last month of the season, Howland carried 23 times and gained 141 yards. That’s 6.1 yards per carry, which is good out of context, but given the context that OSU rushed for 3.7 yards per carry as a team last season, that Howland stretch looks even better. His season-long yard-per-carry average was 5.6, which led OSU running backs by 0.9 yards a carry. And at 6-2, 245 pounds, he adds a different flavor to Fields.

“Now that (Gordon is) gone, somebody else has to step up,” Howland said. “I feel like we all have different aspects to the game, but if it comes to being the feature back, I feel like I can step up and take that role on.”

Vailahi had the second-most carries of anyone on the team last season (behind Gordon), and he is a threat in more than the run game, as his eight catches for 46 yards were second-most among Cowboy running backs (again, trailing only Gordon). That ability to run and catch was evident in his team at West High School in Salt Lake City, where Vailahi played running back, slot receiver and was a torpedo of a safety. It hasn’t all come together yet for Vailahi at the college level, but he’s only a redshirt sophomore and with some of the gnarly cuts he’s made, it feels like it’s only a matter of time.

There isn’t a ton out there on Hicks, a 5-11, 215-pound redshirt sophomore, as he took only five carries in two seasons with the Sooners. But coming out of Denton-Ryan High School, Hicks had offers to play at Alabama, Miami, Penn State and others, so something is there.

Although Brock will get a later start given he isn’t there for the spring, he has the most experience. Having only played at the FBS level for two seasons, Brock’s 1,126 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns are more than the rest of the room combined to this point in their respective careers.

Options are aplenty.

“You’ve got me obviously, but then Kalib, he’s another somewhat big back, and then Rodney, and they run behind their pads good,” Howland said. “When it comes to Sesi, he’s a speed guy – cut and get up the field. But I like that it’s versatile because when it comes to playing in the Big 12, it’s going to be effective when playing against the teams we’re going up against.”