Oklahoma RB Jovantae Barnes 'Locked-In' This Spring After Breakout Freshman Year

Jovantae Barnes finished second on the team in both carries and rushing yards last year, and is primed to lead the way for Oklahoma next year without Eric Gray.

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s running backs took center stage for the offense last year.

Eric Gray stepped up to replace Kennedy Brooks, rushing for 1,366 yards and 11 touchdowns, but the veteran wasn’t the only ball carrier who thrived.

True freshman Jovantae Barnes quickly emerged as a strong second option for running backs coach DeMarco Murray.

In Oklahoma’s fifth game of the year, Barnes broke the 100-yard mark, rushing for two touchdowns and 100 yards on 18 carries.

He rushed for more than 50 yards on four more occasions, highlighted by his 108-yard performance on 27 carries as a starter the Cheez-It Bowl against Florida State after Gray opted out of bowl season.

With an entire year of production under his belt, Barnes was giddy to get back out on the field this spring to begin working as the Oklahoma’s starter in 2023.

“I’ve been ready to come back,” Barnes said after practice on Monday. “The second year, it’s unbelievable that I’m back already. Feel like I just got done with my freshman year. It’s amazing to come back and to just be with the new guys, see new faces. New people in the RB room, new people everywhere.”

The new faces are a pair of freshman, Daylan Smothers and Kalib Hicks, who join Barnes, Marcus Major, Gavin Sawchuk and Tawee Walker.

Smothers and Hicks are present for spring football, just as Barnes was a year ago, but the veterans in the room are sharing the responsibility of replacing Gray’s leadership in the meeting rooms and on the practice field.

“I feel like all of us stepped up, everybody else from last year,” Barnes said. “Eric Gray and Marcus Major did a great job in just leaving a stamp on us… They left a great stamp on us for this year to step up and control what we can control. Meetings, making sure everybody’s getting on top of their film, things like that.”

And while Barnes has taken on a larger leadership role already through the winter and the spring, he’s also been sure to bring a different mentality to each day of practice this year as opposed to when he was just trying to get adjusted to life at Oklahoma last spring.

“It feels like I’m more locked-in,” he said. “Like I know more and I’m more advanced than I was last year. Obviously, I was early enrolled and I was basically a high school player on the college field just really learning everything.

“But it feels like I’ve already been here. I’m more comfortable with everybody, and I just know more than I did last year.”

The competition has higher stakes this year, too.

Last year, Barnes was just hoping to find a way to get on the field and contribute in his first year under offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.

In 2023, the Sooners will have to replace Gray’s 213 carries and 33 receptions.

Major battled injuries and carried the ball 56 times in nine games last year, and Sawchuk staged a coming-out party against Florida State in Orlando.

Barnes got more carries than Major and Sawchuk combined last year, but everybody is working to raise their level of competition in every practice leading up to the spring game.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Sawchuk said last week. “Same thing with me and Jovantae, or anybody in the room. We’re all trying to compete, we’re all trying to get better. It’s that we’re pushing each other, pushing each other.

“One person has to rise to the level of the other person. It’s just that level of competition to get everybody better.”

Murray stays on the running backs in practice, coaching them hard to make personal improvements that will benefit the team. But the most important message from the former NFL star to his young position group is to still enjoy the process, because the fall will be here before they know it.

“He just wants us to have a great time, just play loose and have fun on the field and really just bond together, which we’ve been doing a great job with,” Barnes said. “Everybody’s just close with everybody. We’re all brothers. If we ever have a problem or need anything, we can call each other.

“ … The goal is to win. That’s really all it is, just to win. Everybody has great chemistry, and I feel like nobody’s mind is on that. Everybody just wants to win and wants to just go eat.”

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