Oklahoma's Finest: How RB Eric Gray Produced a Season to Remember

The Sooners' senior running back worked hard to get bigger, stronger and more explosive this season, and it paid off with a mammoth statistical year.

John E. Hoover | Nov 28, 2022

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Oklahoma Sooners

NOTE: Part 1 of a series spotlighting the Sooners' best performances of 2022.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Eric Gray was supposed to replace Kennedy Brooks, not surpass him.

But that’s exactly what Gray did this season as Oklahoma’s RB1.

Gray, a senior from Memphis who played two years at Tennessee and arrived at OU via the transfer portal, currently sits at 1,364 rushing yards this season.

As it stands, it’s the ninth-best single-season total ever by an OU running back. He’s averaging 6.4 yards per carry and has rushed for 11 touchdowns. He’s also caught 33 passes for 229 yards.

“Yeah, this year was kind of the year I wanted to have,” Gray said Saturday after the Sooners’ loss to Tech, when he ran 28 times for 161 yards. “With the yards, the touchdowns, it’s the year I definitely wanted to have. I’m blessed and grateful that I was able to have this year.”

Gray’s total sits behind those of Adrian Peterson (1,925), Billy Sims (1,896), Quentin Griffin (1,884), Greg Pruitt (1,760), Samaje Perine (1,713) and Steve Owens (1,649 and 1,523). Gray’s big night Saturday in the season finale at Texas Tech — his ninth 100-yard game of the season, coming two weeks after his career-best 211 yards at West Virginia — pushed him past Mike Gaddis (1,344) and Perine (1,349) into the Sooners’ top 10.

Eric Gray's big senior year (1,364) puts him at No. 9 between Steve Owens and Samaje Perine. — Eric Gray's big senior year (1,364) puts him at No. 9 between Steve Owens and Samaje Perine

If he plays in OU’s bowl game, he’d need a huge game to jump Owens for No. 8.

That wasn’t even in the discussion during the offseason, when Gray was coming off a pedestrian junior year as Brooks’ backup.

While Brooks was coming back from the COVID opt-out to record his third 1,000-yard season, Gray rushed for just 412 yards on 78 carries in 2021, averaging 5.3 yards per carry and only scoring two touchdowns on the ground.

But he had a good spring and said his offseason weight training and fitness routine was productive. He said he felt stronger and more explosive — and he was.

“It definitely feels different,” Gray said in August. “I’ve put on 10 pounds (of muscle), so it feels great.”

Even as the most experienced back on the roster — he ran for more than 1,100 yards and eight TDs in two seasons as a part-time starter at Tennessee — many observers actually predicted Gray might lose his starting job if he didn’t get better at running through contact and producing more consistent big plays.

Instead of losing carries to Marcus Major or up-and-coming freshman Jovantae Barnes, Gray heard all the talk, drew motivation from it and flourished.

He opened the season with 102 yards on 16 carries against UTEP, then carried 10 times for 71 yards against Kent State. He ripped Nebraska for 113 yards and two TDs on just 11 carries, then had 114 yards on 16 carries in the loss to Kansas State.

Gray ran just 13 times but still gained 60 yards in the blowout loss at TCU, then got the football just 11 times and piled up 59 yards in the blowout loss to Texas before bouncing back with 176 and two TDs against Kansas. Against Iowa State’s top-ranked run defense, Gray ran for 101 yards and a score on 20 carries.

Gray’s workload increased over the final third of the season, with 23 carries for 106 yards and two TDs against Baylor, 25 carries for 211 yards and two TDs against West Virginia, 20 carries for 90 yards and a score against Oklahoma State, and then a career-high 28 carries for 161 yards in the loss to Tech.

“Looking back on all 12 games, really testament to the o-line, to the receivers blocking all year,” Gray said. “But this is definitely the year I wanted to have. So that’s a positive. I’m pretty proud of myself.”

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Published Nov 28, 2022

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.