Why Oklahoma RB Marcus Major Will Miss Saturday's Spring Game

Coach Brent Venables explained that Major suffered a recent injury, and said the scrimmage format was born out of a lack of offensive line depth.

Oklahoma’s running back depth has been troublesome all spring. But it just got even thinner.

Head coach Brent Venables confirmed Thursday night after practice that senior Marcus Major will miss Saturday’s spring game with a broken hand.

“He came back and was practicing and then he just banged up his hand,” Venables said. “Just a slight fracture that, he’ll be back and at it here in a couple of weeks. So, hate it for him. But he — we intentionally held him out.”

Major is a senior from Oklahoma City who is expected to compete for starting snaps with rising sophomores Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuck.

Barnes has missed the second half of spring after he needed foot surgery. Freshman walk-on Chapman McKown enrolled early to participate this spring, but he’s also been slowed by an undisclosed injury.

Major’s absence shouldn’t be too big a setback in Saturday’s spring finale. The Sooners have a couple of early enrollees in the 2023 freshman class in Daylan Smothers and Kalib Hicks who could get a lot of carries Saturday. Walk-on Tawee Walker — the leading rusher in last year’s game — also should get a significant amount of action.

“We could have started (Major) Day 1 at spring ball to be full go,” Venables said. “Just wanted to help him continue to get strong and healthy and not risk him. But it really created an opportunity for those other guys. Jovantae was out here for the first half of spring ball and then Gavin and Tawee and Kalib Hicks and Smothers, gave them all a great opportunity to get a bunch of reps and I'm really impressed with that group of guys.”

Venables explained that injuries and attrition on the offensive line is a big reason that Saturday’s format will be a straight offense versus defense tilt.

With both starting tackles (Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris) jumping to the NFL, projected starter Walter Rouse, a Stanford transfer, recovering from shoulder surgery, and Cheez-It Bowl starter Jacob Sexton recovering from a knee injury, there just aren’t a lot of healthy offensive tackles. Aaryn Parks is expected to start on the left side and Tyler Guyton should start on the right. 

“We obviously had to change our format,” Venables said. “And some of that was decided by not having enough available offensive lineman to be able to put two teams out there — two separate teams. So this gives us a chance to keep the offense together and not spread them too thin.

“It's going to be a fun day. It's gonna be a beautiful day.”

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