OU notepad: Lebby hoping to get Sawchuk, Barnes more involved on offense

NORMAN — Most people expected Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk to take the reins on the Sooners’ running back room in 2023.

However, the play of Tawee Walker through the first two weeks has thrown an unexpected wrench in those plans.

After making his first collegiate start against Arkansas State, the walk-on recorded a career performance in the Sooners’ 28-11 win over SMU on Saturday. Despite Marcus Major getting the start, Walker dominated the backfield touches and finished with 142 total yards on 24 touches.

Walker saw 21 carries and turned them into 117 yards, while Major, Barnes and Sawchuk combined for 45 yards on 11 carries. Walker, simply, has been the Sooners’ most productive and most consistent running back through two weeks.

OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby reiterated his confidence in the top four running backs during his press conference on Monday.

“(Walker) had the most production on Saturday,” Lebby said. “I do like the fact that we have four guys. We got four guys who are incredibly capable. We have four guys who have incredible trust with the entire staff and I think can play at any given time. The stress, I think, is being able to get 2 (Barnes) and 27 (Sawchuk) going as they've work themselves into being in a really good position.”

While Walker has impressed early, Barnes and Sawchuk’s lack of involvement has been noteworthy.Through two games, Barnes has played just 32 snaps, per Pro Football Focus, recording 15 carries for 54 yards. Sawchuk made his season debut against SMU, playing just three snaps and recording one carry. For reference, Walker and Major have played 58 and 53 snaps, respectively. Walker leads the running backs in carries with 29.

While Lebby said last week that the Sooners will feed the “hot hand”, Lebby did say on Monday that Barnes and Sawchuk are healthy and their roles will increase as the season continues.

“We talked about it earlier, but we want to get 2 and 27 going,” Lebby said. “We absolutely do. That’s something that’ll be important for us this week as we move forward and making decisions for Saturday.”

After Pettaway led the Sooners in receptions against Arkansas State with nine, the true freshman didn’t log a single snap against SMU.

Lebby explained Pettaway’s lack of involvement on Monday.

“Part of it was Drake (Stoops) was back healthy,” Lebby said. “Obviously, we lost Drake early in Week 1. He comes back. With the way the game was going, (we) wanted to lean on some older guys who had played a bunch of ball. Drake was a guy I wasn’t quite ready to get out of the game full-tilt. That’s kinda how that played out.”

While Pettaway didn’t log a snap, other receivers who made big plays against Arkansas State didn’t see much time on the field, either. Gavin Freeman (12 snaps), Jayden Gibson (six snaps) and Nic Anderson (17) didn’t see the field much against SMU, either.

Only three receivers (Andrel Anthony, Jalil Farooq, Stoops) recorded catches against SMU.

After giving up a sack in the first half, Byrd didn’t see the field much the rest of the way. The coaching staff opted to give Troy Everett more snaps.

Everett played 47 snaps to Byrd’s 30, per Pro Football Focus. Byrd has started both games at left guard.

When asked about the left guard situation, Lebby didn’t dive into specifics.

​​“When you put the game on, our guys played incredibly hard, and they tried to be incredibly physical,” Lebby said. “We did not play very clean. We couldn’t get out of our way at times. That wasn’t just up front. That was really spread out through the entire unit. You put the tape on, and guys were playing incredibly hard and incredibly tough. But we didn’t execute cleanly. Coach V talks about it all the time, right?

“But it’s effort with technique. It’s playing incredibly hard and incredibly physical. But having great technique and fundamentals inside of what you’re doing on every snap. And that’ll give us a chance to have the success we want to have. All of us gotta play cleaner, I am proud of the way we tried to play. We just did not play very clean.”

The Sooners’ game at Cincinnati next Saturday, Sept. 23, will kickoff at 11 a.m., the team announced. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports.