What Mikey Henderson’s Dismissal Means for the Oklahoma Roster Shifting Ahead

While losing two players in an injury-prone position is far from ideal, the Sooners have been very smart at making two significant transfers this off-season Eric Gray from Tennessee and Three Bradford from LSU.

“The first word that comes to mind about Eric Gray is a professional,” said running backs coach DeMarco Murray said during the spring exercises. “He’s a real professional on and off the pitch. He’s a guy who shows up early, stays long, extremely smart. For him, the transition was offensive, schematic, very, honest, easy for him.

“And our offense is extremely complicated. I am obviously still learning every day. You can just tell his professionalism and approach to the game and what he wants to achieve. It was great. He’s a damn gamer. Great person, great young man. We’re lucky to have him here. ”

These additions are big on their own as both Gray and Bradford are quality players, with Gray apparently immediately ready for a big year in 2021. But when you factor in Henderson and McGowan’s prints, they seem even bigger.

To put it as simply as possible, Oklahoma is essentially of a group of people Rhammondre Stevenson, Seth McGowan and Mikey Henderson joined a group of at the end of last season Kennedy Brooks, Eric Gray and Tre Bradford along with the Redshirt runner-up Marcus Major.

There’s a pretty simple argument that the 2021 group is actually way stronger on paper. But the question that moves forward will be a question of depth.

As long as the Sooners can stay healthy, they will be fine in the running back position for the coming season. But the injury margin of error is relatively low in a spot where a fair percentage of players has declined over the years.

It’s also worth noting that Henderson was an H-back in 2020 and moved on to running back for the upcoming season. The idea that he jumped straight into a new position and made a huge contribution right away is not entirely correct, as he likely would only have received a handful of carries over the course of the year.

Where Henderson’s departure may hurt could be outside of deep concerns already addressed earlier this year in the coming seasons.

Oklahoma has exciting young running backs up and coming and has quite a few on the roster right now, but for the next year or two the Sooners may wish they had Henderson or McGowan on the roster.

Lincoln Riley When Henderson brought Henderson into this room for a reason, he thought it would be useful down the street. Well, suddenly that is no longer part of the future plans.

Essentially, the 2021 Sooners iteration will be fine without Henderson as he probably wouldn’t be making such a big contribution in a new position right away. The problem could be in 2022 or even 2023, depending on how things go in the future.

Time will tell the impact of losing two running backs in an off-season, but right now Oklahoma still looks to have a fantastic running game and overall lineup this year as they claim the elusive eighth national title of the program.