Before Ohio State University so much as lays foot to ball to kick off the season the Big 10 Conference has bungled, Oklahoma has played itself out of College Football Playoff consideration and, quite possibly, out of Big 12 Conference championship contention.
Guess Sooner tailback Trey Sermon knew what he was doing when in March he entered the NCAA transfer portal, and before a person could say scarlet-and-gray he had changed his colors from crimson-and-cream.
Though common in a more player-centric NCAA, especially for graduate transfers such as Sermon, his decision makes one wonder what place loyalty and appreciation for past opportunity have in the process. Don’t get me wrong: Sermon has the right to play wherever he wants to play—in this case where he apparently thought he had the best chance to play. My concern goes to the unintended consequences dealt the university that had welcomed the powerful runner (6-foot-1, 215 pounds) from Georgia to Norman in 2017 after he suffered a back injury in high school cooled OSU’s interest in him.
At Oklahoma, Sermon proved an instant wonder. In his second game—as a true freshman—he snagged a fourth-quarter pass from Baker Mayfield, now Cleveland Browns’ quarterback, to help close out a 31-16 victory at Ohio State. He also rushed for 62 yards, as the Sooners got even for a home loss the year before to the Buckeyes.
“It’s kind of crazy to look back and believe that the place I scored my first touchdown is where I’m going to be spending my final year of college football,” Sermon told Lettermen Row when he made his choice. “I just believe it’s the best situation for me. I know I have the opportunity to play there, considering the depth.”
And so there it is: the ol’ football under the playing time/carries nutshell. Find it. Sermon did. He kept his eye on it, found it under the Sooner nutshell when OU gave him his chance over three seasons. But there was a hitch. Others had their eyes on the nutshell, and it kept moving. Opportunity existed early on. Then, less and less of it. New players joined the Sooners. Kennedy Brooks watched the nutshell, too.
That is the thing about programs such as Ohio State and Oklahoma that attract the best running-back talent. Reward comes with risk—risk that someone quicker afoot and of eye will come along and find under a different nutshell opportunity that used to be yours. Sermon ran for 2,076 yards and 22 touchdowns and caught passes for another three. But by 2019, his junior season, his carries had become next to none during the first four games before he suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear.
Sermon is the only Sooner in history with 2,000 yards to transfer. Oklahoma, like Ohio State, is a hard place for a running back to win his spurs and keep them. It isn’t the end of the world, though it can feel as if it is. Sooners who have transferred and some who could hardly get on the field have gone on to good-to-significant NFL careers. When you have received your degree, you’ve also earned the right to apply your learning.
Tony Alford, Ohio State running-backs coach, had built a relationship with Sermon before TOSU—“T” to acknowledge the pompous “The” Ohio State likes to insist be placed before its name—put Sermon back on the open market and OU said: Thank you, we will take him. OU never changed its mind. It just found Brooks, who was better. Happens all the time at OU and Ohio State.
Sermon joined Ohio State after J.K. Dobbins moved on to the even more rarified air of the NFL and his heir apparent, Master Teague III, injured his Achilles in spring training. The glide path to starter looked clear. Turns out Teague heals quickly. So when OSU plays host to Nebraska Saturday in a long-delayed first game on the Big Ten slate, Sermon and Teague will split the work.
And Oklahoma? It lost its top three running backs from 2019, the guys who were supposed to prop up first-time starting quarterback Spencer Rattler and ease his transition to QB1. Brooks decided in August to opt-out of the COVID-19 mess that the pandemic has made not only of football but, more important, of living and breathing. And No. 3 back Rhamondre Stevenson has missed every game so far on suspension.
That left three scholarship running backs: T.J. Pledger, who ran for 244 yards and a touchdown the past two seasons; Marcus Major, who had 10 carries for 28 yards in 2019 before an injury led to a redshirt year, and Seth McGowen, four-star freshman who in early-season action ran as if someone had failed to recognize he deserved the coveted fifth star. Then, McGowen suffered an injury; Sermon would have been the star.
Of course, Sermon may become that with the Buckeyes. Their reunion was hardly based on charity, and I am glad for both parties, though my years of dealing with Ohio State coaches left me, no longer a journalist, less than a fan. No one except the extraordinary Earle Bruce acted as if he respected sports columnists from Akron. Not even John Cooper, who looked askance when informed we both had labored in Tulsa.
I first met Bruce when he coached Iowa State University, and was the best coach the Cyclones ever had, though Matt Campbell (Mount Union of Alliance, Ohio, player and assistant coach) could alter that assessment. Earle liked others even more than he liked himself. I hope Sermon’s experience on the banks of the Olentangy River will be a similar experience and feeling. As it has turns out, though, he could be in Norman, Oklahoma, living a situation that once again presents the opportunity he so covets.
