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Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum Showed Why He’s Ready for More Action

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Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum Showed Why He’s Ready for More Action


NORMAN — Does Oklahoma have a running back controversy?

Of course not. It’s one game into the season. Friday’s opponent, Temple, wasn’t very good. The Sooners face a daunting SEC schedule. Over the next three months, DeMarco Murray is going to need every one of them at different times this year.

But no one can deny that OU freshman Taylor Tatum looked pretty special in his college debut against the Owls.

“Yeah, you can see his explosiveness, and he’s got great power,” coach Brent Venables said Friday night. 

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Murray, Venables’ running backs coach and himself a Sooner gridiron legend, was serving a one-game NCAA suspension for Level II recruiting violations. He wasn’t on the sidelines Friday. But if he was, would he have gotten Tatum a little more work?

Tatum, a freshman from Longview, TX, went into the opener listed fourth on the depth chart. He finished with just four carries. But he led the team with 66 yards rushing as the Sooners rolled to an easy 51-3 win.

“Oh, it felt great,” Tatum said. “And there’s no other place I’d rather do it. Just all the people, the crowd was definitely into it tonight. The stadium felt even bigger when you’re (in) it – better than when you’re a recruit on the sideline looking in. So … you just have a burst of adrenaline. I haven’t been hit since last year, like November. So just getting hit again, getting live-action speed again was definitely a great feeling.”

Tatum sliced off a 4-yard run on his first carry in the first quarter, a sudden, one-cut burst up the middle in which he made a defender miss at the line of scrimmage.

His second carry came midway through the fourth quarter, when he got the offense off the goal line with a 19-yard scamper. 

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“Just be a running back,” Tatum said. “Find the hole, get vertical, make a couple moves and just make as many yards as you can.”

Two plays later, he caught a short pass from Michael Hawkins and gained 3 yards.

On the next play, he took a handoff up the middle, accelerated outside to the right and sprinted upfield for a 35-yard gain, the Sooners’ longest run of the night.

“I’m sure I just saw the hole,” Tatum said. “It was probably designed inside run. Linebacker fit the hole he was supposed to fit. I just – we both did our jobs. Found a hole, made a play. That’s probably what happened.”

Then he finished off that drive by taking a third-down option pitch from Hawkins, cutting upfield and scooting inside the pylon for OU’s only third-down conversion and final touchdown.

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“I feel like on the whole we did pretty good,” Tatum said. “You score that many points, you’re doing something good. But obviously there’s always something to get better. Receivers blocked their butts off, o-line blocked their butts off. We still had some missed assignments. Everybody had something they could improve on tonight. Obviously we’re gonna enjoy the win, we’re gonna look forward and watch the film, but there’s always something to get better. So we’ll probably enjoy the win tonight, watch the film and get better for next week.”

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Tatum didn’t get to OU until he arrived for summer school in June. The presumption was that since he didn’t enroll in January and missed winter workouts and didn’t participate in spring practice, he would be behind.

He certainly didn’t look behind.  

“Runs through trash, and he’s got excellent top-end speed,” Venables said. “Really good natural instincts carrying the ball.”

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Tatum’s last real competition came during the spring, when he played baseball for Longview. 

Even though it’s been while since he’s run with the football, Friday night felt very familiar to him.

“Oh yeah. For sure,” he said. “It took me a little bit on the summer and the fall camp to get my groove, but once I got that groove, I feel like, just keep getting better and better, and enjoy the process also.”

Oklahoma, of course, has a returning starter in third-year sophomore Gavin Sawchuk, who ran for 744 yards and nine touchdowns last year, averaging 6.2 yards per carry as he racked up five straight 100-yard games to finish the season.

The Sooners also have junior Jovantae Barnes, who gained 510 yards and five touchdowns as a true freshman but fought through a foot injury last year.

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Also ahead of Tatum (they’re separated by an “OR” on the depth chart) is fourth-year junior Sam Franklin, a transfer from Tennessee-Martin who broke a 30-yard run on Friday and also showed elite speed. 

Murray will also try to find carries this season for redshirt freshman Kalib Hicks and maybe even true freshman Xavier Robinson.

It’ll be competitive all season, and Tatum will get what he earns. He was a consensus 4-star running back prospect coming out of high school, rated the No. 1 running back in the nation by 247 Sports, Rivals and ESPN and No. 2 by On3. Last year he became Longview’s career leader in rushing touchdowns, with 53, and ran for 1,463 yards and 23 total TDs as a senior, 1,840 yards and 36 scores as a junior. 

But high school accolades mean nothing to Murray when it comes to playing time.

Like Venables said, Tatum is a smooth, natural athlete, an asset in the passing game, an elite baseball player (he’ll head down to L. Dale Mitchell Park to help Skip Johnson’s squad next spring) who also excelled at track in high school (he anchored Longview’s 4×100 and 4×200 relays and won the district title with a 21.70 in the 2000).

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Alabama wanted Tatum. So did Ohio State, Oregon, USC and just about everyone else. But OU won out because of the way Venables and Johnson worked together in recruiting him.

Oklahoma’s running back carries may be spread out among the group, like they were early last season. But it’s also likely that Murray finds his go-to guy and rides the hot hand — like he did late last season.

“I feel like we all know our role,” Tatum said. “I feel like we all push each other to a certain limit. I feel like we all have certain things that we do good. Everybody has their own little critiques and everything, but I don’t really (think) you have to get in and make a play. You just be yourself and run and do your job and be a good running back. Everybody’s here for a reason. It’s RBU. So we all just push each other.”



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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

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Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

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Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor

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Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor


A man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.

As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US’s prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams’s back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities.

Phelps was sitting under a covered porch with family on Christmas and holding a child in her arms when they heard gunshots north of the house, said an affidavit laying out the circumstances of Adams’s arrest.

“Sandra commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas and then shortly after Sandra said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit said. It said there were no more gunshots after that.

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Emergency personnel were dispatched to Phelps’s address at about 3.15pm Thursday, the Stephens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“We later received a call stating an individual had just received a gun for Christmas and was target practicing in his backyard and that they believed it would be pointing in the direction of the scene,” the sheriff’s office statement added.

“Investigators went to the reported address and spoke with an individual [who] confirmed he was shooting a target in his back yard and that he had heard that someone has died from a gunshot wound a couple of roads over.”

That individual was Adams, 33, who showed deputies a Red Bull can in his back yard that he had been shooting with his handgun, according to the affidavit justifying his arrest.

Authorities allegedly concluded that the vantage point from where Adams was shooting aligned with the angle of the bullet that killed Phelps. They also determined the home lacked a suitable shooting backstop meant to protect those in the surrounding area from being struck by stray bullets.

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“Adams became visibly upset and began to cry” when he learned of Phelps, the affidavit added. He was arrested on a count of first-degree manslaughter and later released on a $100,000 bond.

In the US, unintentional deaths from firearms are a small percentage of gun deaths in the country. But they occur four times more often in the US than in comparable countries – and most involve a handgun.



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Oklahoma man accused of shooting neighbor dead during Christmas target practice

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Oklahoma man accused of shooting neighbor dead during Christmas target practice


What began as Christmas Day target practice in an Oklahoma neighborhood ended in tragedy when a stray bullet fatally struck an elderly woman as she sat on her front porch holding a baby.

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after firing the fatal shot, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by ABC News.

The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, was sitting on the front porch with family members at a home on County Road 1800 on Thursday afternoon when she was shot from several blocks away, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

According to the affidavit, the victim was seated on a love seat and holding a baby in her left arm when she was struck in her right upper arm. The bullet then entered her chest cavity.

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Family members told the responding deputy that they had heard someone firing five to seven gunshots and that the victim had “commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas” and shortly afterward “said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit stated.

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed an elderly woman a few blocks from his home

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed an elderly woman a few blocks from his home (Stephens County Sheriff’s Office)

As investigators canvassed nearby properties north of the shooting, deputies found that all but one home had “suitable shooting backstops or firing locations,” according to the affidavit. The only exception was Adams’s home.

Adams allegedly told deputies that he had been shooting a Glock 45 he recently bought for himself for Christmas, using a Red Bull can as a target in his backyard, according to the affidavit.

When a deputy told Adams he suspected the shooting may have caused the woman’s death, Adams “became visibly upset and began to cry,” the affidavit stated.

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Adams made his first court appearance Friday. A judge set his bond at $100,000, according to online court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 26, 2026.



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