Thursday’s good news was drown out with Friday’s bad news, in terms of Oklahoma’s football injury report. Late in the day on Thursday it was announced that receivers Deion Burks and Jalil Farooq would be available to play when the Sooners take on Missouri, looking for their crucial sixth win of the season. That was followed by Friday’s news that the Sooners would, in fact, be without leading rusher Jovantae Barnes. Listed as questionable for the game, Barnes didn’t even make the trip to Columbia with the team.
Barnes has rushed for 577 yards on the season, at a pace of 4.7 yards per carry, with 5 rushing touchdowns. He’s also been a factor in the passing game, hauling in 17 passes for 123 yards and another score. Sophomore Gavin Sawchuk was upgraded to questionable on the latest injury report, making him a likely candidate to benefit from Barnes’ absence. The most likely guy to carry the bulk of the workload is freshman Taylor Tatum who is second on the team in rushing with 239 yards, and an average of 5.6 yards per carry. Sam Franklin and Xavier Robinson are also two guys to keep an eye on.
This latest blow to Oklahoma’s offense really calls into question the stability, and efficiency, of Oklahoma’s training/medical staff. The top five receivers have been sidelined for the majority of the season, and now the top running back is sidelined a week after having a career day. All of the injuries could just be a crazy coincidence but it just seems unlikely at this point.
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