Not your average Joe
Running back Joe Mixon is better than ever for the Sooners this season, Ryan Aber writes.
NORMAN — Early in the second quarter of the Bedlam game last November, Oklahoma redshirt freshman running back Joe Mixon seemed stonewalled as he took the handoff from Baker Mayfield and kept going to his left.
But Mixon bounced right off Oklahoma State’s Vincent Taylor and cut back to his right, almost immediately hitting full speed and taking advantage of a block by Mayfield to break free for a 66-yard touchdown.
Oklahoma running backs coach Jay Boulware just shakes his head at the suggestion that the Joe Mixon who used his power and speed to score on that play in Bedlam was a showing of what Mixon can be.
“No, no, no,” Boulware said. “I remember coming into spring saying, ‘Wow, he’s there now. He’s there now.’ He wasn’t there at any point in time last season. You look at him now, he’s a different player.”
Mixon sat out the 2014 season after an incident at an off-campus restaurant where he hit a female OU student in the face, leaving her with multiple bones fractured.
He was charged with a misdemeanor — acts resulting in gross injury — and entered an Alford plea that resulted in a year of probation, a requirement to complete 100 hours of community service and cognitive behavior counseling.
Mixon was suspended from all team activities for an entire season.
He returned last season and ran for 753 yards and
seven touchdowns while catching 28 passes for 356 yards and four more scores.
While those numbers were solid — especially considering the production of top running back Samaje Perine — most associated with OU’s offense expect more this season.
While Mixon hasn’t talked publicly, about that incident or anything else, since a required media session at December’s Orange Bowl, his coaches and teammates have done plenty of talking about him.
Sooners offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley wasn’t around for Mixon’s first year on campus, but it was around the time Riley was brought on board that Mixon returned to the team.
Riley could see the effects the season away from football had, even if Mixon insisted he worked out vigilantly at OU’s Huston Huffman Fitness Center with his father.
“When I got here, he was honestly kind of pudgy and was out of shape and was still a freshman mentally as far as learning the stuff and how you do things,” Riley said. “But he’s always had the enthusiasm, and he’s always had the want-to, and he’s always let you coach him hard, and he’s just gotten better and better and better.”
Dimitri Flowers has seen plenty of Mixon on the field.
The junior fullback said the differences in Mixon are easily noticeable.
“He’s playing so much faster,” Flowers said. “You don’t think he can get much faster, but he’s gotten bigger in the weight room and he’s playing fast. He’s moving. He’s gotten smarter on the field as well.”
According to coaches, Mixon took advantage of offseason workouts to become the player he was expected to be before his actions altered his path at OU.
Riley even mentioned Mixon as a possible future team captain.
“For him, it’s just been a steady climb in all aspects,” Riley said. “That’s why he’s improved the way he has, and that’s why he’s become an important leader on this team like he has.”