A breakout season
After two injury plagued years, running back Rodney Anderson showed last season what he can do when he compiled more than 1,400 yards of total offense and scored 18 touchdowns.
NORMAN — Rodney Anderson kept waiting for “Old Rodney” to come out.
In high school in Katy, Texas, Anderson wowed scouts during a monster senior season where he rushed for 2,485 yards and 36 touchdowns on an average of 9.9 yards per carry.
The old Rodney wasn’t seen publicly at least for Anderson’s first two-plus years in Norman as Anderson was slowed by a pair of injuries — a leg injury against Tennessee that ended his freshman season and a neck injury that cut short his 2016 season before it even began.
Sooner fans got their first mass viewing of that talent last season in the second quarter against Texas, when Anderson took a handoff from Baker Mayfield five yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 20, cut back near the original line of scrimmage and then broke free of Holton Hill’s attempted tackle at the 5 to dive into the end zone.
Anderson finished that game with 48 yards but a week later had his big breakout game with 147 yards and a touchdown on the ground at Kansas State, plus another receiving score.
“I just got comfortable I think, after two seasons of not playing games,” Anderson said. “It was good to finally relax and be back into the same Rodney, I guess.”
For running backs coach Jay Boulware, Anderson’s breakthrough was more gradual than just those two games.
“I’d get to work and Rodney would be there sitting in my chair waiting on me,” Boulware said. “He just kind of grinded it out. Every day we would just start talking about the run game, his assignments and reads, blocking schemes and all that stuff just trying to get him up to speed.
“I knew he was coming along. I said it from the jump that I thought he was the guy that could show the most improvement. I feel like I had a little foresight there in being able to see that.”
The Sooners entered last season with plenty of talent but plenty of questions at running back, with Abdul Adams as Oklahoma’s most proven back.
Although he started buried on the depth chart, Anderson quickly settled in as the top option in the running game.
Anderson is looking for more this season after rushing for 1,161 yards and 13 touchdowns — with another 281 yards and five touchdowns receiving.
“My consistency,” Anderson said when asked how he saw his game improving this season as a redshirt junior. “Being consistent throughout a whole workout so I can be consistent through a whole game. I feel like I definitely could have been more consistent in the second half of some games last year.”