Tory Blaylock is not hiding the target.
Asked what he expects in his second season at Oklahoma, the sophomore running back paused, thought it over, then put a number on it.
"Dang, that's a good question," Blaylock said.
Then came the goal.
"I want to be a thousand-yard rusher, just to put that out there," Blaylock said. "I feel like I have the abilities to do it.
I have the people around me to do it. So, I'm just excited to reach our goals."
That kind of confidence makes sense after what Blaylock already showed as a freshman, even while dealing with injuries. He played in all 13 games, started six, and still piled up 480 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 120 carries. He added 13 catches for 77 yards and finished with SEC All-Freshman honors.
His first big moment came in Oklahoma’s third game, when he went for 100 yards and two touchdowns against Temple. That made Blaylock the first OU freshman running back since DeMarco Murray in 2007 to hit 100 yards within his first three games. Later in the year, he turned in a season-high 101 yards and a touchdown at South Carolina, a performance that earned him another SEC Freshman of the Week nod.
Those flashes came while he was fighting through pain, and that’s part of what jumped out to new Oklahoma running backs coach Deland McCullough right away.
"Tory's fast. He was tough in pass protection.
He ran with speed. He ran with power," McCullough said.
"He was a tough guy. He played with injury.
Those are some things right there you can't coach. A guy having toughness and the care and the 'give-a-dang' factor, that is something that's honorable."
McCullough sees the raw traits already in place. What he’s been focused on is sharpening the edges - the hand placement, the footwork, the eye discipline and the way Blaylock presses his reads. In McCullough’s view, that’s where a good back starts to become a dangerous one.
"When you take somebody like Tory and you give him those tools, you should see some really good things," McCullough said. "He's excited out here.
The stuff that we do, he's fired up. The drills we do, he's like, 'This is real stuff.
I'm really adding to my repertoire and my tool bag to be an elite running back.'"
Blaylock has taken to that approach quickly. He called McCullough “a detailed coach” and said the film work has been a major part of the appeal.
"It's been really nice," Blaylock said. "He's a detailed coach, really detailed.
Just seeing some of those things really excites me. Watching all of his cutups, we've been watching a lot of film, so that excites me a lot."
McCullough also made an immediate impression on the room by showing the backs a list of the players he has coached and the honors they collected along the way. Blaylock said the message was clear before McCullough even got deep into the teaching.
"The first day he came in, not to brag on himself or do any of that, he put up a list of all the people that he coached," Blaylock said. "It was a really long list with all the accolades and stuff. Even before he said anything about the yards after contact, seeing that list motivated us to be great.
"We have the coach we need now. It's really just on us to display it and do what we've got to do."
That yards-after-contact standard matters in McCullough’s room. He wants Oklahoma’s running backs to average at least three yards after contact, and Blaylock likes the benchmark because it speaks to the kind of runner that really changes a game.
"Anybody can run through an open hole, in my opinion," Blaylock said. "It's what you do after contact. That's what makes a great running back really special."
The Sooners are aiming higher than simply clearing that number.
"We all don't want to fall short of that, and we probably have higher expectations for ourselves than those three," Blaylock said. "Just running the ball with intent and being physical, I feel like that's going to help us be at that mark."
Blaylock believes he’s better equipped to meet those expectations now than he was a year ago. He said he added good weight over the offseason and feels more physically ready for the grind ahead.
"Mentally, I would probably say my leadership, but physically, I've gotten a lot bigger," Blaylock said. "I feel like that's going to help my game a lot.
I gained a lot of good weight and put it on in the right places. Coach Dobson did a really good job helping me get where I wanted to get, so I'm excited to see how I do physically."
And his optimism isn’t limited to his own growth. Blaylock also pointed to Oklahoma’s transfer portal additions, the revamped tight end room and the continued development of the offensive line as reasons the run game can move forward.
McCullough has simplified the picture for his backs, too, removing the guesswork from the run game.
"There's no gray area with our reads," Blaylock said. "It's football, so you never know.
A guy can slip a block or be in the gap that we're supposed to be pressing, but it's just playing football. We know what we're reading.
There's no gray area. He made that very clear."
Blaylock already showed what he can do as a freshman, even under less-than-ideal circumstances. Now he’s bigger, more seasoned and learning the finer points of the position under a coach who has made the details impossible to ignore.
That’s why the 1,000-yard goal doesn’t sound like empty talk. It sounds like the next step.
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