Dari Nowkhah had to self-enforce a rule to stop talking about Oklahoma running back Jaydn Ott on his daily radio show on KREF in Norman. Why?
“Because it pisses me off,” he told SDS on a recent episode of The Saturday Down South Podcast.
One could connect some dots when looking back at the summer conversations regarding the decorated post-spring transfer from Cal, and seeing that he finished his lone season at OU with 21 carries for 68 yards and 0 rushing touchdowns. To say that things didn’t work out for Ott would be like saying Sooner fans don’t care for Lincoln Riley. That’s a gross understatement. Ott was the sport’s biggest transfer portal bust of 2025.
But unlike Riley’s exit in Norman, Ott’s time with the Sooners will be equal parts enigma and cautionary portal tale.
“It’s a great mystery,” Nowkhah told SDS before the Playoff. “(Oklahoma) doesn’t talk about him. There were weeks in the season when (Brent Venables) would suggest he’s available, but he got banged up early in the fall. They still had him out there early in the season on special teams. You’d get him out there for a few carries here and there, maybe to pass-protect, which he was god-awful, horrific at. He is the most polarizing figure on the team right now.”
Nowkhah, who is an Oklahoma graduate and the lead anchor for the SEC Network, has as good a pulse as anyone on all things OU. At a certain point, he gave up hope that a former 1,300-yard rusher at Cal would fix an Oklahoma ground game that finished outside the top 100 in FBS in both rushing yards/game and yards/carry.
“I’m incredibly disappointed because I don’t think it’s a health thing. If it was a health thing, they wouldn’t put him on the field,” Nowkhah said. “We’ve seen the few carries he’s gotten. He’s slow, he’s tentative and he avoids contact. A few games, he’s been in pass protection, he’s done anything but want to make contact with the individual. It’s a lack of effort. It’s a lack of investment.
“Venables at one point midway through the season did say, ‘I just wish (Ott) was a little further along in every way.’ And I take that to mean worth ethic, effort, desire, all of it.”
Nowkhah didn’t mince words on the subject. Few did.
Lord knows that you can search Ott’s name on social media and find similar, albeit less diplomatic, critiques of him
He wasn’t featured on pre-game injury reports, yet his last carry came against Texas in Week 7. He played 75 snaps this season, though only 4 of them came after the Texas game. On those 21 carries, he forced 4 missed tackles, 1 of which came in the 42-3 win at Temple, and 3 of which came in the 44-0 win vs. Kent State. The latter was when Ott got 13 of his 23 scrimmage touches this season, and it was the only game all year in which he registered a carry longer than 5 yards.
Let’s just say his limited run-blocking didn’t exactly inspire confidence, either.
Jaydn Ott made a business decision here t.co/a8akkUKAgQ pic.twitter.com/3bQf5VPMzn
— Nash (@NashTalksTexas) October 15, 2025If Ott came to Oklahoma as more of a rotational player who could add depth, those developments would’ve been disappointing, but not maddening. That wasn’t the case, though. Ott was 2 years removed from a 2023 season in which he was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection after racking up 833 yards after first contact (No. 8 among Power Conference backs) with 55 missed tackles forced (No. 15 among Power Conference backs). On top of that, Ott had 90 career catches in 3 years at Cal. There was a feeling that even if a lost 2024 season in Berkeley — he played in 10 games but battled knee and ankle injuries — put some of his versatility into question, there was enough meat on the bone for him to inject life into an up-for-grabs OU backfield.
That’s why he was reportedly paid well by Oklahoma after he was a post-spring transfer.
“The overall feel, my feel, and I think from what I’ve engaged from Sooner fans is the overall feel, (Ott) robbed OU blind,” Nowkhah said. “He got roughly $800,000. That’s the number that’s been floating around. And he’s not playing. He’s not showing heart and there’s no work ethic. That’s the overall feel.
“The belief is that he simply came, he’s getting his money and he’s the first boo boo of (Oklahoma general manager) Jim Nagy’s transfer portal edition era. Hopefully he’s the only one because Jim’s done a really good job everywhere else, but this has gone awry and (Ott) is not a favorite in Norman and anywhere in Sooner nation.”
That explains why Ott didn’t participate in Senior Day activities, though it’s worth noting that he played in 7 games this season, so he’s well past the 4-game redshirt threshold that would’ve given him another year of eligibility. Even fellow transfer running back bust Mekhi Hughes preserved his year of eligibility at Oregon after his light usage in the first part of the season (Oregon also finished with the No. 13 rushing attack in FBS even though it only got 70 yards from the Tulane transfer).
It stings even more for OU that a pair of (likely cheaper) running back transfers in the SEC like Ahmad Hardy and Kewan Lacy became 2 of the 3 Doak Walker Award finalists. Meanwhile, Oklahoma didn’t have a running back hit 500 rushing yards or 5 rushing touchdowns. Even worse, perhaps the most pivotal play of the season was when open running back Xavier Robinson dropped John Mateer’s 3rd-and-3 pass that could’ve made it a 24-7 game against Alabama in Round 1 of the Playoff.
If only Oklahoma had signed someone who could’ve checked those boxes … you get it.
In a sense, Ott’s dud of a 2025 season could be a thing of the past. If Ott was climbing uphill upon arrival to OU in June, the tweaked lone transfer portal window from Jan. 2-16 will make it so that new additions get the luxury of spring ball. Whatever the case, Ott’s story could’ve still followed a similarly frustrating script even if he had gotten those extra reps.
Market correction was inevitable early in the portal era. Then again, it was ironic that Ott was the clear winner of the dubious, but unofficial title of “biggest transfer portal bust of 2025” while his former Cal teammate, Fernando Mendoza, won the Heisman Trophy after transferring to Indiana, where he led the program to its best season in program history.
Mendoza will now face the Alabama team that Ott had a front-row seat to watch in Round 1 of the Playoff. An unceremonious end to Ott’s college career, it was. We’ll all be left asking a question that loomed throughout 2025: Why did it play out like that for Ott in Norman?
Better yet, don’t ask Oklahoma fans that. Not unless you want to piss them off.
Jaydn Ott became the biggest transfer portal bust of 2025, so what happened at Oklahoma? Saturday Down South.
Hence then, the article about jaydn ott became the biggest transfer portal bust of 2025 so what happened at oklahoma was published today ( ) and is available on SATURDAY DOWN SOUTH ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Jaydn Ott became the biggest transfer portal bust of 2025, so what happened at Oklahoma? )
Also on site :
- 30–35 terrorists on radar: Army steps up counterterror ops in J&K; intense vigil amid 'Chillai Kalan'
- Nine Years After Carrie Fisher Died, Billie Lourd Says Mom “Lives on Through Joy” With Kids, Dad Bryan Lourd
- No. 20 Virginia notches first 11-win season by beating 25th-ranked Missouri in the Gator Bowl