NOTE: Part 2 of a sequence spotlighting the Sooners’ finest performances of 2022.
Marvin Mims lastly had the season he’s been wanting.
Mims’ 162 yards receiving on Saturday night time in Oklahoma’s loss at Texas Tech put him over 1,000 yards for the 2022 season — 1,006, to be actual — a quantity that has felt lengthy overdue.
The junior from Frisco, TX, leads the Sooners with 52 receptions this yr, a profession excessive. It’s the third yr in a row he’s paced the OU receiver corps.
While 52 catches is hardly an enormous quantity — he ranks fourth within the Big 12 for catches (Iowa State’s Xavier Hutchinson ranks first with 107), it’s good progress. For a 4-star prospect who set quite a few state receiving data in highschool, it in all probability felt good to catch greater than 30 or so passes like he did his first two years.
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“Just making plays when the opportunity presents itself,” Mims mentioned Saturday night time.
Mims additionally averages 15.2 yards per punt return, a determine that may lead the Big 12 if he had sufficient returns to qualify statistically.
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Mims had a team-leading 37 receptions for 610 yards as a real freshman and set a Big 12 freshman file with 9 landing catches. He was alleged to explode in 2021, but his targets have been down, and he caught a team-best 32 passes for 705 yards — 22.0 yards per catch — and scored 5 TDs.
Mims hasn’t had an ideal junior season, committing an uncharacteristic 5 drops, in response to Pro Football Focus. At least three of these might have been touchdowns. PFF ranks Mims 53rd nationally (amongst vast receivers with no less than 50 receptions) with an total receiving grade of 75.2.
Still, Mims leads the nation (amongst wideouts with no less than 50 catches) with a mean of 19.3 yards per catch.
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“You know, just playing the game, play by play,” Mims mentioned. “Something happens, you make a mistake on a play, (don’t) get in your head. Just keep going. Keep pushing.”
Mims now has 2,321 profession receiving yards, which ranks eighth in class historical past — simply forward of Malcolm Kelly (2,285) and Dede Westbrook (2,267). His profession whole for receptions of 121 ranks seventeenth in OU historical past, and his landing rely of 20 ranks tenth.
Mims’ profession whole of two,321 yards at the moment ranks No. 8 in class historical past.
Mims’ profession common of 19.2 yards per catch is the perfect within the trendy period — higher than Ceedee Lamb (19.0), higher than Marquise Brown (18.3), higher than Westbrook (18.0) — and ranks solely behind Keith Jackson (23.7), Tinker Owens (23.1) and Buster Rhymes (22.4) from the wishbone period.
With an excellent bowl sport, the 5-foot-11, 182-pound Mims might transfer previous Brown in receiving yards (2,413) and he might crack the highest 10 in profession catches and high seven in profession TDs.
And he is performed all of it with three totally different quarterbacks in three years.
Mims mentioned Saturday he’s unsure but what his plans are past the bowl sport — he’s “definitely” taking part in within the bowl sport, he mentioned — but he’ll decide quickly “maybe before the bowl,” he mentioned.
“Could be could be before then. Could be after then,” he mentioned. “I mean, I’ve haven’t even started the conversations with family and coaches and all that stuff. So no, I haven’t I haven’t decided yet.”
Saturday’s effort was his ninth profession 100-yard sport (that’s tied with Westbrook for sixth in class historical past), and was one yard of his profession excessive (163) set earlier this yr towards Kent State.
Mims’ abilities have been on full show on his jaw-dropping deep ball down the suitable sideline within the second quarter, when he pinned Dillon Gabriel’s cross towards the defender’s again with one hand earlier than securing possession as he went to the bottom.
“Terrible release by me,” Mims mentioned. “Dude got arms on me, pushed me pretty wide. So I knew I have to get back into him. And then we talk a lot about jumping through the defender if the ball’s a little underthrown or short or not exactly where it needs to be. So I jumped through him. I got the PI call. But I was still able to make a play on the ball. So it was basically on his back. I was able to grab it with one hand, tuck it in.
“It was like a trap. And it got kind of loose, because I didn’t expect it, and I caught it in midair and like, pulled it in.”
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