Jaydn Ott was one of the best players in college football before he left Cal for Oklahoma and became irrelevant. He plans to represent the Golden Bears during his professional career because of how it all went down over the last 11 months.
The soon-to-be NFL running back will not identify with the Sooners.
Ott is the perfect example of how the grass is not always greener in college football. It is not always in an athlete’s best interest to enter the transfer portal when things are going well! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Jaydn Ott became irrelevant at Oklahoma.
As a four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, Ott had 18 scholarships from schools like Georgia, Oregon, USC, Colorado, Wisconsin and BYU. He ultimately chose to play at the University of California, Berkeley.
The 5-foot-11, 208-pound running back had a breakout season as a sophomore with 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns on 245 carries. Nobody could tackle him.
And then his production fell off of a cliff.
Ott ran for only 385 yards as a junior in 2024 while future Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza slung the pill all over the field. Cal did not run as often. Jaivian Thomas emerged as the leading rusher.
Even though Jaydn Ott initially announced his plans to return to Cal as a senior, he changed his mind in April and hit the transfer portal. Oklahoma scooped him up.
The Sooners went on to make the College Football Playoff in 2025 but Ott was out-touched and out-rushed by two different running backs, including a true freshman, and quarterback John Mateer. He ran for only 68 yards (total) on 93 carries and never found the end zone.
Head coach Brent Venables did not have great things to say about Ott after the first three games.
“You wish he was a little further along in every way, but you get in there, whatever opportunities you have, you get in there, you’re ready. You’ve got good juice, energy, aggressiveness. Having attack mindset, all those things, everything adds up, everything matters. So we’d love to get him going. If all things are good in that regard, that I just said, his instincts, his speed, all those things, can be a real weapon.”
Meanwhile, the Golden Bears gave a majority of their carries to N.C. State transfer Kendrick Raphael— who came just a few yards short of a 1,000-yard season. Those would’ve gone to Ott.
Cal gets credit for his college football career.
Jaydn Ott was completely forgotten as an NFL Draft possibility because of his time at Oklahoma. He re-emerged as a legitimate prospect at the Senior Bowl.
With his focus now on the pros, Ott participated at the Sooners’ Pro Day earlier this month. However, he was not fully satisfied with some of his times in agility drills and decided to run it back.
The 23-year-old asked Cal head coach Tosh Lupoi and general manager Ron Rivera if he could join the Golden Bears at their Pro Day on Thursday. The answer was yes.
Ott improved his time in the cone drills by several tenths of a second. It also created a weird alternate reality where he played alongside Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele if he did not leave Berkeley for Norman.
Jaydn Ott’s time at Oklahoma was a disaster and Cal welcomed him back with open arms. He also spent three years with the Golden Bears and just one semester with the Sooners.
Should he end up on an NFL roster, Ott plans to represent Cal over Oklahoma. His allegiance lies with the former over the latter.
Jaydn Ott on the move to Oklahoma and what school name he will say on Sunday Night Football pic.twitter.com/9UrOwoD8Nh
— Daniel Poulter (@DanielJPoulter) March 19, 2026
This should not come as a huge surprise, given how things went down over the last 11 months, but it is interesting to hear him choose the Golden Bears with such conviction. The Sooners got snubbed.