Utes pick up running back transfer from Oklahoma Sooners

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah football secured a big commitment from former Oklahoma Sooners running back TJ Pledger Monday afternoon.

Pledger is a former four-star recruit that committed to Oklahoma in 2018 after a high school career at IMG Academy. The 5-foot-9, 200 pound back played three seasons for the Sooners and amassed 695 rushing yards and six touchdowns in three years before announcing his intent to transfer on Dec. 21.

The former Sooner made the decision official Monday in a tweet that simply said: “Let’s Ride” with a picture of him in a Utes uniform.

Pledger is expected to be an instant-impact player for the running back room that lost starter Ty Jordan to an accidental fatal shooting on Christmas. Pledger enters the program as a junior and is expected to have two seasons to compete due to NCAA rules related to the pandemic that won’t penalize a year for athletes who played this season.

Pledger joins redshirt freshmen Micah Bernard and Charlie Vincent and recent signee Ricky Parks, who enters the 2021 season as a freshman. Late last year, Utah lost Jordan Wilmore and Devin Brumfield to the transfer portal after Jordan established himself as the leading back.

The former Sooner will become the latest athlete to transfer from the Big 12 to Utah in just over a month’s time. On Dec. 20, 2020, Utah got the commitment from two quarterbacks from the transfer portal in Texas transfer Ja’Quinden Jackson and Baylor grad transfer Charlie Brewer.

Let’s Ride.. #GoUtespic.twitter.com/bjW4LwzWgw

— TJ Pledger IV (@uno_tj) January 11, 2021

Utes pick up running back transfer from Oklahoma Sooners /p>

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