I’ve been touching on this for a few weeks now, but Oregon needed to add a running back in the portal or in the 2022 recruiting class so signing Jordan James was a huge win.
Dan Lanning probably didn’t expect to see a mass exodus at the position when he took the job, but sometimes things are out of a new coach’s control. Travis Dye transferred to USC, Trey Benson transferred to Florida State, and CJ Verdell declared for the NFL draft. Sean Dollars, too, entered the portal for a second and then withdrew his name.
Now the only running backs with experience on the roster are Dollars and Byron Cardwell so that just means James is going to come in and push for some carries immediately.
James is a top-200 recruit and one of the best running backs from the 2022 class and he’s going to be — at the very least — the third running back on the depth chart immediately. He has the potential to push for that two-deep.
I see James earning major carries this coming season.