In the fourth week of the Transfer Portal season a team is looking for insurance, a couple of diamonds covered in dust.
The Ducks may have found one in Simeon Price, a 6-0, 215-pound running back from Pensacola, Florida, who last worked in Deion Sanders' grubby circus in Boulder. Price may be right for the Ducks, who lost reserve running backs Makhi Hughes and Jay Harris in the portal and are short numbers two months ahead of the start of spring practice.
He's a good receiver out of the backfield with some punch behind his pads. In two seasons at Mississippi State in 2022 and 2023 he caught 15 passes for 125 yards, toted the rock 35 times for 153 yards. After that he spent a season at Coastal Carolina, never the starter, always productive.
As a high school player at West Florida Tech he latched on to 16 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns, 10 rushes for 93 yards and a tug, one interception on defense, a plus-athlete who won the Combine Challenge at the Nike Opening Regional in 2019.
Covid, injuries and a medical redshirt have extended a checkered career for the Sunshine State product, who's still plugging away at a dream of the Big Show. Last season he told the reporters on the Denver Gazette, "There were two separate times I was in the portal for six months. I was at home training, thinking I was never going to be able to play football again. When I got the call here, it was a no-brainer. I feel like I was sent here... I was in a dark place."
He averaged 6.8 yards a carry last September before getting hurt again. To land at Oregon after all that mess, working alongside Jordon Davison, Dierre Hill and Da'Juan Riggs in a true family with a winning tradition offers a marvelous new beginning, the last he's likely to have as a college football player.
Working under Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk last season at Colorado he said, "I still have goals and aspirations of going to the next level. It’s the reason I came here. Every day at practice, meetings or lifts, I always give my all for myself and for my teammates because I know they have the same dreams."