Oregon football: Ducks running backs ranked among college football’s best for 2024
By Ethan Lee
Ahead of the 2024 college football season, Oregon football fans have numerous reasons to be excited about what this year could hold. Dan Lanning (the very successful head coach of the Oregon Ducks) and Will Stein (Oregon’s brilliant offensive coordinator) have put together a strong offense.
But, as the 2024 Oregon football season gets closer and closer, one aspect of this team that deserves a ton of attention is the Ducks’ running back unit. And, well, as it turns out, the good folks over at Pro Football Focus (PFF) recently ranked the Ducks’ running backs (collectively) among the best in the country.
And all of that is despite losing last year’s stellar running back Bucky Irving to the NFL Draft and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Heading into this season, it looks like Oregon’s rushing attack will still be pretty devastating. Or, well, at least it seems like PFF (among many others) think that there’s a strong possibility of things playing out that way.
According to PFF’s analysis, there are a couple of possible stars looking to step in to fill the void that Irving left as he departed for the NFL.
Oregon football’s running backs unit ranks among PFF’s best ahead of 2024
Expect to see a lot of Jordan James this season. While he did happen to make a significant impact during the 2023 Oregon football season (James happened to run for 759 yards and a really solid 11 touchdowns on 7.1 yards per carry), there’s a very real chance that he has an even greater performance this year.
Oh, and then there’s Noah Whittington, who didn’t see a ton of action last season (he played in just a handful of games due to an injury issue), but he did rack up 779 rushing yards for the Ducks in 2022 and had 617 rushing yards in 2021 while with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
If this duo stays healthy, there’s a lot of potential for fun there. It’s completely and totally understandable why PFF views this running back room in a favorable light. It’s a group that could compliment Dillon Gabriel really well.