Oregon has a beast of a running back in Jordan James this year. He leads the team with 121 carries and 717 total rushing yards, which puts him at 5.9 yards per carry. He has good vision, hits the holes right, and will run through several arm tackles before being brought down. When he is brought down, he also has a tendency to fall forward.
If James has a weakness it’s his lack of breakaway speed. When he does spring loose for a big run, he is often not a home run hit and is brought down from behind. But James is fantastic at gaining consistent chunk yards and that’s his role.
Noah Whittington is Oregon’s backup running back this year, and 54 carries puts him as the clear No. 2 in the pecking order. Dillon Gabriel is at No. 3 in terms of carries at 33. Whittington has always been more of a change of pace back; he is smaller and he has the breakaway speed that James lacks.
Whittington’s average yards per carry isn’t bad at 4, but that is still almost two yards fewer than James. The biggest part of Whittington’s game that he lacks as a running back is gaining consistent chunk yardage. At times it feels like handing the ball off to Whittington is a wasted down because he only gains a yard or two.
However, he is a player who can pop a big play at any time, and once or twice per game he does just that. Usually Whittington’s biggest plays come from attacking the edges and getting in space. Against Purdue his longest run went for 20 yards, and that was on a lateral pass from Gabriel to get Whittington to the edges of the Purdue defense. Once in space, Whittington can be hard to take down.
Whittington just doesn’t seem built for going right up the gut of the opposing defense in a play that would normally generate good yardage for James. It may be time for the coaches to rethink how they’re using Whittington to get the most out of him.
Noah Whittington is a weapon that should be used all over the field.
(Photo By: Eric Becker)
Good news is, looking into Oregon’s past, there are many examples of these players. Whittington fits the mold of Oregon great Byron Marshall, who ran for over a thousand yards in 2013 and then was a thousand-yard receiver in 2014. For the 2014 Oregon team, the switch was necessary because Royce Freeman and Thomas Tyner were the duo in the backfield and it was vital to get the best players onto the field as often as possible.
Marshall was a receiver who had a running back’s body and created mismatches all over the field. And though Marshall officially moved to receiver, he often took snaps out of the backfield as well. His style of running was different than both Freeman and Tyner, so the coaches wanted to use his abilities to the fullest — and they did. Marshall finished the 2014 season with 1,003 yards in receiving and 392 yards in rushing. He was everywhere.
The 2024 Oregon Ducks are built very differently from the 2014 Ducks. The depth at wide receiver is solid, where 2014 entailed working with many unknowns. However, this coaching staff does like to rest players, so rotating Whittington in for Tez Johnson or Traeshon Holden for a play here or there could be beneficial to everyone. This idea isn’t even that far fetched, as Whittington was listed as a receiver out of high school and he certainly has the hands for it, as we saw with that incredible touchdown catch last Friday against Purdue.
Additionally, it is time for Oregon’s backup running backs to start to emerge on their own merits. Jay Harris and Jayden Limar are both built for more of that power run game that Whittington just doesn’t fit. Both saw some valuable reps against Purdue, as Harris ran for 32 yards on seven carries (Whittington ran for 42 on nine carries) and Harris was put in the position to run the ball to kill the clock. Those were hard runs right up the gut of a Purdue defense that knew what was coming, and against Oregon’s second-string offensive line.
Harris and Limar feel close to getting more meaningful playing time and if that’s the case, keeping Whittington solely at running back makes that picture more complicated.
The regular season is half-way over, but with the expanded playoff it will take 16 or 17 games to win a National Championship this year. The Ducks are going to need their backups to produce, which leaves us with the question, should Whittington remain at running back or move to receiver?
David Marsh
Portland, Oregon
Top Photo By Zach Bolinger
Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in technology in SLC, Utah.
Mr. FishDuck took some time away from his fun at stay casino 20 free spins to share his strong opinions about conference officiating.
David Marsh is a high school social studies teacher in Portland, Oregon. As a teacher he is known for telling puns to his students who sometimes laugh out of sympathy, and being both eccentric about history and the Ducks.
David graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 with Majors in: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Geography. David began following Ducks Football after being in a car accident in 2012; finding football something new and exciting to learn about during this difficult time in his life. Now, he cannot see life without Oregon football.