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It seems like just yesterday that Sean Dollars announced he would transfer from the Oregon football program.
Then again, a lot has happened since then.
After a conversation with Dan Lanning, Dollars decided to stay. Now he’s in strong contention to become Oregon’s starting tailback in 2022, battling alongside Byron Cardwell Jr. According to the new head coach, Dollars is quickly growing into the position and taking advantage of the actual coaching the staff provides the players.
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“I feel like Sean’s taking it up another notch and really competing on another level. I think he’s really embracing the coaching, and I’ve loved seeing that firsthand for him, his response,” Lanning said. “One thing we’re asking every one of our players right now is how do you respond to coaching? Sean has done a good job of that in the last few practices.”
With CJ Verdell going on to the NFL and Travis Dye transferring to USC, all expectations were that Byron Cardwell was going to take over the RB1 spot after his impressive debut season with the Ducks. However, an impressive spring season has seen Dollars throw his hat into the ring.
He’s not alone in that competition, though. Transfer Noah Whittington from Western Kentucky is also making a big push for carries. Lanning said Whittington already knows what it takes to be a consistent runner. It’s called effort.
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“Noah Whittington runs extremely hard. I think he’s a guy that has great vision at back,” Lanning said. “But he just plays with another level of effort. Which to me, if you can play with effort, we can coach the rest.”
Whittington rushed for 617 yards and two touchdowns while catching 12 passes for 58 yards in 2021. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
With Dollars, Whittington and Cardwell, Oregon should be just fine running the ball in 2022.
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