Tag: Jordan James

‘Effort don’t take talent;’ Coach Carlos Locklyn brings physical mentality to Oregon RB room

Oregon coach Carlos Locklyn believes he’s the best RB on the Ducks. He brings that confident mentality to a loaded RB room.

The Oregon Ducks have a history of putting forth a strong and extremely respectable group of running backs. From LaMichael James and Royce Freeman to Jonathan Stewart and DeAnthony Thomas, the Ducks are known for a stout stable of RBs.

That doesn’t look to be changing under the new coaching staff, with RB coach Carlos Locklyn at the helm.

We talked a lot to Locklyn over the spring months as he worked to rebuild the RB room following a number of transfers. Through the transfer portal and an impressive stretch of recruiting, the Ducks are once again looking strong in the backfield.

For the first time this fall, media members had a chance to talk to Locklyn following the sixth practice of the season. Here are some of the most notable quotes:

Oregon’s Carlos Locklyn has proven immense recruiting value in early tenure with Ducks

Carlos Locklyn is on a heater. With the addition of 4-star Dante Dowdell, Oregon’s haul of players at the RB position is impressive.

When the Oregon Ducks hired Dan Lanning as the head coach early in December of 2021, it was widely believed he would continue the run of recruiting success built under Mario Cristobal and the former staff.

It turns out the impressive staff Lanning has put together in Eugene has a ceiling that may be even higher.

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One coach who has clearly proved his worth early in his tenure is running back coach Carlos Locklyn. The former Western Kentucky and Memphis coach has hit the ground running in Eugene. After the commitment from four-star running back Dante Dowdell on Friday afternoon, it’s clear Oregon’s history of talented rushers has a great chance to continue.

With Locklyn at the helm of the backfield, here are some of the RB moves the Ducks have made in the past few months:

Jordan James

  • Four-star RB, Georgia flip
  • No. 16 RB in 2022, No. 195 overall player

Noah Whittington

  • Transfer from Western Kentucky
  • 719 total yards, 2 TD in two seasons

Mar’kiese ‘Bucky’ Irving

  • Transfer from Minnesota
  • 772 yards, 4 TD in freshman season

Dante Dowdell

  • Four-star RB, chose Ducks over Ole Miss, Tennessee
  • No. 20 RB in 2023, No. 298 player overall

Those additions to the roster don’t take into account potentially two of the biggest roster moves that the Ducks have made this off-season — persuading both Seven McGee and Sean Dollars to withdraw their names from the transfer portal and return to Eugene.

Lanning’s coaching staff is loaded with individuals who can create relationships with young players and inspire them to join a movement going on at Oregon. Thus far, Locklyn has been as impressive as anyone for his ability to bring elite rushers to carry on the legacy of dominant RBs in Eugene.

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4-star LB Harrison Taggart to enroll early at Oregon; RB Jordan James to join Ducks this summer

LB Harrison Taggart will participate in spring ball with the Ducks, but RB Jordan James will not join the team until summer.

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As we inch closer to spring football starting for the Oregon Ducks, we are getting a clearer picture which incoming freshmen will enroll early and join the team for practices starting in March.

Last week, we found out four-star cornerback Jahlil Florence and four-star wide receiver Justius Lowe would be on campus for spring ball, and four-star athlete Anthony Jones has been enrolled at the U of O since January, so he will be playing as well.

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Ducks Wire has also learned four-star linebacker Harrison Taggart will join the Ducks midway through the spring session, arriving on March 23. Meanwhile, four-star running back Jordan James will not arrive in Eugene until the summer, per a source.

While it’s unfortunate we will not be able to see James play until later in the season, there will be enough storylines to follow this spring as the new-look Oregon Ducks take the field.

Spring ball starts on March 10, with a series of practices leading up to the spring game on April 23.

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Oregon football storylines to follow: Which true freshmen will have an instant impact this spring?

We only know of a few true freshmen to join the Ducks for spring ball, but can’t wait to see which players have an instant impact.

The past couple of months of Oregon Football have certainly been eventful, all the while very little action took place on the field. A new coaching staff has been put into place, and a top-25 recruiting class has been signed. Meanwhile, highly-rated transfers have come to Eugene, and a few key players have left for new destinations.

For an Oregon fan, there are a lot of storylines to keep track of, and with Spring Practice starting on March 10th, we will likely get a few answers in the coming weeks. So which ones should you be paying the most attention to? We tried to help answer that question in our continuing Spring Preview by singling out a few and highlighting what makes them so interesting.

The True Freshmen Watch is On

The Oregon Ducks’ 2022 recruiting class definitely wasn’t the highest-rated that we’ve seen in recent memory, but it garnered a lot of excitement. To be up-front, the Ducks’ 25th-ranked class this year was their worst finish nationally since 2016 when they had the No. 27 overall class. Since then, Oregon has made it into the top-10 a pair of times and been inside the top-15 a total of four times. Despite that, the way that Dan Lanning closed on national signing day gave a burst of energy to the Oregon fanbase.

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A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Ducks’ class was ranked in the 70s after the departure of Mario Cristobal left for Miami. Lanning’s top crew of recruiters managed to build it back up, securing numerous flips from top-rated players like RB Jordan James and OL Dave Iuli, who chose the Ducks over Georgia and Miami, respectively.

Now with spring football on the horizon, we finally get to see some of these players in action.

Earlier this week, Ducks Wire has received confirmation that 4-star CB Jahlil Florence, 4-star WR Justius Lowe, 4-star LB Harrison Taggart, and 4-star ATH Anthony Jones will be enrolling early at Oregon and participating in spring ball, but we are waiting on confirmation from more players.

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While we don’t know the entire list of true freshmen to be enrolling early at Oregon, there has been a noticeable trend as of late that has seen high school seniors choose to graduate early and head off to college as soon as they can in order to get acclimated in the new lifestyle before the summer and football season begins. We saw that last season with QB Ty Thompson and WRs Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton, all of whom had impressive days during the Oregon Spring Game. So who will be the newcomers to have a big impact this year?

Without knowing the entire list just yet, it is impossible to say, but there are a number of recent recruits that we have high hopes for in 2022. Let’s touch on a few:

RB Jordan James

We are still waiting on confirmation from 4-star RB Jordan James as to whether or not he will be participating in the spring, but you can guarantee that he is going to attract a lot of eyes once he does finally hit the field in Eugene.

After flipping his commitment on national signing day and choosing the Ducks over the Georgia Bulldogs, there is a hope that he can develop into one of the feature backs for Oregon’s offense. That may not take place this year, with Byron Cardwell and Sean Dollars seemingly leading the way, but whatever we see from James early on will be newsworthy.

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Dan Lanning plans to get creative to enhance Oregon’s backfield in 2022

Wide receivers in the backfield? Don’t rule it out, as Dan Lanning plans to get ‘creative’ with Oregon’s RB approach in 2022.

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There has been a significant overhaul in the University of Oregon football program over the past two months.

Mario Cristobal’s departure to Miami altered basically the entire coaching staff, and a sea of transfers – both in and out of the program – has done the same to the Ducks roster under new coach Dan Lanning.

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Perhaps no position group has undergone as much alteration as the running back room, which will be almost entirely different when the 2022 season begins in September.

CJ Verdell and Travis Dye were the stalwarts last season, but they are both out the door to the NFL and USC, respectively. Meanwhile, backup Trey Benson is headed to Florida State, leaving Seven McGee and Sean Dollars (who each almost transferred themselves) as well as Byron Cardwell as the lone returners with game experience in the backfield.

That put pressure on Lanning to secure a high-level running back on national signing day, and he did not disappoint. Four-star running back Jordan James flipped his commitment from Georgia and announced he is joining the Ducks, giving Oregon the No. 16 ranked back in the class of 2022.

“I’m pretty jacked to get Jordan [James],” Lanning said in his post-signing day press conference. “I’m pretty pumped about him.”

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James joins McGee, Cardwell, and Dollars in what will be an athletic, but very inexperienced, running back group next year. While the transfer portal could yield another body (or two), for now, it looks like Lanning will have to make do with the group that he has — a challenge he is very much embracing.

“I think that we can be creative in our approach,” Lanning said. “We have some talent at other positions obviously, on offense, and we’ll use guys in a variety of ways. You know, even if that means putting a wide-out in the backfield or moving people around, I think we can do that here. But we’re always going to look to enhance the backfield. I feel really great about the guys that we have in that group right now, and Jordan obviously enhances that group moving forward.”

Oregon is certainly no stranger to RB/WR hybrid players, a la De’Anthony Thomas or even McGee last year, but it will be interesting to see how a new coach — a defensive coach at that — chooses to handle this enticing but unproven backfield in his first full season.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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With 3 Oregon commits, Dan Lanning proved that keeping in-state talent matters to the Ducks

Dan Lanning immediately proved he values in-state talent by signing three of the state’s four top players.

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In Oregon Duck football’s recent history, in-state high school talent hasn’t exactly been a priority. Beginning with Willie Taggert and then Mario Cristobal, the recruiting emphasis has been to go more cross-country with a focus on Texas and SEC country.

To be fair, the state of Oregon hasn’t been a huge hotbed of talent, but even those kids who are the best the state has to offer haven’t been a top priority of the Ducks.

New coach Dan Lanning intends to change that trend and change it immediately.

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“We’re going to battle to keep the best in our state, and we think that we should be able to keep the best in our state,” he said as Oregon announced its 2022 signees. “Obviously (Lake Oswego wide receiver Justius Lowe) is in that category. I think before the day is over with people will realize that we were able to be really competitive in our state and get guys on board on our team.”

Lake Oswego’s Justius Lowe and Oregon Duck signee. Photo by Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Lowe was ranked as the state’s No. 3 rated player, and he was just the appetizer. True to his word, Lanning later secured the commitment of the state’s No. 2 rated player in safety Trejon Williams, a defensive back from Jefferson High in Portland, followed by linebacker Emar’rion Winston, Oregon’s No. 4 prep player out of Central Catholic who also committed to the Ducks.

“My very first day recruiting, the very first time I could get on the road, I spent that day in Oregon, and in Portland, and in the area. That will always be a priority for us, and obviously, for us, we have the ability to go anywhere, and that’s a blessing. But we have to win home first,” Lanning said.

The state’s No. 1 player, wide receiver Darrius Clemons from Westview High, signed with Michigan back in December before Lanning was the Oregon coach. If the timing had been different, Oregon might have been able to land what could have been the Fantastic Four.

But Lanning and his staff have to be overjoyed with the haul they were able to pull in on this late signing day. The Ducks were able to get every single player they expected to sign and even a couple of nice surprises. Running back Jordan James flipped from Georgia to the Ducks and offensive lineman Dave Iuli, a previously verbal commit, spurned Cristobal and Miami, as well as USC and signed with the Ducks.

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RB Jordan James flips his commitment from Georgia

RB Jordan James flips to Oregon.

The Georgia Bulldogs were hoping to keep a commitment from elite running back recruit Jordan James, who committed to the Bulldogs in March of 2021.

James, a four-star class of 2022 recruit, flipped his commitment from Georgia on Wednesday and signed with the Oregon Ducks. Florida was also in the mix.

The Ducks, who are coached by former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, made a strong run to secure a commitment from James. This flip was expected and does not come as a surprise to those who follow recruiting closely. James took visits to Oregon in the month of January, and Georgia made a late push for three-star back Andrew Paul out of Dallas, Texas, who committed to UGA on Wednesday.

James is the No. 192 recruit in the nation and the No. 16 running back, per 247Sports’ composite.

BREAKING: 4-star RB Jordan James commits to Oregon Ducks, flipping from Georgia Bulldogs

Flipping from the Georgia Bulldogs, 4-star RB Jordan James announced his commitment to the Oregon Ducks. Another massive W for Dan Lanning.

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That one certainly deserves a QUACK.

On Wednesday morning, 4-star running back Jordan James announced that he would be signing with the Oregon Ducks, flipping his commitment from Georgia and following the Bulldogs’ former defensive coordinator Dan Lanning to the Pacific Northwest.

James, who stands at 5-foot-10, 205 pounds, is ranked as the No. 16 RB in the nation, and the No. 191 player overall. He has been verbally committed to the Bulldogs since March of 2021, but declined to sign with them in December and has since taken multiple official recruiting visits, including two to Eugene and one this past week to the Florida Gators.

With the current depth of the RB spot on the Oregon roster, adding a high school prospect at this position became imperative for Lanning and his staff. With CJ Verdell off to the NFL, Travis Dye transferring to USC, and Trey Benson transferring to Florida State, there’s a real chance that James can see some solid playing time as a true freshman.

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4-star RB Jordan James sets commitment time

The Georgia Bulldogs are hoping to keep a commitment from elite running back recruit Jordan James. Who could step in if James decommits?

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The Georgia Bulldogs are hoping to keep a commitment from elite running back recruit Jordan James. Kirby Smart and Georgia are among the top three schools for James.

James, a four-star class of 2022 recruit, will sign on Feb. 2, 2022 at noon. He will decide between UGA, Florida, and Oregon. The Ducks have made a strong run to secure a commitment from James.

James, who committed to Georgia last March, plays high school football for Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. James is rated as the No. 192 recruit in the nation and the No. 16 running back.

Jordan James is expected to flip his commitment from Georgia to Oregon. Former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning may get a rare recruiting win over Kirby Smart. Georgia will have a shot at revenge, if James flips, in the 2022 season opener against Oregon in Atlanta.

Georgia offered three-star running back Andrew Paul late in the 2022 recruiting cycle. Paul could be the next man up if Jordan James flips to Oregon. The Dawgs already have a solid running back class with four-star Branson Robinson.

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4-star RB Jordan James sets date to announce decision between Oregon, Georgia and Florida

4-star RB Jordan James has set the date for announcing his decision between Oregon, Georgia, and Florida.

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We are less than a week away from National Signing Day now, and as highly-rated recruits get ready to make their decisions on which schools they will be attending to play ball for in the fall, a few are letting it be known when and where they will be announcing next week.

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For Jordan James, a 4-star running back out of Tennessee who has been verbally committed to the University of Georgia since last spring, we now know when he will be making his final announcement. 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong reported on Thursday afternoon that James will be picking between the Bulldogs, Oregon Ducks, and Florida Gators live on CBSSports HQ next Wednesday at 9 a.m. PT.

James is the No. 13 RB in the 2022 class, according to 247Sports, and the No. 162 player overall. He has been on a pair of official visits to Eugene over the past month and came away very impressed with what Dan Lanning is building with the Ducks. The 4-star prospect is reportedly taking a visit to Florida this coming weekend, and then will be set to make his decision next week on signing day.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today. 

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