Tag: Kenjon Barner

Kenjon Barner, Haloti Ngata named to 2025 College Football Hall of Fame ballot

Both Kenjon Barner and Haloti Ngata were named to the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame ballot earlier this week.

Earlier this year, Oregon Ducks legend Kenjon Barner was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, an honor he said on the Bleav in Oregon podcast that he never expected, but would cherish for the rest of his life.

Now, an even more prestigious accolade could be on the horizon for Barner, who was named to the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame ballot earlier this week, where he is up for a vote to be included in one of the most exclusive clubs in the sport.

Barner is on the ballot alongside fellow Oregon legend Haloti Ngata, who has been on the ballot for the past two years. Both are joined by 75 other former college football players and coaches.

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Currently, there are six former Ducks in the Hall of Fame: quarterback Norm Van Brocklin (1966), running back John Kitzmiller (1969), tackle John Beckett (1972), running back Mel Renfro (1986), running back Ahmad Rashad (2007) and former UO coaches Len Casanova (1977) and Mike Bellotti (2014), and running back LaMichael James (2023.)

The announcement of the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in early 2025 and the class will be officially inducted during the 67th NFF Annual Awards dinner on Dec. 9, 2025.

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‘They look like monsters;’ Oregon Ducks size of players blew away Kenjon Barner at spring game

Former Oregon Ducks RB Kenjon Barner was blown away by the size of the defensive linemen in Eugene this year.

Two years ago, when the Oregon Ducks athletic department brought in Dan Lanning from Georgia, they had visions of constructing a team in the image of a traditional SEC program, full of brute size, strength, and physicality on the lines of scrimmage.

Whether it’s through the transfer portal or old-fashioned recruiting, Lanning and his staff have delivered imposing linemen, and it’s already paid dividends for the Ducks. Last year, an inexperienced Oregon O-line was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award (given to the best O-line in college football), and the Ducks also had one of their best pass-rush units in years.

In 2024, Oregon looks poised to improve on last season’s success in the trenches with the additions of DTs Ja’Maree Caldwell (Houston) and Derrick Harmon (Michigan State), and the development of young linemen already on Oregon’s roster.

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On the most recent episode of the “Sco-ing Long Podcast”, co-hosts Zachary Neel and Jonathan Stewart spoke to former Ducks running back Kenjon Barner, who expressed a lot of excitement for the increased strength along the line of scrimmage. After watching the Ducks up close as an honorary coach at the Oregon spring game, Barner had a major takeaway.

“They look like monsters if I’m being real with you,” Barner said. “It’s crazy to look at that sideline and it almost resembles an NFL sideline. These are kids, but they’re built like grown men.”

Size is certainly a strength in the trenches for the Ducks, with guys like Jordan Burch (6-foot-6, 290 pounds), Derrick Harmon (6-foot-5, 330 pounds), and A’Mauri Washington (6-foot-3, 330 pounds) all expected to be major contributors. However, it was sophomore Matayo Uiagalelei who stood out to Barner the most.

“You look at Matayo, he’s an absolute monster. These dudes are huge,” Barner said. “This isn’t your Pac-12 — rest in peace to the Pac-12 — this team is constructed like an SEC team the way that they’re built, It’s scary.”

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The Ducks have seen several elite defensive linemen come through their program in the last 20 years, but as Barner went on to mention, those guys were exceptions to the rule. Now, they’re the standard.

“We had a couple of guys back when I was playing, like Dion Jordan, who was an anomaly,” Barner said. “Dion was tall, but he wasn’t as thick from a muscular standpoint. When you look at the team now, the Deforest Buckners, the Arik Armsteads, the Will Tukuafus, that’s a norm on this team. When you look up and down this roster, all you see is big, lengthy, strong-built young men. It’s crazy the way that this team is constructed.”

The Ducks have high expectations placed on them for next season, and a lot of their success will depend on the play of the offensive and defensive lines. And as the Ducks transition into the Big Ten, a conference that historically favors running the football, having a D-line with a commanding presence will be even more important.

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Kenjon Barner responds to degrading comments on former Oregon coach Chip Kelly

Kenjon Barner and Jonathan Stewart aren’t hearing the degrading comments about their former coach Chip Kelly.

Former Oregon Ducks head coach Chip Kelly has found himself in the news cycle quite a bit over the last six months.

The most notable occurrence came when Kelly made that somewhat surprising jump from head coach of the UCLA Bruins to take over as the new offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes, a move that is rarely seen at the power conference level in college football. This past week, though, Kelly once again saw his name in circulation after a pair of his former players, Philadelphia Eagles greats DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy, discussed him on their new podcast “The 25/10 Show” in an episode titled “The Truth about Chip Kelly.”

Long story short, the pair of former Eagles aren’t big fans of their onetime coach.

The two discussed the frustrations of Kelly’s coaching style and roster management, but the most damning remarks came with the insinuation that Kelly had a problem dealing with black athletes and often treated them differently. Jackson proclaimed Kelly often displayed discomfort when dealing with black players on the team and showed favoritism to the white athletes.

This is not something that Kenjon Barner or Jonathan Stewart — two players who spent time with Chip Kelly with the Oregon Ducks — agree with. This week on “The Sco-ing Long Podcast” both former Ducks talked about their experience with Kelly, and their views on his coaching style.

“I’ve never, for me, felt like Chip Kelly did not like black people, or had a problem with black athletes,” said Barner, who also played for Kelly with the Eagles. “The narrative of him not liking black folks, I don’t buy into that. I don’t know that to be true, and I would never be in agreement with that being said because I know what that man was for me.”

While anyone who has spent time around Kelly will tell you he has his quirks and is sometimes difficult to get along with, Barner claims that this in no way means that he has racist tendencies or takes issue with black athletes. From his time playing under Kelly as an 18-year-old to their experience at the NFL level together, Barner says that Kelly never changed.

“I’ve had the opportunity to know Chip since I was 18 years old,” Barner said.”The same man that I met then was the same man that I played for in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, I know him to be no different. So to me, he was the same guy, but to somebody who was just meeting him, he’s going to come off different.”

Stewart, on the other hand, only spent one year with Kelly when he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon under Mike Bellotti. He says Kelly was always a standup guy who was true to his word, but the tendencies that led to his success at the college level didn’t necessarily translate to the NFL level.

“When I start hearing things about how he was as an NFL coach, my thought process was ‘Well this is different than college,’” Stewart said. “You can’t really run in the NFL like a college coach, because you’re dealing with grown men who’ve got kids at the house, they’re paying taxes, they’ve got food to put on the table, so you can’t really just talk to people any kind of way and expect the same outcome.”

One of the bigger points of contention that both Jackson and McCoy had with Kelly was for his roster management. During his short stint in Philadelphia, one of Kelly’s first moves was to release Jackson the year after his Pro Bowl season. He soon after traded McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso.

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On the surface, these moves may be head-scratchers, but Barner sees the logic in all of it for a head coach who is trying to establish himself.

“If I’m a coach and I feel like someone is a detriment to my team, I have to make a decision,” Barner said. “People may not like it or may not agree with it, but if I feel like I can’t be the coach that I need to be, or if someone is standing in the way of me being the coach of this team or is going against my message, then I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. This is business.”

Depending on your experience with Kelly, your opinion may differ on his coaching tactics, and his leadership abilities. But from a pair of players who have known Kelly for a long time, and one who played under him at multiple stops, there seems to be no concern about his character or his motives.

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Oregon Ducks announce guest coaches for 2024 spring game

Former Oregon Ducks RB Kenjon Barner and LB Troy Dye have been announced as the guest coaches for Oregon’s spring game.

The Oregon Ducks spring game is a day away, and we’ll finally get a look at the 2024 Ducks. Oregon football hasn’t announced the rosters for the spring game, but on Friday morning, the program announced former Ducks Kenjon Barner and Troy Dye as the spring game’s guest coaches.

Barner is returning to Eugene more than a decade removed from his playing days, when he was one of the best running backs in college football. Barner had a tough act to follow as Duck, succeeding Doak Walker Award (the nation’s best running back) winner LaMichael James as the Ducks’ top running back. In his four years at Oregon, Barner gained 4,214 all-purpose yards and scored 48 touchdowns.

Troy Dye’s time at Oregon ended more recently than Barner’s, coming to a close in 2019. Like Barner, Dye played four years as a Duck, making 391 tackles, 41.5 tackles for loss, 13 sacks and five interceptions in his career. After his time in Eugene, Dye was selected in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings where he has played the last four seasons.

Last April, Marcus Mariota and Jevon Holland made the trip west to serve as guest coach Oregon’s spring game. In the year since, Mariota became a member of the Washington Commanders, and he will likely serve as the backup quarterback to No. 2 draft pick Jayden Daniels this season. Holland had a phenomenal season with the Miami Dolphins in 2023, grabbing five picks and forcing four fumbles, but he was omitted from the NFC Pro Bowl roster.

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Ra’Shaad Samples pulling knowledge from LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner to further Ducks RBs

“When you leave that kind of legacy, you don’t want that legacy to die.”

One of the most encouraging things that former Oregon Ducks running backs coach Carlos Locklyn did during his time coaching in Eugene was pulling on experience from Oregon legends to improve the current players on the roster, as well as himself as a coach.

Throughout his two years in Eugene, Locklyn talked about conversations with the legendary RB coach Gary Campbell and often referred to a group chat that he had with guys like LaMichael James, Jonathan Stewart, Kenjon Barner, Royce Freeman, and more. Keeping the past close to the present was important for Locklyn, and propping up that legacy meant something.

That’s something that Ra’Shaad Samples is looking to continue as the new Oregon RB coach.

“I actually talked to LaMichael while I was on the plane studying the plays,” Samples said on Saturday. “I’ve talked to him, I’ve talked to Kenjon, those guys have been awesome.”

While Samples has some experience in the coaching game, having spent time in both the college and NFL ranks, he is still incredibly young, and at just 29, admits that he grew up watching a lot of these guys play when they were at Oregon. That has made this process of getting to know them more meaningful, in a sense.

“It’s important you know, I grew up watching those guys,” Samples said. “That’s what I told them, ‘I grew up watching you guys, watching this success you guys had as one of the best duos in the backfield.’ And it’s important to keep that alive and also build on it.”

Samples is certainly hoping that the Ducks can produce a similar duo this year, with the likes of Jordan James and Noah Whittington taking over as the lead backs after the departure of Bucky Irving.

Even if they don’t create a legacy as big as James and Barner, though, having that platform to build off of is important in the end.

“When you leave that kind of legacy, you don’t want that legacy to die,” Samples said. “You want more guys in the room who can continue to keep the running back group to living off so that’s what we hope to do.”

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Running Back University? ESPN gives Oregon a claim of the title

LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner, Royce Freeman, De’Anthony Thomas…the list goes on. No wonder ESPN has UO among the top RB schools.

The Oregon Ducks football program has had great running backs throughout its history going all the way back to Bobby Moore, aka Ahmad Rashad, and Mel Renfro in the 1960s. Then in the 80s, Oregon featured tailbacks such as Derek Loville and Tony Cherry.

Oregon’s talent level at the position as only gone through the roof over the past decade and overall. According to ESPN, the Ducks are among the best football schools in the country when it comes to producing high-level tailbacks.

The Ducks happen to be the only Pac-12 team on the list and considering the rich history of USC, that’s quite remarkable. So if there’s a “Running Back U” on the West Coast, it’s Oregon.

Here’s where they stand in ESPN’s RBU rankings:

38 days till Patriots season opener: Every player to wear No. 38 for New England

Here’s a list of every Patriots player to wear the No. 38 jersey number

In only 38 days, the New England Patriots will be kick-starting their 2023 regular season schedule against the Philadelphia Eagles. So we’re continuing our countdown series by listing every Patriots player that has ever worn the No. 38 jersey.

The one player on this list that immediately comes to mind is the current owner of the number, running back Rhamondre Stevenson.

In only his third year in the league, Stevenson has gone from backing up Damien Harris to being one of the best offensive playmakers on the Patriots’ roster. He ran for 1,040 yards and five touchdowns, while also hauling in 69 receptions for 421 yards and one touchdown in 2022.

By the end of the 2023 season, he could be looked at as one of the best running backs in the NFL.

Roland James is also a name that comes to mind when remembering some of the former Patriots greats that wore No. 38. The All-1980s Team member left a mark on the organization that’s still remembered and cherished to this very day.

Let’s take a look at every player that has worn the No. 38 throughout franchise history (via Pro Football Reference).

Green and Yellow Fireworks: Some of the best Oregon Duck highlights in the 21st century

What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with an Oregon Ducks firework show?

Who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

On the 4th of July, it is an American tradition to get together with friends and family and celebrate independence by lighting things on fire and watching them explode in the sky.

While you prepare for those festivities to begin on Tuesday night, we wanted to offer some fireworks of our own — some Oregon Duck fireworks.

The past couple of decades in Eugene have been incredibly entertaining. With the rise to national prominence for Oregon football, and the Chip Kelly blur offense that took the college football world by storm, the Ducks saw themselves one of the biggest fan favorites across the nation this century. Go ahead and add in Marcus Mariota’s Heisman season, the enthralling career of Sabrina Ionescu, and the deep tournament runs made by both basketball teams in March.

It’s safe to say that the past 23 years have provided a ton of highlights. I want to bring them to the surface and give you all a fireworks show to start your holiday.

Of course, there are going to be many plays that I missed throughout this all. To every player and every play that did not get mentioned, I apologize. If you have any favorite firework-worthy plays that didn’t get mentioned, comment below and let me know.

Without further ado, let the firework show begin.

A dozen Oregon Ducks football records that are unlikely to be broken

What are the records that will never be touched at Oregon? There are actually quite a few.

In the wake of LeBron James making history on Tuesday night by becoming the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, passing Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, we got to thinking here at Ducks Wire.

That feat by James was unimaginable for much of his career. With Abdul-Jabbar’s record standing for almost 39 years, it seemed outside the realm of possibility that anyone would score more than 38,388 points in a single career. Of course, then King James came around and made it all possible.

So, what are some records at the University of Oregon that might be unlikely to be broken in the future? Are there any feats that Duck football players have accomplished over the past century in Eugene that were so legendary that they will never be replicated?

This question intrigued me. I dove into Oregon’s history books and looked at some of the most notable performances. As it turns out, there are quite a few statistics that it would be hard to break going forward, whether it be due to the fact that players typically don’t stick around for four years in college anymore, or that the transfer portal sees to it that few guys are at a single school for their entire career.

I would certainly love to be wrong, but here are the records that I don’t think will be broken in Eugene for a long time coming.

Giants sign Jaydon Mickens after working out three returners

The New York Giants have signed WR Jaydon Mickens after working out a trio of return men on Tuesday.

The New York Giants hosted a small group of return men for a tryout on Tuesday in East Rutherford, including former sixth-round pick Kenjon Barner.

The 33-yard-old Barner was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 2013. Since then, he’s become quite the journeyman, making stops with the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens and, most recently, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Barner has also been a part of three Super Bowl teams — the Eagles, Patriots and Buccaneers.

In 76 career games, he’s rushed for 416 yards and three touchdowns, while hauling in 28 receptions for 152 yards. He’s also returned 91 punts for 677 yards and one touchdown, and 55 kickoffs for 1,291 yards.

In addition to Barner, the Giants also worked out wide receivers Jaydon Mickens and Chester Rogers. Both were undrafted free agents in 2016 who have made a living as reserves and return men.

Of the three, Jaydon Mickens was signed to the practice squad. In order to clear room for him, offensive lineman Roy Mbaeteka had his contract terminated.

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