The Oregon Ducks answered a lot of questions for their fans on Saturday with their dominant win in their in-state rivalry game against Oregon State, burying the Beavers 49-14.
One of the keys to that game was the run game, which saw the offensive line do a tremendous job . More so than the offensive line was the work done by lead running back Jordan James , who took his 12 carries for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
Even with that strong stat line, it looks like there's plenty of meat left on the bone.
James has been strong, with 12 carries of 10+ yards, has averaged 6.4 yards per carry through two games, and is averaging 3.52 yards after contact per attempt. One thing missing from his profile at this point are the breakaway runs. There's good reason to believe that they're coming.
For context, we're going to compare James to a couple other running backs around the country.
Omarion Hampton, UNC: 66 carries, 416 rushing yards, 6.3 ypc, 3 touchdowns.
13 runs of 10+ yards, 6 runs of 15+ yards. Long of 53 yards. 35.3% breakaway yards percentage.
Kyle Monangai, Rutgers: 46 carries, 373 rushing yards, 8.1 ypc, 4 touchdowns.
9 runs of 10+ yards, 6 runs of 15+ yards. Long of 62 yards. 56.3% breakaway yards percentage.
Devin Neal, Kansas: 45 carries, 333 rushing yards, 7.4 ypc, 2 touchdowns.
8 runs of 10+ yards, 7 runs of 15+ yards. Long of 53 yards. 54.4% breakaway yards percentage.
Raheim Sander, South Carolina: 56 carries, 285 rushing yards, 5.1 ypc, 4 touchdowns.
8 runs of 10+ yards, 4 runs of 15+ yards. Long of 66 yards. 47.4% breakaway yards percentage.
Jordan James, Oregon: 44 carries, 283 rushing yards, 6.4 ypc, 3 touchdowns.
12 runs of 10+ yards... 1 run of 15+ yards. Long of 16 yards. 5.7% breakaway yards percentage.
Holy outlier, Batman.
The running backs that I chose range in build from Sanders at 6'2" 229 lbs, to Kyle Monangai at 5'9" 210 lbs. They all clock in above James in total yards so far on the season, with Neal, Monangai, and James all seeing almost identical rushing volume.
For James, his breakaway yards percentage is the lowest of the top-50 running backs in the country in terms of total rushing yards. Only two other backs have a percentage under 10%.
Typically, I would say that a player not able to generate breakaway yards and not able to log a long run would be a lack of explosiveness and top-end speed. For James, that clearly isn't the case. He's shot out of a cannon in the open field, with great acceleration.
We know it's there. We saw it last year.
James, serving as the second back to Bucky Irving, had 108 rushing attempts last year, finishing with a robust 7.1 ypc. More importantly for this argument, the breakaway plays were there. James had a long of 37, had 12 carries of 15+ yards, and had a breakaway percentage of 37.4%. That percentage isn't an elite number – it ranked 98th in the country – but it was dramatically higher than his current 5.7%.
For James, who reportedly hit 22 miles per hour while training over the summer, the comments from coaches before the season started were about him adding muscle while training to get faster. His breakaway percentage right now is a massive outlier at the position that will correct itself in due time. Keep an eye out for the inevitable monster performance that's lurking.
Related: Dan Lanning loves his loyal ‘loud’ playmaker who followed him to Oregon instead of staying closer to home
Follow along all year for more Oregon Ducks coverage on A to Z Sports. You can find me on X @JonHelmkamp , as well as follow our main page @AtoZSportsNFL for all the latest news.
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