Kani Benoit knew he would have a good game before Oregon’s season opener against Southern Utah.
“It was funny,” running back coach Donte running backs coach Donte Pimpleton said. “A couple days earlier in the week he came up and goes ‘coach I’m having a good game this week.’ I said, ‘I’m sure you will.’ He’s had a good camp. He’s a talented guy.”
The Ducks have been known for their running game for years, but now it seems to be at its peak. Oregon touts a running back group that will be a focal point of its offense in 2017, and the Ducks aren’t afraid to let the world know they will be running the ball.
Tony Brooks-James put it best: “Get used to it.”
Pimpleton seamlessly began working in head coach Willie Taggart’s offense. Pimpleton and Taggart have a long history of working together: they first played and then coached together at Western Kentucky, before moving on to South Florida.
Pimpleton knows what Taggart requires from the running backs, and Pimpleton was able to apply Taggart’s philosophy on day one.
“Coach Taggart, everywhere he’s been, and even when we played together, he ran the football,” Pimpleton said. “So, yeah, we’re gonna run the ball. … He likes to run the ball and I like to run the ball. It sets up the pass [and] we’ve got a great quarterback so it opens everything up.”
The players have taken to Pimpleton well, and even veterans are learning new skills.
Oregon running back Tony Brooks-James (20) searches for an open path to the end zone. The Oregon Ducks start their season playing against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. on September 2, 2017. (Phillip Quinn/Emerald)
“He’s taught us about the game more on how to read defenses, how to read rotations and who’s coming and who’s who,” Brooks-James said. “We’ve definitely emphasized that and it’s helped my game a lot.”
Oregon’s emphasis on running the ball does not mean that passing will be reduced with sophomore quarterback Justin Herbert at the helm. The running backs will have an important role even when their numbers aren’t called. They have to block.
“They know that’s the biggest thing,” Pimpleton said. “I don’t play missing pass protection. … It’ll get the quarterback killed.”
The first look at Pimpleton’s group came in the Ducks’ season opener against Southern Utah.
Oregon ran for 348 yards in a 77-21 rout of the Thunderbirds at Autzen Stadium. Nine touchdowns came from the run game — an Autzen Stadium single-game record.
Four of the nine touchdowns came from Freeman’s 150-yard run game, while a career-high three were punched in by Benoit, who also ran for a career high 107 yards.
Pimpleton compared Benoit’s skillset to that of South Florida running back Darius Tice.
“Kani is faster,” Pimpleton said. “He’s deceiving. When you look at him you go, ‘I don’t know,’ but when he gets the ball in his hands he’s actually really good. It’s like I told him, ‘you’re as good as anybody out there.’ I think he took me seriously.”
Brooks-James took the Ducks’ ground game to a different level, scoring directly from the opening kickoff in a 100-yard return to give Taggart the perfect start to his first game in charge of the Ducks.
After the game, Brooks-James said he called Oregon “RB-U — Running Back University.”
Former Oregon running back and program rushing leader LaMichael James even chimed in on the Ducks’ backfield core.
“Oregon has 3 starters at RB,” James tweeted. “This is madness.”
While that may be true, Oregon can’t start all three running backs at the same time. There are options to play two at a time where one serves as a blocker or slides into a slot receiver position. But balancing playing time for three will be a challenge.
Taggart visited Freeman in December in hopes of keeping the senior for his final year of eligibility at Oregon. Taggart’s pitch hit home with Freeman.
“He wanted me to know that he was behind me 100 percent,” Freeman said. “He wanted to make all my dreams come true, just be behind me do whatever I wanted to do and get everything I want accomplished.”
Oregon running back Royce Freeman charges for the end zone. The Oregon Ducks start their season playing against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. on September 2, 2017. (Phillip Quinn/Emerald)
Since Freeman decided to return for his senior year there wasn’t much of a question as to who would start at running back.
“Royce is our guy — feed Royce,” Taggart said. “Then everyone else will get their carries as we go, but we’re gonna feed our horse. We’re fortunate to have three really good running backs that can come in and start.”
The sharing of the ball against Southern Utah showed that Freeman is the main man, but there will certainly be snaps for the other backs. Brooks-James had nine carries while Benoit had seven.
“We don’t have any selfish guys that it’s always gotta be about them,” Taggart said. “In our offense, everybody gets to eat. Everybody gets a bit of the ball and have fun, and that’s the beauty.”
Taggart’s unselfish offense is echoed by his own players.
“I feel like it takes a lot of pressure off coach [Pimpleton] as well,” Freeman said. “Knowing that he has a deep backfield and that if any one of us gets tired or if any one of us has problems out there, we have more than capable, other versatile running backs behind.”
After the thumping of the Thunderbirds, Taggart’s message about the run game can be summed up in one word: simplicity.
“Pretty simple, huh?” Taggart said. “You can’t get any simpler than that, just feed your studs, get them the ball and let them do what they do best.”
The Ducks are so deep at the position that they even pushed Taj Griffin out to wide receiver this season to make room for all the running backs. He did not play against Southern Utah due to injury.
Griffin could come back into the backfield on sweeps or while in motion. His experience at running back helps him when he moves into the slot receiver position, and time at receiver could help if he is to return to the backfield.
“It’s a different way to use me,” Griffin said. “Just get me out in space, and get me out to doing what I do best.”
Oregon could not only use Griffin as a running back if needed, but it can use wide receiver Charles Nelson too, who has similar speed and agility as a running back.
Having too many running backs is a problem Oregon is certainly fine with having. The one thing that can hurt an offense with multiple running backs is when the offensive style has to change to accompany the runner.
That’s not a problem for Oregon.
“I think the beauty for us is we don’t have to change our offense because one guy’s in the game, we can continue to run the plays that we want to run,” Taggart said. “We’re gonna feed Royce and if Royce gets tired we’re gonna put the next guy in and go.”
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow
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