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Should Noah Whittington Switch to Receiver?

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Oregon has a beast of a running back in Jordan James this year. He leads the team with 121 carries and 717 total rushing yards, which puts him at 5.9 yards per carry. He has good vision, hits the holes right, and will run through several arm tackles before being brought down. When he is brought down, he also has ...

 
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Oregon has a beast of a running back in Jordan James this year. He leads the team with 121 carries and 717 total rushing yards, which puts...
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Thanks David tor this great article.  I totally agree with you. Whittington would make a perfect addition as a receiver/running back type style player like Marshall was utilized.

 

I believe Jay Harris would be the perfect number 2 running back.  He needs to be used more in games.  He proved his worth in the Purdue game.

 

This change would totally enhance the running game for our Ducks!

 

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On 10/24/2024 at 5:03 AM, NJDuck said:

 

Thanks David tor this great article.  I totally agree with you. Whittington would make a perfect addition as a receiver/running back type style player like Marshall was utilized.

I concur. Back in the 70's, Ahmad Rashad, then Bobby Moore, did it the other way. He started as an all-Pac-8 WR, then switched and became an all conference RB.

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David, you make some excellent points.  Thanks for sharing your article with us!

 

I like the thought of having more Jay Harris to relieve James.  Jayden Limar seems to possess the combination of speed for the edges and power to go inside.

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I think you are onto something here...... get that guy in a tunnel screen or a 5 yard slant and let him run to green grass!

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On top of that Tez is a senior and getting Noah ready for more reps at that position would better enable us to be ready for next years needs. It also give Noah a better chance at playing at the next level. 

 

Great observation as Noah is a weapon once in space, but not as effective comparatively to the guys behind him in the traditional role of RB. Time to give those guys some more reps for the long season ahead.

 

Your idea is the best thing for Noah and the team, great stuff, once again!

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Thanks David, great ponder point article!  While I did not agree with your premise going in, by the end of your article I find myself in agreement!

 

Using NW to spell Tez is really a great idea, and giving the young buck RBs more reps is a good thing as well.

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Just to fill in a blank ...

 

Noah averaged 7.7 ypc in his last full healthy season.  Before he was injured last year, he was averaging 7.4 ypc.  While I agree with David that this man is an excellent receiver, perhaps he is still working his way back into the groove of running the ball.  He IS a fine running back.

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Hmmmm.  I really like Whittington and he was a great duo when Bucky was here.  For whatever reason he has seemed to have lost that initial "step" that he had before his injury.

 

A switch to wide receiver would negate that and give him the room to operate in space, which seems to play to his strengths.

 

Both our receiver and running back rooms are loaded and deep.  Regardless, he has too much talent and field vision to waste those talents in a position that his future at is....limited.

 

Hope the Oregon coaches can find the way to maximize what they have with Whittington.  I would sure love to see him back at the playing level he was at before injury.

 

Here's Hoping.🤞

 

GO DUCKS!

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On 10/24/2024 at 5:43 AM, Smith72 said:

I like the thought of having more Jay Harris to relieve James.

In just a couple of carries--Harris showed more "wiggle" than either Whittington or Limar, IMHO.

 

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Mr. FishDuck

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I would actually like to see Harris and Limar earlier in the game.  They came in during mop-up duty when Purdue's defense seemed to have called it a day for the most part.

 

How do these guys run against fresh, inspired defenses who still think they have a chance to change the outcome of the game. 

 

For me, that would be more of an apples-to-apples comparison.  Backs like LaMike, Kenyon, Royce, and Bucky got the defenses best efforts and still produced.

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Agree on your observations, not so sure about your conclusion.  There may be better ways of getting him the ball in space (wheel route, screens, etc.) than lining him up as a receiver.

 

This one is a bit of head scratcher to me, but clearly he is not the back he was before the injury, despite DL/WS efforts to get him back on track.

 

Really liked what I saw from Harris (granted in garbage time) against Purdue, personally I would like to see him in relief of JJ a little more.  IMHO Limar doesn't have Harris' upside, although he is rock solid and a great special teams player.

 

 

 

 

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Great article. Lots to ponder. Whatever the answer is, I just want to see the load that James carries for the team dispersed a bit more. I realize that we don't have a 1A and 1B this year at running back but there seems to be too large of gap between 1 and 2 this year. I don't want to see James take too much wear and tear throughout the season and have too little left for a playoff run. Harris looked very promising at Purdue as did Limar. Hoping to see them take some of the load off of James in the second half of the season. 

 

 

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On 10/24/2024 at 5:43 AM, Smith72 said:

Jayden Limar seems to possess the combination of speed for the edges and power to go inside.

Limar reminds me a lot of Thomas Tyner. They are similar in build but also once Tyner figured out the college game he just took off. However, Tyner was basically immediately injured and went into medical retirement and his return to football at Oregon State wasn't much to write about. 

 

But my point is that if you look at Tyner in that 2015 Rose Bowl game and in the 2015 National Title game (where he should have gotten the ball more) he was just a force on the field.

 

I find Limar is in the same spot, so If he can get his reads right in the run game he has the size and the speed to make some big plays. 

Edited by David Marsh
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On 10/24/2024 at 10:05 AM, The Kamikaze Kid said:

I just want to see the load that James carries for the team dispersed a bit more. I realize that we don't have a 1A and 1B this year at running back but there seems to be too large of gap between 1 and 2 this year. I don't want to see James take too much wear and tear throughout the season and have too little left for a playoff run.

This 1000%! Its shaping up to be a long season and we cant have have JJ carrying the ball 15-20 times a games. Get some fresh legs in there after the first couple of drives and really see who starts to stand out between Limar and Harris. 

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On 10/24/2024 at 10:03 AM, noDucknewby said:

There may be better ways of getting him the ball in space (wheel route, screens, etc.) than lining him up as a receiver.

This was the plan with DAT, his position was Athlete, just line him up somewhere and get him the ball. 

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Regarding NW pre-injury vs. NW post-injury... I've had an ACL repair surgery, and there is NO WAY someone can be 100% back to pre-injury condition in only a year. I'm surprise he is doing as well as he is. His knee still has room for improvement.

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On 10/24/2024 at 2:03 PM, Jon Sousa said:

Regarding NW pre-injury vs. NW post-injury... I've had an ACL repair surgery, and there is NO WAY someone can be 100% back to pre-injury condition in only a year. I'm surprise he is doing as well as he is. His knee still has room for improvement.

I'll be honest... I have less concern about his knee and more concern about his eyes. His speed is pretty good and he is running great. 

 

But he just doesn't seem to see the openings in those runs between the tackles. 

 

In space he does great... so get him the ball in space. 

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Noah is great out of the backfield. He’s no Saladin McCullough, but he’s a great receiver and runner. Oregon doesn’t really use the Tazer Back that was so popular in Chip’s offense, so he’s best used out of the backfield. Also, we don’t see what the coaches see in practice.

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If Jay Harris got Whittington's touches at RB last week we probably would have had 50 points. 

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I think he is fine where he is

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On 10/26/2024 at 5:03 PM, Lono said:

I think he is fine where he is

Hey if he wants to prove me wrong, I'm completely fine with that. 

 

He had one good run up the gut but it also had some fantastic blocking making a nice hole for him and the rest of his plays were really in space. 

 

So I'll keep saying it. Get that guy in space where he can use his power to his advantage. He's not that tall so he can get low with a lot of power and we saw him just break some defenders because he used that to his advantage. 

 

He's not great against defensive lineman in the trenches but get him out of the line of scrimmage and he's good. 

 

Mr. Whittington you are welcome to continue to prove me wrong. 

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Mr. FishDuck

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I love a running back who will hit the defender harder than the defender will hit him! 

 

Bam! Kick it up a notch!

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Reminds me of how Walter Payton ran over and around people. 

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Im happy for Whittington today!

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NO!

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No! But I would surely love to see a few more wheel routes for him just to watch him run over more DBs.

 

 

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On 10/27/2024 at 5:18 AM, Jon Joseph said:

NO

But they are using Whittington like I said they should in the article. Get the guy in space! 

 

I'm thrilled he's getting back to his older firm. But until this last game I don't think any of us felt comfortable with his overall role in the team and his output. 

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David - Im thinking that the kid read your article 😆.

 

He averaged 8 ypc yesterday, and looked great doing it. 

 

However, I also think your observations are very spot on. 

 

And finally, that kid is one tough bugger!

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