Oregon football running backs: Bucky Irving commands spotlight following breakout season

Whatever anonymity Bucky Irving had when his 2022 season began a year ago is long gone.

During Oregon’s preseason media day on July 31, Irving found himself sitting at a small table and surrounded by cameras, recorders and reporters peppering him with questions.

The junior running back, never one to embrace the spotlight, handled the attention with ease.

“It’s nothing I really look into,” Irving said. “I just want to be the best teammate I can be and just trying to focus on what I can do to help this team win football games. I don’t really care about the cameras or any of that type of stuff. I’m just trying to be a good teammate.”

After a season in which he started 12 of 13 games and rushed for 1,058 yards on 156 carries with five touchdowns, Irving has become one of the faces of the Oregon program.

In the preseason media poll released last month, Irving was a first-team all-Pac-12 selection, and last week he was named to the preseason watch lists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s top running back, and the Walter Camp Player of the Year.

“He’s just a guy that goes to work,” sophomore running back Jordan James said. “He’s a leader, he’s a role model and not just for people in the running back room but for people on the team, how to work, how to do things the right way to get to where you want to be at.”

Irving transferred to Oregon from Minnesota in 2022 and emerged from a crowded running back room as the most productive of the bunch.

His average of 6.78 yards per carry is third-most in program history. He also caught 31 passes for 299 yards and three scores.

Irving was named the offensive MVP of the Holiday Bowl last December when he rushed for 149 yards and two TDs on 13 carries in the Ducks' victory against North Carolina.

Irving’s workload isn’t much more than fourth-year junior Noah Whittington, who rushed for 779 yards and five scores on 139 carries last season.

Whittington was also on the Doak Walker Award watch list.

Expect those two to split carries again this fall.

“We don’t care too much about the carries,” Irving said. “We just care when our number’s called and we’re all going to go out there and compete when our number’s called and we feed off each other.”

Jordan James another Oregon running back to watch

Jordan James made the most of his limited opportunities last season as the Ducks utilized the then-freshman’s size (5-foot-10, 210 pounds) primarily in short-yardage and goal-line situations.

James ended the season with 46 carries for 189 yards and five touchdowns — the same number of rushing TDs as both Irving and Whittington and most for an Oregon freshman since Royce Freeman in 2014.

Now the sophomore and former consensus four-star recruit from Nashville, who rushed for 3,424 yards on 372 carries (9.2 yards per carry) and 50 touchdowns during his last three seasons of high school, is ready for more.

“Year one was good, it was a good learning experience getting to get on the field and get some in-game experience,” he said. “I just want to get out there and show coaches that I’m a guy that can be trusted to play any down.”

Oregon running back newcomers to watch

In a running back room that has its share of speedsters and power backs, Dante Dowdell casts an imposing shadow.

At 6-2 and 210, the freshman from Mississippi is the biggest running back on the Oregon roster.

“People are going to be scared to tackle him,” Whittington claimed with a knowing smiled.

His production as a high school star is as impressive as his physical stature. The consensus four-star recruit rushed for 5,301 yards and 65 touchdowns as a four-year letter winner at Picayune Memorial High School before heading west to Eugene.

Oregon running back number to know

1 — Bucky Irving is the top returning running back in the Pac-12 after rushing for 1,058 yards on 156 carries in 2022.

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks running backs: Bucky Irving commands spotlight