Kenjon Barner answered the question because they asked it. He answered with a smile, not cocky, just confident and honest.
It was preseason, and the interviewer from Comcast Sports Network asked Michael Clay and Kenjon Barner, in separate interview pieces, “Who’s the best athlete on the team?”
Michael Clay looked up for a moment, as if the answer were written on the ceiling. “The best athlete on the team is Colt Lyerla,” Clay said.
The camera cut to Barner, and he said, in his smooth, always-cool and collected voice, “The best athlete on the team…is me.”
Right out and plain, not puffing out his chest or making a show of it. He sat in that interview room back in July, amid a long day of interviews, sure of himself, a fifth year senior, a guy who had paid his dues and played the supporting role behind his good friend, Oregon great LaMichael James, who ended his 3-season career with the Ducks as the school’s all-time leading rusher.
In Barner’s quiet way it was his way of saying, “I’m ready. I’m ready to be the man and the focus of the offense. I can be an every down back. I can get the tough yards, take the carries. I can carry this team.”
The best athlete on the team is me.
The Ducks needed Barner to think that way, beginning a season with a freshman quarterback, no Carson York, questions at wide receiver and depth issues at running back. They needed to fill the hole left by James and Darron Thomas, find a reliable centerpiece for an offense that had churned out over 7300 yards and 645 points last season. Oregon’s lead running back drives the success of the Ducks attack, and now 5-10, 195-lb. Kenjon Barner was next in line to be that guy.
Barner had rushed for 1856 yards and 20 tds in his career, 939 last year. He caught a 54-yard touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin.
After training hard over the winter and summer, honing his body to answer the every-down-back question on the field, he had the street cred to make that simple statement. Fast, strong, durable and elusive, Kenjon Barner was ready to be the Oregon tailback, the best athlete on the Oregon Ducks.
In game two against Fresno State, the offense in disarray in the second half because of the Bulldogs’ highly effective blitz package, Barner took over on the clinching drive. Up 35-19 in the 4th quarter, the Ducks gave the ball to him 9 times in an 11-play, 77-yard drive. Nine determined, patient, strong runs, for 11 and a first down, then 2, 7, 5, 5, 4, 1, 15, then a 16-yard touchdown scamper over the left side. When it was over Barner had 34 carries for 201 yards, and the Ducks were 2-0 in the young season.
A week later, KB’s teammate De’Anthony Thomas was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, billed as “The Fastest Man in Football.”
Yesterday at Duck practice several players were asked their reaction to DAT’s cover photo. Universally they said they were thrilled for him, that the talented TAZR deserved the attention, gifted and humble and amazing to watch, that he worked hard every day right along side them.
Barner wasn’t interviewed that day. The Ducks make players available in rotation, and it wasn’t his day. He was off getting an ice bath and a shower.
But you have to wonder what KB is thinking. Before the season he was mentioned as a Heisman candidate. No one has worked harder or contributed more, among the current players, to Oregon’s success.
Now he’s being overshadowed by a sophomore.
How Barner handles the attention and notoriety being given to his young teammate is crucial to Oregon’s success this year. If he broods or bristles over it, teammates will pick up on it. On some teams the sharing of glory becomes a distraction, even a brick wall on the road to success. Factions develop. There’s bickering and dissension, and breakdowns when things get tough. It happened to the USC Trojans on Saturday night.
It isn’t likely in the Oregon huddle or the Oregon locker room, because of the tone Chip Kelly sets, and the leadership that players like Barner and Clay provide.
De’Anthony Thomas is one of the most electric and dynamic players in the history of college football. His sudden, amazing burst and uncanny broken-field running ability make him a threat to score every time he touches the ball. Duck fans are witnessing the unfolding of a legend. Thomas deserves every bit of the attention that’s inevitably coming his way.
Meanwhile, Kenjon Barner’s carried 56 times this year for 324 yards, a 5.8-yard average. He’s scored six tds to The Black Momba’s 7, gotten the tough yards up the middle and taken most of the punishment. Barner doesn’t have a fumble. He’s not as fast or flashy as his backfield mate, but he’s steadier, the tough, reliable focal point of an offense that’s developing many weapons.
Throughout his Oregon career Kenjon has handled his role with grace. But now he has a new challenge.
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