Say my name, say my name: overlooked RB looks for touches in crowded offense

It’s pronounced keh NYE ben WAH, and he may find a way to get everyone to remember it before the season is over.

Kani Benoit is an incoming freshman running back from Phoenix Thunderbird High in Division IV of Arizona prep football. The Chiefs were 8-4 last season, with Benoit running for a whopping 2,260 yards and 36 touchdowns.

Benoit got a scholarship from Oregon late, after Dontre Wilson wavered and then bolted to Ohio State. The 6-0, 200-lb. freshman, who’ll wear #36 this year, was team captain and offensive player of the year on his squad as a senior. He also returned 8 kicks for a 38.4-yard average.

You must remember this: Kani means strength and energy in Swahili, and Benoit displayed plenty of both dashing for 70 tds in three years as a star at Thunderbird High. (azcentral.com photo)

Last season Kani had SIX 200-yard games. including 6 touchdowns against league rival Greenway and 4 tds in 4 other games. He had long runs of 95, 89, 55, and 50 yards. His film shows good balance and an effective stop/start. He ran for another 1401 yards and 19 tds as a junior.

The thing is, Benoit doesn’t have the blazing speed of Thomas Tyner, or even the good speed of Byron Marshall or Royce Freeman (who won’t be in a Duck uniform for another year). His stated 40 time is 4.45, but, according to athletics.net, his best 100 meters in track last spring was 11.2, his best 200 22.6. Which puts him right around the speed of current Duck hybrid defensive end/linebacker Cody Carriger. Still, with a healthy 7.93 yards per carry in the second highest level of Arizona prep football, it’s clear that Benoit is an athlete and a leader, with the toughness to find the end zone 36 times as a senior.

Benoit’s other offers were underwhelming: Colorado State, North Dakota State, Wyoming and the like.

Last winter high school coach Brent Wittenwyler told Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian,

He’s a kid who can carry a game and carry a team around by himself. He’s a pretty special kid when it comes to ability.

 There’s more than one way to get it done as a running back. For example, Stepfan Taylor of Stanford played at 5-9, 214 and his NFL combine 40 time was 4.76. Taylor rushed for 4300 yards and 40 touchdowns in four years for The Cardinal. Rueben Droughns was 5-11, 215 at the combine and he ran a 4.66. Droughns, maybe one of the toughest Ducks ever, once finishing a game against UCLA on a broken leg, powered for 2058 yards as a Webfoot, 18 tds, and most of that dragging someone for the last three or four.

In his high school highlight tape Benoit bounces everything outside and powers past the defense. He’ll have to adjust his game and run hard inside at the college level. He had 285 carries his senior year so he’s definitely durable, probably with some Droughns-like tenacity. He did have 9 fumbles for the season, 7 of which resulted in a turnover. That number has to come down.

In Oregon’s running back rotation this fall depth is a concern with Kenjon Barner departed, particularly because projected lead back De’Anthony Thomas is built for quick strikes rather than a workhorse load carrying the Inside Zone Read. True freshman sensation Thomas Tyner will try to pick up the offense quickly and get in the mix. Sophomore Byron Marshall wants to build on a solid 2012 season in which he played capably in a relief role, 87 carries for 447 yards and 4 tds, 5.1 yards a carry.

It would help the Ducks immensely if Benoit could advance to assume the role Marshall had last year, spelling the lead backs and absorbing some of the punishment in the third and fourth quarters. He’ll have to bounce less and rely less on the stop/start and the juke outside, recognizing his lanes and cutting decisively upfield to extend drives. At the college level he projects as a workhorse and a situation back, but he can grow, develop himself, and improve his strength and quickness.

He was a star in the desert though, and at least he’s not a horse with no name. 

Kani Benoit was a great high school football player with an opportunity to play Division One football. Gary Campbell chose him over maybe 100 backs that were still on the board. Odds are he’ll make the most of it.

And who knows. Duck fans have been surprised by 3-star running backs before. A couple of them, LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner, turned out to be pretty good players.