Few people make their way from childhood to collegiate athletics. The path from watching sports, legs crossed, inches from the TV to toes-down on the grass is difficult. Even fewer succeed once they get there. — and almost nobody does.

Rodrick Pleasant didn’t just come to Oregon to run inside Hayward Field — even though that was a big part. A remarkable athlete, he’s determined to do more than just sprint. Before he touched the track in official competition, he’d already won the 2024 Fiesta Bowl as a member of the Ducks’ football team. 

But he’s living the dream as a Duck. He has delivered himself a chance as a two-sport athlete to do what few at Oregon can, and his time on the track is driving him forwards on the football field.

“It’s hard not to think about doing both here,” Pleasant told GoDucks. “That was really special for me — me and my family.”

Even that isn’t beyond reason; he wasn’t the only two-sport athlete in Tucson, Ariz., for the Fiesta Bowl last January. Linebacker Bryce Boettcher doubles as the center fielder for Oregon baseball, but he wasn’t competing in both sports as a freshman like Pleasant.

Pleasant has also chatted with former Duck and Olympic hurdler Devon Allen, whose path to the National Football League wound through Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. 

“He told me that this place is where you want to do it, If you’re thinking about doing both,” Pleasant said.

He decided to go all in from that point forward.

“I love being here and developing — that’s the biggest thing at the end of the day,” he said. “Just getting better day by day. That was my most important thing this year.”

For Pleasant, that meant jumping in with both feet. His freshman season with Ducks football was limited, but he was in for snaps against Hawaii and No. 13 Utah before forcing a fumble in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 23 Liberty. That’s no small feat.

But with the spring season on the horizon, he’d have to turn it right around — and did so with apparent ease.

The two sports are different, of course. His blazing 10.09 speed in the 100m dash as a high schooler broke California state records, but it’d take more than that to land a spot with Ducks football. He landed offers from UCLA and USC, near his home in Los Angeles, but chose Oregon over both.

“Obviously, I told [Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning] that I wanted to be on track here,” he said. “That was probably the big thing for me — being able to do both, especially here.”

Lanning and Ducks track and field head coach Jerry Schumacher were on board, and so he began. Pleasant started practice with the football team in summer 2023, and less than a year later, he was on the track at Hayward.

His offseason has been spent studying. In between the spring track season — where Pleasant finished as high as fourth in the 60-meter dash and 17th in the 100-meter dash — and spring football, there’s barely time. The Ducks’ Fiesta Bowl victory came on Jan. 1. Less than a month later, on Jan. 26, he was on the track in Arkansas.

“Just getting stronger,” has been where his free time has been spent, he said. “And then obviously, technique and then making sure that I’m really, really really good in the playbook, so that I can make my teammates better around me.”

Pleasant smirked when asked if he’d won races against his football teammates.

“No comment.”

Being fast is great, but as he talks about his battles with five-star freshman Jurrion Dickey, it’s obvious that he knows there’s more to the game than pure speed. He talks about Dickey’s impressive catch radius, saying that it’s, “back and forth” between the two. They make each other better, he emphasizes. Iron sharpens iron.

It’s a different game in the spring. His one-on-one mentality becomes internal — it’s now a battle with himself. The same rules apply: mess up, and it’s on you. It’s just not the receiver who’s getting past him now.

That said, few competitors pass him. As a freshman this season, he’s competing against upperclassmen. Pleasant is performing in both indoor and outdoor — after three sub-6.8 60m times in indoor invitationals he turned up on back to back weekends in April, hitting consecutive 10.38 100m times.

He’s also the only freshman on Oregon’s 4x100m squad, which placed eighth at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, Ariz., in April. He’s joined in that group by Anthony Trucks, a sophomore; Jack Normand, a senior; and PJ Ize-Iyamu, another sophomore.

Pleasant will look to qualify for the NCAA Track and Field National Championships, hosted at Hayward Field on June 1. To do so, he’s got to make it through the First Rounds at the University of Arkansas — where he ran his first collegiate meet. Should he find himself in the top-12 there, he’ll be back at home.

It won’t be easy. He’s currently outside the top-48 sprinters (the acceptance limit into the First Rounds) in the 100m dash. So is Oregon’s 4x100m team, which sits 32nd instead of inside the top-24.

Even if Pleasant doesn’t run at this year’s edition, though, he’s got plenty of time. As of now, he’ll be back on turf in the fall as the Ducks prepare to move into the Big Ten. Oregon’s nationwide odds to make the inaugural edition of the expanded College Football Playoff are high.

It’ll be difficult — there’s plenty of competition, but that’s life for a college athlete.

He’s just doing it twice.