You’re in line for a promotion.
It’s a real high-profile, punishing job as the face of an organization with national influence and interest. Oh, and the turnover rate’s pretty high. Also, I forgot to mention — the guy you’re replacing? He did the job better than anyone in the company’s 120-year history.
You would feel a little pressure, wouldn’t you?
Not Kenjon Barner.
Fresh to the top of the depth chart, the Ducks’ starting running back admits the bar is set high after his predecessor LaMichael James led Oregon to a Rose Bowl win last year but says pressure doesn’t belong on the football field.
“To me, pressure is those men and women in the military service where they have to defuse a bomb,” Barner said after practice this week. “Or they’re going into an area full of hostiles. That’s pressure. Pressure is not going on the field, running the ball, making plays. That’s having fun, doing what you love to do. So to say I feel pressure? Not even close to it.”
The senior from Riverside, Calif., pitched another definition on Twitter just a week earlier, telling a friend, “Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what your doing.” And Barner knows what he’s doing.
***
Barner’s confidence in himself is reflected in everything from his neon headbands to the orange and black Camaro he drives. He’s always been confident — growing up within his well-publicized expansive and supportive family full of older siblings demanded him to be tough and believe in himself. Now, it’s a quality he deems indispensable.
“My confidence helps me out everywhere,” said Barner, adjusting the omnipresent headband and running a hand through the mohawk that makes him look taller than his listed 5 feet, 11 inches. “You can’t expect yourself to make plays if you’re not confident. You can’t expect your team to have confidence in you if you’re not confident in yourself. Confidence helps everywhere.”
His faith is two pronged, both in himself and in God. Good luck reading them with how fast he hits the hole, but Barner writes on his cleats. Next to the first names of Oregon’s running backs reads “In God I Trust.” The third word is almost as telling as the second, but after rereading Proverbs this month, his favorite verse is a modest one — Proverbs 3: 5-6.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
“God is what got me here,” Barner said. But it’s been a winding path.
***
Long in the shadow of best friend James, Barner’s endured a pair of  roller-coaster seasons that saw painful lows and inspiring highs. Even last year, as James’s backup, he wasn’t even the second most talked-about running back after freshman sensation De’anthony Thomas burst onto the scene — which Barner says didn’t bother him.
In fact, Barner has been content to let Darron Thomas or James shoulder the load of The Guy, preferring to lend his talents to on-field prayers and post-game victory chants. He’s the first to agree with running backs coach Gary Campbell that he shied away from a leadership role last year, something that’s changed as he’s developed.
“He has matured,” Campbell said. “He’s taken over that responsibility of leadership, and I think in the past, like last year, he didn’t really care for that role. … He’s really embraced that role as one of the leaders.” His maturation will be vital for a team replacing its field general, especially one with the consistent calming presence of Darron Thomas last year.
But like everything else he does, Barner will lead in his own way. As recently crowned Ducks starting quarterback Marcus Mariota prepared for Fan Day this year, he found a media throng waiting for him bigger than any he’s seen since the spring game. As the cameras closed in, Barner cracked a smile and joined in, raising his hand to his new signal caller as a mock journalist. As Mariota grew more comfortable and refused to look him in the eye, Barner laughed and backed off, his support given.
“He’s avoiding me.”
***
Against those who can’t avoid him, Barner needs just 144 yards on the ground to top 2,000 in his career. A season comparable to James’ junior campaign (a tall order, for sure) would put him near the top of Oregon career lists, next to James, Derek Loville and Jonathan Stewart. Campbell thinks he can do it.
“I’ve seen a lot of great backs, and … he’s obviously amongst those better guys who have been here,” Campbell said. “He’s gotta have a great season, I think, to be mentioned amongst the top ones, but he’s certainly capable of doing that.” In addition to his emotional maturation, Barner spent much of the offseason toughening up to take the pounding of a starting back, something for which Campbell also commended him.
“He has, in the past, come back and not that he’s been in bad shape, but he hasn’t been in the best shape,” Campbell said. “I think he’s in the best condition of his career now. He had a few dings that he’s come back from, which ordinarily I don’t know if he would have come back from in the past as quickly.”
Barner was coy about his personal goals this season, saying he has them written down and kept safe in his backpack but doesn’t want to share them just yet. But Barner’s always been bold enough to be what he wants to be, and if being The Guy for Oregon is somewhere on that list, his supporters have nothing to worry about.