For three years, he watched LaMichael James get the majority of carries. A week ago against  Arkansas State, his night was over by halftime as the Ducks’ second and third strings took over.  But Saturday afternoon, Kenjon Barner finally got his chance to show Duck fans what he could do as the featured back of Chip Kelly’s fast paced offense.
Barner set a career high with 201 rushing yards, pacing Oregon’s offense with 34 carries –also a career high– averaging just south of six yards per carry, and he could have carried the ball ten more had his number been called.
“I’m gonna carry the ball as many times as they give it to me,” Barner said. “I’d like to think I get stronger as I go on. I would rather be that than get weaker, so I definitely think I get stronger as the game goes on.”
That late-game push helped Barner guide the Ducks on an 11-play drive that helped Oregon milk the clock slightly in the fourth quarter.  Barner had 66 yards on that drive alone, including runs of 15 and 16 on consecutive plays to punctuate the scoring drive. It was the second week in a row that the normally speedy Ducks used a long drive to eat away at the clock late in the game — something they may need to do later in the season when their fourth quarter leads are slimmer.
“It was huge,” Barner said. “It was huge to slow them down and it was huge to get the momentum back on our side.”
It was one of several long scoring drives for the Ducks, who also found the endzone on drives of 85 and 98 yards.
“You have to attribute that to our coaching staff, we just executed what we needed to do.”
Barner’s career numbers come despite injuries to Carson York, Jared Ebert and Ryan Clanton creating something of a carrousel up front, but Barner said more important than who is blocking is how they’re blocking–and the same goes for the ballcarrier.
“At the end of the day the linemen still have to do their jobs,” Barner said. “They still have to make the same blocks, and we still have to make the same reads. You can’t change the gameplan because a few guys go down.”
A fifth-year senior, Barner also shined in the leadership department Saturday, rallying the troops after a Marcus Mariota fumble gave the Bulldogs good field position.
“I just brought the team together,” Barner said. “I just told them it was ‘go-time.’ Our defense was doing a good job but our offense was putting them in bad positions. So I just told them ‘Let’s go.  Let’s focus in and let’s go.”
When Barner’s number wasn’t called, DeAnthony Thomas did the rest, making the most of his seven carries–five of which came in the first half–to the tune of a 102 yard night with two touchdowns. Thomas scored on runs of 51 and 39 and has found the endzone 5 times already this season on just 18 touches.
“That’s a special kid,” Barner said of Thomas. “There’s not too many college athletes out there that has that quality that DeAnthony has.  Any time he touches the ball, it can go, whether it’s 4th and 21 or 3rd and 1. It’s exciting to kind of sit back and watch. It kind of leaves you in amazement.”
Asked to compare the so-called Black Mamba to another player, Barner said simply “DeAnthony Thomas.”