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SALT LAKE CITY — Remember the name Ty Jordan.
The true freshman running back from Mesquite, Texas, has emerged as the leading rusher in Utah's offense, and there's little denying him of the role after only three games in a shortened season that's more of a warm-up to the 2021 season for Utah football.
Jordan had a career night — only his third game with Utah — Saturday where he accounted for 189 of the team's 403 total yards of offense. The 5-foot-7 bruiser rushed for 167 yards and added 22 yards in the receiving game en route to a Utah victory. Jordan's career night was the best rushing performance from a true freshman since 1995.
And if Saturday's performance is anything like what Jordan can become, the Utes have likely found a long-term starter and heir apparent to Utah's all-time leading rusher Zack Moss.
Those are some big shoes to fill, but Jordan has put the Pac-12 on notice.
He currently sits as the fifth-best rusher in the conference with 98.7 average yards per game, but he has one or two less games than three of the four guys ahead of him. He's also eighth in the conference in total yards amassed this season (296) but is the only freshman.
On Monday, he was named the Pac-12 freshman of the week to add to his collection of early honors.
"He is starting to separate himself even more. Each week there's been separation, and this week was a big gap," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said Saturday after Utah earned its first win of the season, a 30-24 nail-biter against Oregon State.
"Ty Jordan, as evidenced by what you saw (Saturday), has separated himself. And he, right now, is definitely our lead back, and that's how it goes."
And though it took three games for the head coach to definitively say Jordan is the team's lead back, there have been glimpses all along the short season. From the moment Jordan got his first carry against USC, it was noticeable to all that there was something different about the former track and field athlete. He finished the game with only 32 yards on seven carries, but he averaged 4.57 yards per carry.
Whittingham noticed, too, and said the team needed to "feed him the ball" more. And more it did as Jordan's carries grew slightly in Week 2 against Washington, where he finished with 97 yards on 10 carries — an impressive 9.7 average yards per carry. But like many young players, Jordan's time was limited after a fumble deep inside Washington's territory.
"I think Ty, one thing that impressed me the most about Ty, you know, was his fumble against Washington. He took that to heart and basically you could see that he made it up in his mind that something like that was not going to happen again," junior wide receiver Britain Covey said. "He's got an amazing mentality. He works hard. He's like a little rock.
"If I were a recruiter, the first type of player I would recruit is someone like Ty Jordan — someone who is dynamic out of the backfield but also has great hands. You can motion, you can do so many different things, keep the defense on their toes."
But the coaches still had faith in their young back and he got the start against Oregon State where he averaged 6.2 yards on 27 carries and recorded his first-ever collegiate touchdown — a touchdown he was still blown away by at the end of the game after the emotions of the moment set in.
"It felt amazing, you know? Like, I don't know, I don't know how to explain it," Jordan said, grasping for the best words to articulate his special moment. "It was just, I can't explain it with words; it was just so amazing, so exhilarating. I grew up my whole life wanting and dreaming to be a college athlete, and now I'm here and I'm experiencing my first couple of games and my first touchdown. And so that was just amazing. I felt like I made my mom proud."
And who wouldn't be proud of that performance?
Jordan, to his credit, gave Utah's offensive line all the praise for making his career night possible. There was little needed to exploit when the offensive line gave Jordan plenty of room to run against an Oregon State defense that allows an average of 206.4 rushing yards per game, which is good for 11th in the Pac-12.
"Uh, honestly, I just want to give all the credit to the O-Line," Jordan said. "You know, they work so hard every day, we work so hard in practice every single day, to just make sure the runs are right. We focus on the details to make sure everything is right. And so that resulted in a great game."
And though Jordan amassed a great night, there's still work to be done. Utah struggled in the second half to pick up short yardage and nearly handed Oregon State a come-from-behind win. On three straight drives, Utah went three-and-out after struggling to get 1 yard on multiple downs and on multiple drives. It led Whittingham to say he has "no confidence" on fourth-and-short situations.
So while the accolades are deservedly given to Jordan for his growing role in Utah's offense, there's more that needs to be done to cement his role as the team's leading back.
"I feel really prepared," Jordan said. "I mean, I have a great coach, I have great running backs around me that I can just learn from and bounce ideas off of and talk with, and so I feel like that helps a lot."
"He's always going to be a guy that based on what we've seen in three games, he's going to be a guy that's going to get his share of touches," Whittingham added Monday.
And maybe, that means more in the receiving game, too.
"One thing we have got to do a better job of is we've got to throw him the ball more — he has exceptional hands," Whittingham said. "And we've got to do a better job of getting him the ball in the throw game because he can bring something to the table there and even add more than what he's doing."
