Oregon doesn’t just have one of the best individual running backs in the Pac-12 next season, it has one of the deepest rooms.

Bucky Irving had the sixth-best rushing grade from PFF of any running back in college football last fall. He’s back to lead the room. Noah Whittington returns as well to give the Ducks a dynamic one-two punch.

After those two, first-year offensive coordinator Will Stein gets to try and figure out how to involve youngsters Jordan James, Dante Dowdell, and Jayden Limar — all of whom came to Oregon as blue-chip recruits.

“Every great team I’ve been on has used multiple backs,” Stein said on Thursday when asked how he’ll go about structuring the rotation.

“I think if you can play three or four a game, I think that’s really good. Obviously, there’s going to be kind of your 1A, 1B, maybe your second, third back that are going to rotate in. But you’d like to keep those guys healthy. It’s a really violent position. And they all have great skill sets, so we’re gonna be able to utilize them all.”

Irving is a terror to try and tackle. No Pac-12 back forced more missed tackles last season. Whittington added some weight this offseason. Together, the top two spots on the depth chart are pretty well set in stone.

But last fall, running backs coach Carlos Locklyn deployed Sean Dollars as a third-down back and used James, then a freshman, as a short-yardage runner. More of the same could be in store in 2023. Add in Dowdell and Limar and the Ducks should have a back for every situation.

That should make Stein happy.