Junior Jaydn Ott Expects 2024 to Be His Last Season at Cal

Golden Bears running back Ott named preseason all-ACC at two positions

Jaydn Ott /

Cal junior running back Jaydn Ott is seldom ambivalent and never postures. He simply tells you what he’s thinking.

While a lot of standout college players are coy about whether they will enter the NFL draft after the season, Ott is straightforward.

He was asked Thursday whether he expects this to be his last season at Cal, Ott replied simply, “Yes, this will be.”

It’s not surprising. Before his freshman season at Cal began he said playing in the NFL was his goal, and last week, ESPN draft analyst Mike Miller named Ott the top running back prospect for the 2025 NFL draft.

And on Thursday Ott was named to the preseason first-team all-ACC team at both running back and all-purpose athlete.  He also placed sixth in the media voting for preseason ACC player of the year.  Ott was also named to the preseason watch list for the Hornung Award (nation’s most versatile player) and the Wuerffel Trophy (community service).

It has all the earmarkings of a guy who’s likely to leave college with a year of eligibility remaining.

It’s just that most players don’t share those plans publicly before the season. More often they’ll say, “I’m just focusing on this season,” or “I’ll wait until after the season to make that decision.”

But Ott is not like most star college football players, as his 1,315 rushing yards last season can attest.

Asked about his goals for this season, Ott had a simple two-word answer: “Doak Walker.”

That, of course, refers to the award that goes to the nation’s top running back.  And what about the Cal career rushing record?

“Oh yeah, but that’ll come with it. I feel like that one’s automatic,” he said.

Does he know what the record is?

“I know I’m about a band away from it or something, a band and some change – a thousand.”

“A band” means 1,000, in case you didn’t know, and Ott is correct that he needs “a band and some change” to break Russell White’s Cal career rushing record of 3,367 yards.  Ott needs 1,156 yards this season to break it, which comes out to about “a band and some change.”

Ott will have to carry the ball a lot to reach that number, so how many touches would Ott like to have each game this season.

“About 20 per game, minimum,” He said.

Offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch seems to be on the same page, hoping to give Ott more than 20 touches a game. On Thursday Bloesch said he expects to play three or four running backs each game, so how many touches does he expect Ott to get each game?

“As many as he’ll take,” Bloesch said. “No, we’ll always take care of him. We’re going to feature him each and every week, we’re going to find ways to get him the ball. We’re going to find ways to move him around, not let people always hone in on him.

“But I don’t know what he averaged last year, maybe 20 carries a game. I’d like it to be more than that.”

Ott averaged 20.5 carries per game last season and 22.8 touches (including 25 receptions and three kickoff returns). But those high usage numbers resulted from the injury problems Cal had at running back. Ott carried the ball 36 times against Stanford in the 11th game of the 2023 season.

Ott showed no late-season wear in 2023. Three of his five 100-yard games last season came over the final six games.

And he claims to have lost none of his speed, which is his greatest asset.

“I’m the fastest dude on the team still,” he said.

He did have some qualms with his speed rating of 92 in the EA Sports College Football 25 video game, since several Cal players had a better speed rating.  He did like his 97 rating on acceleration.

“I’ll take that, but the 92 speed was out of pocket,” he said.

Here is the preseason All-ACC team as voted on by 170 media members.

Preseason all-ACC offense /

preseason All-ACC defense /

Preseason ACC player of the year /

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