Carlos Locklyn Highlighted as One of College Football's Rising Star Assistant Coaches

Oregon's running backs coach has done a great job building on the standard of excellence put in place by legendary running back coach Gary Campbell.

A key mark of a good head coach is his ability to assemble a great coaching staff.

Entering year two in Eugene, Dan Lanning certainly looks like he has a knack for identifying some of the brightest minds in the game. 

Since taking the helm of the Oregon program, multiple members of his coaching staff have been hired away to new jobs, which speaks to their ability as coaches and the success of the team under Lanning. 

Kenny Dillingham turned one year as Oregon's offensive coordinator into a head coaching job at Arizona State, while Adrian Klemm had a stellar year and paved his way back to the NFL ranks. Matt Powledge's work with the safeties was enough to earn him the defensive coordinator job in Waco back at Baylor.

READ MORE: Ty Thompson well positioned to be 'next man up' in Oregon's QB room

On Wednesday, On3's Matt Zenitz released his list of 30 rising star Power Five Assistant Coaches you need to know and Oregon running backs coach Carlos Locklyn made the cut.

Here's what Zenitz had to say about Locklyn:

After several years as a high school offensive coordinator in Tennessee, Locklyn made the move to the college level in 2017 and has progressed from weight room assistant, analyst and director of high school relations at Memphis to being director of player relations for Mike Norvell at Florida State in 2020 to now being in his second season as Dan Lanning’s running backs coach at Oregon.

Locklyn was hired by the Ducks after one year as the running backs coach at Western Kentucky in 2021. Led by Locklyn, Oregon was the only school in the Pac-12 last season to have two running backs with more than 775 rushing yards. His top two backs, Bucky Irving and Noah Whittington, were also just two of eight Pac-12 running backs to average more than six yards per carry in conference games.

In addition, Locklyn has continued to earn respect for his work as a recruiter. He landed two four-star Class of 2023 running backs, including Dante Dowdell, who ranked as the eighth-best running back in the ’23 class.

Locklyn has quietly been one of the most valuable assets to Oregon Football during his brief time in Eugene. 

As Zenitz wrote, Oregon's rushing attack and overall running back play has been elite with Locklyn leading the backs, and the Ducks could very well have the best stable of running backs in the Pac-12 heading into 2023. 

But the work doesn't stop on the field, as also he's established himself as an elite recruiter and relationship builder in the high school ranks. 

Locklyn says his room takes on his personality, and if you watch Bucky Irving, Noah Whittington and Jordan James run, it's not hard to see the resemblance. 

He's got his eyes on the prize entering year two with the Ducks in Eugene, and will look to deploy a trio of versatile backs to help Oregon build off a 10-win season in 2023.

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