Inside The Huskies

Cal Bears Hit a Home Run with Ott, Young Jaydn Not Mel

The freshman running back plays a lot older than he is.

Dan Raley

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By all accounts, Jadyn Ott is still a teenager. He's listed as a freshman on the California football roster, which describes him as a 6-foot, 205-pound running back. A first-year player, no less.

William Inge, University of Washington co-defensive coordinator, doesn't believe it for a minute as he prepares his Husky defense to face Cal and Ott, and he provides his typical humorous take to make his point.

"No, he does not look like a freshman," Inge said of Ott. "If we were in Little League, this would be one of those scenarios where you would go to his parents and say, 'Can we see your birth certificate?' "

It appears Ott is not nearly old enough to go for a beer after the game, but he has enough years on him to know exactly where the end zone it.

Against Arizona, the young Cal running back snapped off touchdown runs of 72 and 73 yards on his way to a stirring 19-carry, 274-yard, 3-touchdown performance in a 49-31 Golden Bears victory on Sept. 24 in Berkeley. 

Ott's yards are the second most churned out by an FBS player this season, surpassed only by Pitt's Israel Abanikanda, who rushed for 320 against Virginia Tech. 

Abanikanda is a seasoned junior.

In six games, Ott has piled up 580 yards rushing on 89 carries, which ranks him second in the Pac-12 behind UCLA's Zach Charbonnet, who has rushed for 615 yards on 87 carries in just five games. 

Charbonnet, of course, is a grizzled senior.

Cal's running back is no relation to Mel Ott, the baseball hall of famer and a different kind of home-run hitter who unfortunately didn't live long enough. That Ott was just 49 when he died from injuries suffered in a 1958 car accident in Mississippi. He'd be 113 years old if he were still alive today.

Jaydn Ott looks for room to run against Arizona.
Jaydn Ott picks his way through the Arizona defense on his way to a 274-yard rushing day :: Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

This Ott continues to dazzle everyone as this advanced newcomer to the Pac-12.  

"From a talent standpoint, he does seem more mature with some of the things he does," the UW's Inge said. "[He's] very great in his cuts. He hits the hole very hard and when he's out in the open he definitely has a gear to create some separation. We've all been impressed with him as a freshman."

Inge, if he's smart about this, will be standing just outside the entryway to the Cal's Memorial Stadium field asking for the kid's ID come Saturday. He can then try to tell young Ott he's just not old enough to enter that establishment.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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