4* RB Jaydn Ott Commits to Cal

After the 2021 class that was bereft of RBs, we now have 2

Another big addition to the RB room: Jaydn Ott, 4* out of Bishop Gorman in Reno Nevada. He joins Kaleb Johnson as the second RB in the 2021 class.

Jaydn Ott🇼🇸 @THEJAYDNOTT

He is a former Oregon commit who holds offers from half of the Pac-12 (ASU, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Utah, Washington State), as well as big programs such as Georgia, Nebraska, and Purdue.

Here is what SGBear has to say about Ott:

Jaydn Ott played his freshman year for Norco, where he racked up 1096 rushing yards and 13 TDs over 12 games as a RB. He only caught 6 passes though. Before he finished his freshman year, he had 3 Pac-12 offers, committing to Oregon before the summer began. He was also a stud on the camp and combine circuit as a freshman.
He then sought out a bigger stage than the Big VIII league, transferring to national powerhouse Bishop Gorman (BG) in Las Vegas (back-to-back-to-back National Champs 2014-16). They are head-and-shoulders the best team in Nevada and are at such a level that they travel to challenge the other national powerhouses.  For example, they played Orem with Noah Sewell, Jayden de Laura and St. Louis (in Honolulu), and Noah Fifita’s Servite in the ’19-20 season.

Bishop Gorman is so good that they also typically blow out their league opponents. Again, in the ’19-20 season, they went 6-0 in league with a combined score of 368-6. This means they had plenty of time to spread the ball around to numerous running backs and not having to lean on their QB’s arm. Gorman primarily used Ikaika Ragsdale (’20, 3 star, UNT scholarship) as the primary back before going to Cam Barfield (’22, 3 star, 12 offers ) as the second most used back. Jaydn was the third most used RB (’22, 4 stars, 15 offers) with 39 carries, 459 yards with an 11.8 YPC and 7 TDs over 9 games. You know you’re good when your fourth most used RB gets a D-1 scholarship (’21 Sabastian Shannon, no star, Army).

Jaydn’s sophomore highlights start off with him in the backfield. He has a noticeably slim build, not looking much bigger than the 5’10” 173 pounds he was measured in February 2019 “The Opening” combine. It is a simple hand-off from the starting QB on RPO weave. Thereafter, he weaves through traffic with his signature quick cuts and then crosses over the safety with his second cut. It doesn’t hurt that BG’s linemen are really good.

The second play is masterfully executed by Ott. It’s a 10-personnel package (4 WR) but a designed B-gap cutback run. The defense is set up in max pass protection (cover + rush protection), shifting the d-line where two of them go to 2 technique and the third tackle is in a 2-point stance in a 9-tech, way outside the tackle. It puts maximum pressure outside, but the weakness is in the middle - if only one can get past the ILB. The ball is snapped and the center and guard double team the DT on the left.  Ott gets the ball and it looks like a dive right at the ILB who is sitting in the gap vacated by the center. Ott draws the ILB into the gap and the scrapes left laterally to the B-gap, trapping the ILB on the wrong side of the double-team pile.  That 9-tech DT is too wide and too slow. The B-gap is left open just enough to let Ott through sideways through a slim opening. The safety is out of position but closes to make the tackle until Ott crosses him over into an embarrassed heap with that signature cut before sprinting to the endzone.

The next four plays are more highlights of Ott cut-cut-cutting his way to glory and leaving more bodies in his wake. That summer, Ott decommits from Oregon.Now it is his junior year – the Covid year. The fall season is canceled. The administration decides to have a spring season but is also limiting practices. And like many other schools, statistic keeping falls to the wayside, presumably due to attendance restrictions. BG rolls through its first two out-of-conference games with a combined score of 95-0. We know that Ott scored in the first game due to media reports of the game, but no statistics were recorded for him. Likewise, we can see with our own eyes that he carried at least five times and scored one TD in the second game against Faith Lutheran – but no stats are recorded.  Thereafter, two BGs games are converted into scrimmages and the rest are canceled.

So we’re forced to watch scrimmage tapes, where there are precious few plays with Ott. There are some nifty plays where Ott flashes his lateral cut again. Others, he shows that he can be patient and take a route given to him by his offensive linemen. Others are just shorts and helmet practice tapes that are barely worth watching apart from noticing that Ott absolutely can catch the ball and he’s put on a few more pounds.

With the naked eye, he is very fast but not elite fast. As supporting evidence, his outdoor track 100m times are around 11.4 seconds with an 11.34 Personal Record as a junior. This means he is slightly faster than Chris Street, Marcel Dancy, and Ashton Stredick when they were juniors. It is about the same speed as DeCarlos Brooks, but slower than the faster wide receivers like Monroe Young. That speed - and those cuts - may make him a candidate to return punts and/or kicks-offs.
Ott seems like he is a good all-around running back – he runs with power, but he’s not a blunt battering ram like CBJ. He’s fast, but he is patient enough to wait for his lanes. He is shifty but he doesn’t gamble away what the defense gives him by going backward. He certainly looks like a great candidate to be the next guy up when the current stable of studs have exhausted their time at Cal. He's got very good potential.