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Jaydn Ott’s days at Cal looked over. The star running back amassed 2,702 total yards and 25 touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Golden Bears. But with an underclassman’s success comes the option to go elsewhere for a payday.

Ott was highly sought after and, amid the heat of the transfer portal, he took to social media. In a video posted on Instagram and X, Ott — shaded in black and white — sits in a chair and begins a goodbye message.

Captioned “Thank you Cal” with a broken heart emoji, Ott announces he’s entering the transfer portal at the 30-second mark. As he walks off camera to seemingly end the video, he pokes his head back in to complete the joke.

“Nah I’m playing,” Ott said. “I’m finna stay.”

The video, which now totals over 1.6 million views on X, was the start of Ott’s junior season and continued commitment to his Cal legacy. The First-Team All-Pac 12 running back has just 169 yards on the ground and 192 receiving yards in limited action this season due to a lower-body injury. Still, he continues to climb the charts among all-time Golden Bears running back greats. Saturday, Ott leads Cal into its third-ever matchup versus Syracuse.

“The tradition is high,” Isaiah Ifanse, Ott’s former teammate at Cal, said of the program’s running back history. “You got people like Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, Shane Vereen, Patrick Laird and some other guys. But I feel like Jaydn, he’s definitely cemented his legacy for the Golden Bears’ program.”

Ott first burst onto the scene when he got to Norco High School (California) in 2018. His combination of speed and physicality made him a dangerous back.

With the Cougars, Ott gradually increased his workload, becoming an offensive focal point in the rushing and passing game. In the third game of his high school career versus Rancho Cucamonga, Ott found the end zone twice in a blowout victory.

The next week, against Vista Murrieta, Norco was in a tight game in the fourth quarter when former head coach Chuck Chastain recalled Ott having his breakout play. Ott hit the hole perfectly on an inside trap play, bursting through the defense.

He galloped into the end zone while pointing a finger skyward for a game-changing score. As Ott jumped up and down with joy following the score, the then-freshman was flagged for taunting. Though the flag was just a sidebar of the story.

“Once he had that moment, everything just changed,” Chastain said. “He just became more comfortable, more explosive and just kept growing and growing as a player.”

Ott moved to Las Vegas in his sophomore season for family reasons and transferred to the prestigious Bishop Gorman High School. His success continued, but he didn’t play his junior season due to COVID-19. For his senior year, he moved back home to play for Norco.

Against USC in 2023, Jaydn Ott totaled 153 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He’s accumulated 2381 rushing yards in three seasons with Cal. Courtesy of Anita Liu | Daily Cal

As a top player on the Cougars, Ott upped his game through extended film sessions. Chastain said unlike most running backs he’s coached, Ott wanted to know the ins and outs of every detail. He studied where blocks were, how the offensive line adjusted to different fronts and where the trap block would be, among other elements.

While scoring 17 touchdowns and amassing over 1,100 yards in his senior season, Ott impacted all aspects of the Cougars roster. Per quarterback Kyle Crum, who now plays at San Diego State, Ott was lethal in the passing game. He was also used as the punter, where he had the “green light” to take off when a crease opened.

“(Ott) was a playmaker for us,” Crum said. “The type of guy where we run the ball right up the middle, trying to get a third-and-1, and he takes it to the house for 60 yards.”

Ott’s status as a highly-touted recruit continued. He finished as 247Sports’ No. 23 running back in the 2022 class and had his pick between schools like Colorado, Oregon State, UCLA, USC, BYU and Oregon. Ott was committed to the Ducks for about a year before decommitting in June 2020.

Following his senior season, Ott chose the Golden Bears and enrolled in the spring. The transition was seamless. He eclipsed 100 rushing yards in his first college game, helping Cal to a 17-point win over UC Davis.

Three games later in his Pac-12 debut, Ott went nuclear. The freshman ran for 274 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Arizona, cementing himself as a top running back in the conference. He finished his freshman campaign with 1,218 all-purpose yards, 11 touchdowns and Freshman All-American honors.

His success continued as a sophomore. Ott took his film sessions more seriously than ever. According to Ifanse, Ott broke down the opponents’ defense quarter by quarter to see how their effort changed throughout a game.

With the added expertise, Ott became more dangerous, scoring in 10-of-12 games he played in. No performance was bigger than Cal’s matchup against USC and future No. 1 National Football League Draft pick Caleb Williams.

Ilana Zahavy | Design Editor

In a classic Pac-12 shootout, the Trojans outlasted the Golden Bears 50-49. Ott paced Cal throughout the game, though, racking up 153 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

“It just seemed like he was on fire and was doing anything and everything he wanted to with the USC defense,” Ifanse said of Ott’s performance against USC. “When he’s playing in the game, he’s just relaxed, locked in.”

Ott, despite being only a sophomore at the time, also became a governing voice in the running back room. Ifanse joined the Golden Bears in 2023 following four seasons at Montana State, where he became the all-time leading rusher in program history. Ifanse said Ott didn’t look at his transfer as competition, making the competition within each other rather than against each other.

This year, Ott hasn’t been at full strength. He’s played in just 6-of-9 games in 2024 and totaled 10 or fewer carries three times. Yet, he’s still made his presence known in the passing game, notching three or more receptions in five games.

The injuries have hindered his career totals compared to the rest of the field. However, his 2023 rushing total of 1,305 yards was the seventh-best single-season mark in program history. Entering Saturday’s game, Ott has 2,381 career yards, just 118 outside of cracking Cal’s top 10 list.

He still has a ways to go before being among the all-time greats in program history. But with time to spare and an eventual NFL Draft selection looming, Ott is well on his way.

“It’s hard to compare anybody to Marshawn Lynch and the success that he’s had. But I think Jaydn has a high potential,” Chastain said.

Published on November 13, 2024 at 11:02 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky