Brandon Smith has only been in Eugene for a short time, but the freshman running back is already creating a buzz inside Oregon’s building. On Tuesday morning, that buzz got a whole lot louder when sophomore Dierre Hill Jr. reached for one of the biggest comparisons possible: Saquon Barkley.
Hill didn’t dance around the question when asked who Smith reminds him of.
"I guess you could say probably Saquon Barkley. That's kind of the thing we've been saying in our room," Hill said when asked who Smith reminded him of.
"He wears 26 and has kind of the stride of Saquon. I would probably say Saquon if I had to say someone."
That’s the kind of praise that turns heads fast. Barkley is one of the NFL’s most explosive backs, a player who lives near the top of the rushing leaderboard year after year. Smith may not be a finished product yet, but he’s already forcing people around Oregon to take notice.
At 6-foot and 203 pounds, the freshman from Fresno has used a strong August camp to put himself in position to help right away. Hill said the reason is pretty simple: Smith has shown speed, toughness and a quick grasp of what Oregon wants from him.
"He's very very very good for a young back," Hill added. "He came in and learned things very fast, runs hard and just has the edge.
He wants to be here. You can tell by how he practices."
Smith’s practice work has been drawing compliments from more than one teammate. Last week, linebacker Devon Jackson gave an especially vivid account of what Smith had done in a recent session.
"I ain't gonna lie, he torched us yesterday," Jackson began. "He scored like three times, had what felt like 300 yards. He embarrassed us yesterday.
"He's a really good player. That's somebody if he puts his head down and works, he's going to be a good player for us for sure."
Still, Oregon isn’t rushing to turn preseason hype into instant expectations. Offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer said last week that freshmen often need time, even the ones who flash early.
"Dierre Hill is a great example of a freshman running back who, at the time, wasn't exactly sure where he was at mentally. He continued to grow.
They're not polished products by Game 1," Mehringer explained. "As much as we'd like them to be polished products by Game 1, very rarely do you get one of those.
"[Smith and fellow freshman running back Tradarian Ball ] have got issues they've got to fix and areas they've got to develop, but they're working on them," he continued. "We're all really excited about where those guys are and continuing to push them to grow.
The older running backs in that room have a really good culture of pushing each other... They demand effort and strain and things like that.
I think that's pushed those young running backs along further than they probably would have been otherwise."
Smith entered Oregon as the lower-rated of the two freshman running backs in the class, but he still arrived with plenty of credentials. The 4-star prospect was ranked the No. 17 running back in the 2026 class and the 33rd best player in California by 247Sports.
No. 2 Oregon opens against Boise State on Saturday at 12:30 PM at Autzen Stadium, with the game set for CBS.
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