How Ducker’s recruiting visit sold him on Memphis
All Jay Ducker needed was one look at Memphis’ football facilities. When he visited the Tigers in January, the sophomore was in awe of the indoor practice facility and multiple outdoor fields.
“I saw all this and I’m like, this is a Group of Five (school)?” Ducker said. “The Northern Illinois facilities were nice but it doesn’t have three practice fields. The nutrition center here is nice, too.”
Of course, the Nebraska native didn’t only commit based on buildings or turf. But it didn’t hurt along with the Tigers’ history of sending running backs to the NFL.
When he hit the transfer portal in December, Ducker was excited when Memphis reached out. The Tigers quickly moved to his top four suitors.
“Right off the top of my head, I’m thinking RBU,” he said, referring to the nickname of Running Back University to top running back programs. “Their past five to six running backs have gone to the league so I knew that was a good spot.”
The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Ducker left
Northern Illinois after being named MAC Freshman of the Year for his 1,184yard season. He’s no stranger to success after leaving Bellevue West High School in Omaha, Nebraska, as the state’s alltime leader with 110 rushing touchdowns.
Bellevue coach Michaell Huffman said Ducker wasn’t just a star on the field, he was well prepared in meetings. He’d be curious where other players lined up so he could set up his cuts or bring a whiteboard to meetings as extra help in diagramming plays.
“He’s not the biggest, fastest or strongest,” Huffman said.
“But when you combine what he has with his intelligence and his unbelievable cutting ability, it makes it even better and I think that’s why he was so prolific.”
Ducker joins a crowded competition at running back with players returning. He said it factored in his decision to pick
Memphis because he wanted to get better surrounded by a veteran group.
Ducker also is motivated from how he left Northern Illinois. Despite his success, he had conflict with some coaches who he felt weren’t telling the truth about his progress.
“There were some problems with the position coaches and there was a story that they started telling that was a false narrative of what happened,” Ducker said. “I thought, shoot, if you’re going to lie about that, I don’t what else (you might say). It was just like, yeah, I’m going to get out of here.”
Memphis not only presented a fresh start but a chance to be part of another turnaround. Ducker saw Northern Illinois go winless in 2020 to nine wins last season and a MAC championship. He wants the same for the Tigers.
He’s no longer dazzled by the Tigers facilities because he’s spent more time inside them trying to get better. But a change of scenery doesn’t hurt as he hopes to help improve the Tigers’ running attack.
“Six and six is probably a good year for some teams and I just know at Memphis, you’re not OK being 6-6 and I’m not OK with that so it’s going to go up and that’s what we want,” Ducker said.