EUGENE - Jonathan Stewart has left a clear mark on the Oregon football program since his arrival on campus in 2005 as one of the most highly touted players in the country.

The junior running back’s 2007 season has been one for the record books, though overshadowed by quarterback Dennis Dixon’s run at the Heisman Trophy before the senior’s season-ending knee injury earlier this month.

The list of Stewart’s accomplishments — following a slow start in his freshman season — is seemingly unending.

Earlier this fall, Stewart had a stretch of seven games in which he ran for more than 100 yards, including 251 on 32 carries in a road win at Washington on Oct. 20.

Oregon’s 465-yard rushing total for that game is a single-game school record.

Stewart has 2,036 all-purpose yards entering Saturday’s Civil War game against Oregon State, also a single-season school mark.

But Stewart hit a roadblock last Saturday, managing just 33 yards on 13 carries in a 16-0 loss at UCLA. The Bruins, knowing the Ducks needed to lean on Stewart, clogged the line of scrimmage.

Though Dixon went down against Arizona a week earlier, Stewart still came up with 131 yards on 28 carries.

Oregon, averaging better than 270 yards rushing (and ranked fifth nationally) entering the Arizona game, had just 43 on 13 attempts against the Bruins.

“Jonathan has played as well as any running back in the country, in my opinion,” said first-year Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. “I really think he’s had a tremendous (season). I know he was banged up a little Saturday (against UCLA) but he played like a warrior.”

Stewart’s stellar 2007 season so far has carried him to other marks as well.

Stewart has the Oregon individual career record for most games (12) with at least 100 yards rushing. The previous record was held by Saladin McCullough, Sean Burwell, Derek Loville and Bobby Moore.

He’s also 38 yards short of becoming Oregon’s single-season rushing leader. McCullough holds the current record with 1,343, set in 1997.

Stewart’s seven 100-yard rushing games this season are one short of McCullough’s single-season school record set in 1997.

And there’s more games — two — to add to that resume. That starts Saturday at Autzen Stadium.

Senior offensive tackle Geoff Schwartz said he and his fellow linemen take pride in helping Stewart.

“We just have to finish strong,” he said. “You don’t want to look back and say ‘what happened?’ You want to look forward and say ‘what do we he have to do this week?’ and keep him going.”

Keeping Stewart going will mean fending off an Oregon State defense that will likely be keying on the run given Oregon’s current quarterback situation is in disarray.

“It’s our job to make holes and get holes for him and we’re going to keep doing that,” Schwartz said.