EUGENE – To begin with, the plan worked well enough.

A group of teenagers were gathered in a suburban Phoenix garage with two cars. One had gas. One needed gas. They hit on the idea of using a vacuum cleaner to siphon.

When they stopped and stepped out of the garage, nobody turned off the vacuum.

Dion Jordan, maybe the top college football prospect that year in Arizona, went back inside and pulled the plug. A tiny spark escaped the socket and Jordan’s entire world changed.

“The vacuum cleaner exploded in front of me,” he says.

Jordan staggered outside, skin on his arms and legs burned to a crisp, hair singed, his body in shock.

He was airlifted to a hospital, third-degree burns covering 40 percent of his body.

Even as Jordan was rushed from the helicopter through the hospital doors, he began flexing his fingers.

“The first thing I said was, ‘I can move my hands,’” Jordan says. “As long as I can move my hands I’m good.”

What followed was

of courage, perseverance, faith and will that led Jordan to the University of Oregon, a football scholarship and starring role on the Ducks’ defense.

The No. 9 Ducks (4-1, 2-0) play No. 18 Arizona State (5-1, 3-0) Saturday in a 7:15 p.m. Pac-12 football game (ESPN), and the 6-foot-7, 240-pound Jordan is having a breakout season.

He replaced the departed Kenny Rowe as Oregon’s starting drop end, a hybrid position that is half defensive end, half linebacker.

“He can run about a 4.5 or something,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said of Jordan’s 40-yard speed. “He can come off the edge as a rusher. He can cover guys in space. He can cover in a zone. He’s big enough to set the edge on a run. He just has the whole package.”

In Oregon’s two Pac-12 games, Jordan has 11 tackles, 4.5 for loss, and 1.5 sacks.

All of which means, Jordan has come a long way from that October night in 2007, when he was in critical condition, the

and on television,

praying for him.

“The day before I was actually playing one of the best games I had in my high school career,” Jordan says. “To come from being on the field one night and then waking up in a hospital bed, that was a reality check. …

“At first, I was really scared. I was like, ‘Wow.’ I was just shocked that it happened to me. Because you never expect something like that to happen.”

Jordan had a month in a burn unit, and another one-and-a-half weeks of in-patient rehabilitation to piece some things together.

“I was looking around while I was in the hospital,” he says. “I noticed there were a lot of people, and I was more fortunate than lot of their situations. That’s when it really came to me that I had to appreciate this gift God was blessing me with.”

Jordan needed skin grafts on his left leg. But his burns elsewhere healed without help, which was unexpected.

He had to relearn how to walk. As he did he promised himself he would run someday soon.

“I enjoyed playing sports with my friends, going to class every day, doing those little things that you get to do when you’re a teenager,” Jordan says. “I wanted all of it back. So whatever they told me what I needed to do, I made sure I did it.”

By spring,

hurdling, running the relays, long jumping and triple jumping, throwing the shot and discus, just happy to be upright and whole.

Former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti and former UO assistant Robin Pflugrad never wavered on the scholarship offer, and Jordan arrived in Eugene in 2008 as a freshman receiver.

In short order, he bounced from receiver to tight end to defensive end, where he backed up starter Terrell Turner last season, to drop end this season.

“We’ve found his position,” Aliotti says.

The drop end usually lines up to the offensive weak side, meaning if Jordan comes on a pass rush, he isn’t fighting past a tight end.

“You get to mess with the offense’s head a little,” Jordan says. “They can’t tell what you’re doing. It’s the best of both worlds. You get to pass rush, get your head in there with the linemen. You also go out and play in space with the receivers, and get a chance to get your hands on the football.”

Not only is Jordan 6-7, his arms are so long he can almost touch a basketball rim without leaving his feet. He looks too spindly to be a defensive end.

“Don’t let the skinniness fool you,” linebacker Michael Clay says. “He is a strong guy. It’s hard to get into him because he has a seven-foot wingspan. When he was a tight end, I remember one play, he put me down. That was the strongest punch ever.”

Even more than size, athleticism and strength, effort sets Jordan apart.

Aliotti isn’t sure he’s ever seen take him take a play off, even in practice There is no quality UO defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro prizes more.

“All that other stuff, you can teach,” Azzinaro says. “It’s hard to teach guys to play hard.”

Sometimes life experience is the best teacher. Jordan realized as he lay bedridden in the burn unit, he had been given a second chance.

“It’s important to take care of the things you can take care of,” Jordan says. “Seize the opportunities and blessings we get every day.”

It’s one reason to get the most from each play in each practice. There is another.

During the difficult days as his burns healed slowly and painfully, Jordan never felt alone. Family members were constantly by his bedside. So were his coaches, his teammates, players from other schools.

“Everybody,” he says. “The whole state of Arizona. I feel like everybody had me in their prayers. Everybody looked out for me. I feel like that really is the main reason that I was so strong, because everybody around me was strong. I had to stay strong.”

He did. He is.

Because the freak accident four years ago doesn’t define him.

His recovery does.

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