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It is always interesting when there are massive changes in a way-too-early top 25 between February and April. What are you basing those changes on?
While spring football is taking place across the country and position battles are starting to take shape, every team in the nation is still in a rebuilding mode that should have their array of outcomes in the fall pretty expansive.
For the Oregon Ducks, that is certainly true, especially with the entirely new coaching staff taking over in Eugene and working to get a young roster ready to compete.
Recently, ESPN put out a new edition of its way-too-early top 25, and the Ducks dropped noticeably. In January, before Lanning worked wonders in the recruiting world and built Oregon’s class to what is now the No. 13 group in the nation, per 247Sports, the Ducks ranked No. 12 in ESPN’s poll.
On Thursday, ESPN dropped them to No. 16.
Oregon Ducks — No. 16
Previous ranking: 12
2021 record: 10-4 (7-2 Pac-12)
Returning starters: 6 offense, 7 defense, 2 special teams
Key departures: DE Kayvon Thibodeaux, CB Mykael Wright, CB DJ James, QB Anthony Brown, WR Devon Williams, G George Moore, S Verone McKinley III, RB Travis Dye
Key additions: QB Bo Nix, DL Sam Taimani, CB Christian Gonzalez, WR Chase Cota, DL Jordon Riley, LB Devon Jackson, ATH Jalil Tucker, DE Gracen Halton, S Trejon Williams, OL Josh Conerly Jr.Spring Update: New Ducks coach Dan Lanning, a former defensive coordinator at Georgia, has spent the spring installing new schemes on both sides of the ball. Nix, who started three seasons at Auburn, has been working with the No. 1 offense. He will continue to battle Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield for the starting quarterback job. Dye transferred to Southern California, so sophomores Byron Cardwell, Seven McGee and Sean Dollars are competing for carries. The Ducks added some beef up front on defense in Taimani (6-foot-2, 330 pounds) and Riley (6-foot-6, 310 pounds). Gonzalez, a two-year starter at Colorado, should help in the secondary, where three of four starters departed.
No hate on ESPN, but there are some factual inaccuracies that need to be corrected. For starters, Seven McGee is listed as a member of the backfield, when he has moved to wide receiver. Also, Bo Nix has not been working with the “No. 1 offense,” but rather rotating through each offensive group while a depth chart is still in the works. ESPN also listed that the Ducks added DE Gracen Halton, who committed to Oklahoma on national signing day, and earlier in the rankings, they added WR Justius Lowe as a new addition to the Utah Utes, despite his commitment to Oregon in February.
There was also no mention of four-star running back Jordan James, four-star cornerback Jahlil Florence or four-star WR Kyler Kasper in the additions for the Ducks.
Despite this, it’s clear the worldwide leader in sports is not as high on the Ducks as it once was. However, it is certainly buying stock in a couple of other Pac-12 schools. The Utah Utes and USC Trojans skyrocketed up the rankings. Here is where those teams landed…