The past couple of months of Oregon Football have certainly been eventful, all the while very little action took place on the field. A new coaching staff has been put into place, and a top-25 recruiting class has been signed. Meanwhile, highly-rated transfers have come to Eugene, and a few key players have left for new destinations.
For an Oregon fan, there are a lot of storylines to keep track of, and with Spring Practice starting on March 10th, we will likely get a few answers in the coming weeks. So which ones should you be paying the most attention to? We tried to help answer that question in our continuing Spring Preview by singling out a few and highlighting what makes them so interesting.
The True Freshmen Watch is On
The Oregon Ducks’ 2022 recruiting class definitely wasn’t the highest-rated that we’ve seen in recent memory, but it garnered a lot of excitement. To be up-front, the Ducks’ 25th-ranked class this year was their worst finish nationally since 2016 when they had the No. 27 overall class. Since then, Oregon has made it into the top-10 a pair of times and been inside the top-15 a total of four times. Despite that, the way that Dan Lanning closed on national signing day gave a burst of energy to the Oregon fanbase.
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A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Ducks’ class was ranked in the 70s after the departure of Mario Cristobal left for Miami. Lanning’s top crew of recruiters managed to build it back up, securing numerous flips from top-rated players like RB Jordan James and OL Dave Iuli, who chose the Ducks over Georgia and Miami, respectively.
Now with spring football on the horizon, we finally get to see some of these players in action.
Earlier this week, Ducks Wire has received confirmation that 4-star CB Jahlil Florence, 4-star WR Justius Lowe, 4-star LB Harrison Taggart, and 4-star ATH Anthony Jones will be enrolling early at Oregon and participating in spring ball, but we are waiting on confirmation from more players.
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While we don’t know the entire list of true freshmen to be enrolling early at Oregon, there has been a noticeable trend as of late that has seen high school seniors choose to graduate early and head off to college as soon as they can in order to get acclimated in the new lifestyle before the summer and football season begins. We saw that last season with QB Ty Thompson and WRs Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton, all of whom had impressive days during the Oregon Spring Game. So who will be the newcomers to have a big impact this year?
Without knowing the entire list just yet, it is impossible to say, but there are a number of recent recruits that we have high hopes for in 2022. Let’s touch on a few:
RB Jordan James
We are still waiting on confirmation from 4-star RB Jordan James as to whether or not he will be participating in the spring, but you can guarantee that he is going to attract a lot of eyes once he does finally hit the field in Eugene.
After flipping his commitment on national signing day and choosing the Ducks over the Georgia Bulldogs, there is a hope that he can develop into one of the feature backs for Oregon’s offense. That may not take place this year, with Byron Cardwell and Sean Dollars seemingly leading the way, but whatever we see from James early on will be newsworthy.