Tag: jordan burch

Trio of Ducks, one former Oregon player crack Bruce Feldman’s ‘Freaks List’ for 2023

The Athletic’s ‘Freaks List’ is out for 2023. It features a trio of Ducks, one former Oregon player, and a 5-star recruit who unfortunately got away.

The Athletic’s ‘Freaks List’ written by Bruce Felman each and every year is among the most entertaining articles you will read leading up to the college football season. Like other publications, it doesn’t go through to top 100 players in the nation, regurgitating many of the names that we already know will have a big impact on the upcoming season.

Instead, Feldman goes through the 101 most physically outlandish “freaks” in college football. In his own words, the Freak’s List aims to “spotlight the players whose athleticism blew the minds of folks inside their own college football programs.”

A year ago, Oregon CB Christian Gonzalez was near the top of the list because of his length and speed. This year, a trio of Oregon Ducks made the cut for Feldman.

More than just those three Oregon players, though, there are a handful of other notable “freaks” for Duck fans to read about. Among them is one former Oregon Duck who transferred out of the program, a former 5-star recruit who Dan Lanning and Co. probably still have nightmares about losing, and a long list of Pac-12 players or guys who the Ducks will see on their 2023 schedule at some point or another.

Here are all of the “freaks” that you need to know about as an Oregon fan:

Meet the new Ducks: What UO transfers want Oregon fans to know about them

“Hard-working, dedicated, unselfish.” We asked Oregon’s incoming transfers what they want Duck fans to know about them. The answers didn’t disappoint.

The 2023 college football season unofficially kicked off on Monday afternoon for the Oregon Ducks with the annual media day taking place inside the club level at Autzen Stadium.

There, media members had a chance to sit down and talk to more than 40 of the players on the team and get their perspectives going into the new season. It offered an opportunity to talk to a handful of new players on the team for the first time.

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That’s what I was focused on. With more than 50 players on the roster wearing the green and yellow for the first time, I wanted to find out what Oregon fans who knew nothing about these players should know about them.

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What better source than the players themselves? I asked the incoming transfers — all but two of them I could get to due to interview scheduling — what they wanted Duck fans to know about them and who they are going into the season.

These are the answers I got.

The most important defensive linemen to know in the 2023 Pac-12 season

Flipping to the other side of the trenches, let’s look at the most important defensive linemen names to know in the Pac-12 this season.

As we continue our preview of the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 conference, we are going to shift our focus from individual teams to individual positions. The last several weeks have been spent picking apart each school out west, finding where they improved the most over the offseason, and identifying what realistic expectations should be for them going forward.

You can see them all here: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies — Washington State Cougars

Now, we’re going to look at position groups as a whole in the conference. Whether it’s a quarterback or a linebacker, a punter or a safety, there are dozens of highly talented players out west. We want to go through them all, position group by position group, and highlight some of the most important names that fans should know at each spot.

Quarterbacks — Wide Receivers — Running Backs — Tight Ends — Offensive Line

On Monday, I looked at the big boys up front, specifically, the best the Pac-12 has to offer down in the offensive trenches. Now, I’ll examine their opponents. The Pac-12 has just as much to offer in terms of pass-rushers and run-stoppers as it does protectors, and the amount of talent on both sides of the ball should make for fun battles on the line of scrimmage all year.

An interesting thing about this group is that it seems that the best defensive linemen are concentrated on a select few teams. Part of the reason for that may be that as a defensive lineman, you often need high-quality teammates to have high production yourself. If you don’t, the opposing offensive line will double- and triple-team you, reducing your value.

Here are my picks for the highest-impact defensive linemen in the 2023 Pac-12.

Oregon defender included in All-Transfer Team ahead of 2023 season

Oregon defender included in All-Transfer Team ahead of 2023 season

While Dan Lanning and his coaching staff get a ton of credit for the success that they’ve had in the world of recruiting over the past year and a half, what’s just as impressive is their ability to hit the transfer portal and add players who are ready to instantly impact the roster upon their arrival.

The Ducks have consistently ranked inside the top 10 of the national transfer portal rankings over the past year, and the long line of transfers to find success in Eugene — Bo Nix, Bucky Irving, Christian Gonzalez, and several others — is expected to continue to grow this coming season.

One of the top players that Lanning added via the portal this offseason is EDGE rusher Jordan Burch, a former 5-star player from South Carolina. Burch is expected to be among the top defenders for Oregon this season, and help alleviate the troubles they had finding a consistent pass-rush a year ago.

This past week, 247Sports named their 2023 ‘All-Transfer Team’ and Burch made the cut as one of the two edge defenders on the squad. Burch is one of four Pac-12 players to make the cut, joining UCLA RB Carson Steele, USC DL Bear Alexander, and Colorado CB Travis Hunter.

In 31 games at South Carolina, Burch racked up 105 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and 1 INT. He was rated as the No. 1 available player in the transfer portal before committing to Oregon earlier in the year.

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Duck defensive end Jordan Burch on Lott Impact Trophy watch list

Jordan Burch was named to the Lott Impact Trophy watch list, an award given to players who display on-field prowess, and off-field character.

When Jordan Burch announced he would be transferring from South Carolina and looking for another place to play, Oregon’s Dan Lanning was one of the first ones to get the former 5-star on the phone.

The Ducks needed to replace DJ Johnson, and it was celebrated when Burch said he was coming out west to play in Eugene. Oregon knew the on-the-field talent it was acquiring, but Burch is as impressive off the field as well.

He is on the watch list for the Ronnie Lott IMPACT Trophy, an award named for former San Francisco 49ers great and NFL Hall of Famer, Ronnie Lott.

According to the Pacific Club Foundation’s website, the award is “unique because it represents the first college football award to give equal weight to personal character as well as athletic performance from a defensive college player and is the first national college football award based on the West Coast.

“The IMPACT award is awarded annually to individuals who demonstrate excellence in the field of athletics and recognizes college football’s Defensive Player of the Year who best exemplifies the IMPACT acronym: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community, and Tenacity.

Burch battled injuries during his time at South Carolina, but he had a career season in 2022 with 60 tackles, 7.5 tackles for a loss, and 3.5 sacks.

Alabama’s Will Anderson, Jr. was the 2022 winner.

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Position Report Card: Grading Oregon position groups at start of spring football

Going into spring ball, how do we grade Oregon’s position groups? Here’s our pre-spring report card. Let’s revisit after the spring game.

After a two-week break, the Oregon Ducks are getting set to return to the football field this week, resuming spring practices as they get prepared for the annual Spring Game on April 29th.

There are endless storylines to follow over the coming weeks, and a number of questions to answer about the current roster and schemes. We’ve tried to dive into an early look at some of the biggest points over conversation already this spring, but as we get set for spring ball to get underway once again this week, I wanted to offer a grade for each position group based on early projections. We don’t have a big sample size for which we can go off of, but based on roster makeup and early expectations, this will be how I expect each group to grade out.

After the spring game, I will revisit these grades and update the report card for each position.

Let’s get started.

Where Oregon’s 2023 transfers rank among the nation’s top 150

The Ducks are well represented when it comes to the latest Top 150 transfer portal rankings from 247Sports.

Do you remember back to the end of the 2022 calendar year when the transfer portal window opened up and Oregon Duck fans started to feel a bit uneasy?

It’s understandable why, as a number of players on the current roster — like Byron Cardwell, Dont’e Thornton, Justin Flowe, and so on — announced they would be entering the transfer portal. Some thought that it showed players didn’t want to play at Oregon, while others realized that the Ducks were simply making way for a crop of players better suited to Dan Lanning’s system to come to Eugene.

It appears now that the latter half of thinkers were correct, with a birds-eye-view showing us that the talent level on Oregon’s roster has vastly improved this offseason.

The best way to see this is by looking at the latest transfer portal rankings from 247Sports. Of the 10 transfers that the Ducks added this offseason, 6 ranked inside the top 150. Contrarily, of the 22 players who transferred out of Eugene, only 2 ranked inside the top 150.

It’s not hard to do the math and see that Oregon got better.

So where did all of the Oregon players, both outgoing and incoming, rank among the 247Sports top 150? Let’s take a look.

Which transfers are going to have the biggest impact for Oregon in 2023?

The Ducks have added some of the top transfers in the nation this offseason. Which ones will have the biggest impact in 2023?

One of the most impactful changes in the world of college football over the last half-decade has been the introduction of the transfer portal, and the rule changes that make it so players can pick up and move teams while maintaining eligibility right away.

This allows a lot of freedom for coaches when it comes to roster building, and particularly new coaches who are trying to overhaul a roster in quick order.

For Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks, we’ve seen an incredible amount of turnover in the past two years. This offseason alone, the Ducks lost well over a dozen players via the transfer portal, but Lanning was able to replace them with 10 incoming transfers who he believes fit his scheme and type of play. These players, while new to the team, should be able to have an impact quickly in Eugene, working to make the Ducks major contenders in 2023 and beyond.

So of the 10 new players who have transferred to Oregon this year, which one will have the biggest impact right away for the Ducks? I think I’ve got a pretty good idea.

In new era of the transfer portal, Dan Lanning knows that relationships are king

In this new world of the transfer portal, building and maintaining relationships can pay off down the road. Nobody knows that as well as Dan Lanning.

By almost any measure, the Oregon Ducks had an incredibly successfully year when it comes to recruiting in the 2023 cycle. They finished with the No. 8 class in the nation, the second-highest-rated class the school has ever seen, and they had the top-ranked class in the Pac-12 for the fifth consecutive year.. Considering that this all took place in Dan Lanning’s first full year on the job, that’s pretty impressive.

And to be completely honest, it could have been a lot better as well.

The Ducks signed one 5-star player in 2023 — WR Jurrion Dickey — but they were incredibly close to landing a handful of others. Take QB Dante Moore, or DL David Hicks, for example. Or look at ATH Nyckoles Harbor, or S Peyton Bowen, or RB Richard Young. All of those teams had the Ducks among their top 2 or 3 schools before making a decision. Moore flipped to UCLA; Hicks chose Texas A&M; Harbor committed to South Carolina. Bowen actually chose the Ducks, but hours later changed his mind and flipped to Oklahoma.

The point is that Lanning and his team were in the hunt for a lot of these players, but couldn’t quite close down the stretch.

Many may see that as a negative, but if you want to wake up this morning and choose to be an optimist, you can easily see the silver lining in it all.

In today’s world of college football where the transfer portal is incredibly prevalent, a lot of players end up having multiple recruitments, and multiple commitments. After starting their college careers at one place, sometimes they find that it doesn’t suit them — whether it be the culture or the amount of playing time that they’re getting — and another school might fit them better. In the cases where that does happen, schools — and coaches — with the best relationships with those players often jump to the front of the line in the second round of recruiting.

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A perfect example of this is South Carolina defensive end Jordan Burch transferring to Oregon this offseason. Burch, a former 5-star DE, was recruited heavily out of high school, and one of the schools he strongly considered was the Georgia Bulldogs, with Lanning leading the charge.

The Bulldogs didn’t end up getting Burch, but Lanning had that relationship built, and it ended up paying off a couple of years down the road.

“I think that it just shows that you never know when a relationship might go full circle,” Lanning said when talking to media members on Signing Day. “I know his work ethic, I know his demeanor and his approach and having a strong relationship. You know, four years ago, you never realize it’s gonna pay off down the road and come full circle like I said, but then it gives us a chance to be better. I’m really excited about him being here.”

Might this be the start of a trend that we see take place at Oregon?

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Take someone like Hicks, who was rated by 247Sports as the No. 7 player and No. 1 DL in the 2023 class. He developed a great relationship with Lanning, and took multiple visits to Eugene over the course of his recruitment. My sources from within the program tell me that he really wanted to commit to the Ducks, but in the end, a push from his family to stay closer to home at Texas A&M ended up winning out.

What if he doesn’t like College Station as much as he thought, and decides to enter the transfer portal a year or two down the road? What’s stopped the Ducks from being the favorite to land him should that happen?

Of course, none of this matters unless the highly-rated players that Oregon missed on end up entering the transfer portal. But should that happen, and these guys end up looking for a new home down the road, I like where the Ducks stand.

Why?

Because Dan Lanning knows that in the world of recruiting, relationships are king.

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Where Oregon stands in 2023 transfer portal rankings after most recent additions

The Ducks have added a handful of potential starters to the roster via the transfer portal this offseason. Where do they stand in the national transfer rankings?

The Oregon Ducks have fared very well when it comes to talent acquisition under Dan Lanning and his coaching staff. Whether it be in the world of high school recruiting or getting players to join your team out of the transfer portal, it’s clear that there is an endless list of players who want to come to Eugene and hit the field.

While the Ducks made a big splash in the recruiting world during the early signing period, landing a pair of five stars and over two dozen other players, they’ve really done an incredible job when it comes to adding experienced players out of the portal, many of whom will likely compete for a starting spot on the roster from day one.

Most recently, we’ve seen guys like Jordan Burch, Evan Williams, and Tysheem Johnson commit to the Ducks, with a handful of other guys announcing their commitments back in December.

While there are still plenty of transfers to come, let’s take a moment now to see where the Ducks rank in the national transfer portal rankings for the 2023 off-season.