Tag: Oregon recruiting

The Oregon Ducks have had a strong start to the 2024 recruiting cycle, with the No. 8 class already in the 247Sports national rankings. There’s a good chance that it’s going to get even better, with a recent ratings boost for one commit, and one primary target coming down the pipeline over the last week.

According to the On3 rankings, Oregon OT Fox Crader received a nice boost in the national rankings. The 4-star prospect has moved up to No. 72 overall in the 2024 class, when he was previously ranked at No. 146, per On3. Per the 247Sports Composite rankings, Crader is listed as the No. 315 player in the nation.

Oregon commit OT Fox Crader was another major mover in the new On300 as he jumped a whopping 146 spots into the top 75 in the country. Crader, who hails from the Pacific Northwest, grew into his frame as a junior playing in a 6-foot-6, 285-pound frame, and turning a corner and setting the temp at left tackle for Vancouver (Wash.) Evergreen. Crader is a first off the bus type of player, and in spite of size and length, is nimble and very mobile. The future Duck thrives off a physical style and run blocks at a high level. Crader’s ability to hold up in pass pro isn’t far off either, as one of several really intriguing tackles in this class.

Fox committed to Oregon back in November of 2021, but has had some interesting developments in his recruitment since. The 4-star Washington OT recently received offers from the Georgia Bulldogs and Pittsburg Panthers, a pair of schools where he plans to take visits to this coming spring and summer.

As for Justin Williams, a 4-star LB who is currently favored to land with the Ducks according to 247Sports’ Crystal Ball Predictions, a big jump in the rankings was seen as well. Williams is all the way up to No. 39 per On3’s rankings, where he previously sat at No. 103.

Linebacker Justin Williams is one of the nation’s best athletes at the position and was among the biggest risers in this 2024 On300. The District Defensive Player out of the Year out of Conroe (Texas) Oak Ridge in North Houston, Williams rose up 65 spots into the top 40 nationally as plagued opposing offensive play-callers much of last fall. The uber-athletic middle backer has special speed to get sideline to sideline and continuously flies to the ball. Williams reads and reacts at a high rate, and is a sure-tackler capable of providing some jaunting pops on occasion. The Texas linebacker has a knack for ripping balls loose and can be an effective pass-rush piece and is proven at clogging up running lanes. Oregon is the favorite early on the RPM for one of the nation’s best defenders.

According to the 247Sports Composite Ranking, Williams is the No. 37 ranked player in the nation.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f27mq9z7hjgk6vc6 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]

At this point in the sporting calendar, while college football fans across the nation are anxiously waiting for spring football to start in a matter of weeks, we often try to project how the top teams in the nation are going to look at the start of next season.

It’s an easy rabbit hole to get sucked into, looking at past performance, recruiting rankings, returning production, and incoming transfers, all of which help us formulate an opinion on who we think is going to be the best in the upcoming season. For the Oregon Ducks, those aforementioned categories are all fun to talk about, since Eugene has been home to some very successful football over the years, with a bright future ahead thanks to elite recruiting and encouraging transfers added to the mix.

What’s encouraging about the 2023 season, though, is that it could feature one of the most talented rosters we’ve ever seen at Oregon. It’s hard to quantify talent, but one of the best ways is to look back at recruiting rankings and go from there. Of course, some of the best players in Oregon history were not highly-rated recruits — take Marcus Mariota or Justin Herbert, for example — so predicting success based on a 247Sports score is not a perfect practice. However, if you look at some of the top recruits in Oregon history — Kayvon Thibodeaux, Haloti Ngata, Jonathan Stewart, etc. — then you can see that it offers at least a solid representation of perceived talent.

For this exercise, we looked at Oregon’s current roster heading into spring football and took a look at how many of them fall in the top 100 of Oregon’s all-time recruiting list.

Again, it doesn’t offer a perfect picture of how good the Ducks can be in 2023, since some of the players who we expect to be the biggest impact players may not have been highly-rated recruits, but it does show that Oregon’s current roster is among the most talented we’ve ever seen in Eugene.