Tag: Oregon recruiting

5-star DL David Hicks announces college commitment

5-star David Hicks Jr., the No. 1 DL in the 2023 class, announced his college commitment on Friday.

The Oregon Ducks were in the running down until the final days, and while it seemed like Dan Lanning might be able to pull off another massive flip from a 5-star prospect, in the end, David Hicks ended up staying put and signing with the Texas A&M Aggies on Friday.

Hicks, the No. 1 DL in the 2023 class, has been committed to Texas A&M since September of 2022, but he had taken a total of four visits to Eugene over the past year, including two in the past month. There’s a belief that he badly wanted to play for Lanning and the Ducks, but pressures to stay closer to home ultimately won out in the end.

Despite the inability to land Hicks, Oregon is still sitting pretty after the early signing period, securing the No. 11 class in the nation with the addition of 5-star EDGE Matayo Uiagalelei on Wednesday, and the signing of 5-star WR Jurrion Dickey. The Ducks briefly got 5-star S Peyton Bowen to flip from Notre Dame to Oregon on Wednesday, but he later announced on Thursday that he would be flipping to the Oklahoma Sooners, who were also in play for Hicks.

David Hicks’ Recruiting Profile

Oregon’s early attack of transfer portal has Ducks ranked among best in the nation

The Ducks have landed 5 transfers that could be potential starters in 2023. So far, they’re utilizing the portal as well as anyone in the nation.

A lot of the general experience as a fan of college football has to do with rankings. Whether it be the Associated Press Top 25, the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, the College Football Playoff Rankings, or the ESPN Power Rankings, much of the discord in today’s era of college football is based on numbers that are calculated and updated each week of the season.

Heck, even in the offseason we now have numbers to opinionate on, with the growing importance of recruiting driving the national recruiting class rankings to the forefront of conversations. We are just coming to the end of the early signing period, and it wouldn’t shock me to find out that a large portion of the Oregon fanbase who considers themselves “locked in” to the recruiting world knows exactly where the Ducks stand in the 247Sports Composite Rankings after one of the best recruiting days in Oregon history.

Love it or hate it, rankings are a pillar of the sport. If you love it, I’ve got good news for you.

A new form of rankings is starting to pick up popularity amongst fans in college football.

Transfer portal rankings are starting to become ever more important. With a coach’s ability to remake the roster in a single offseason by hitting the portal and convincing ready-made players to come to their school and make an instant impact, it’s become extremely valuable to see which teams have been able to adapt the best and take advantage of the changing landscape where players are able to pick up and change schools on a whim.

“It’s the name of the game, right?” Lanning said early this offseason. “I mean, it’s that you gotta go out here and adapt. And I think right now in college football, one of the biggest things about college football is who can adapt the best and who can handle the adjustments that are required, and we’ve got a great staff that’s done a good job of that.”

The portal is a relatively sensitive subject depending on your audience, but it’s impossible to deny that Dan Lanning and the Ducks have been able to use it to their advantage. Last offseason, they added players like QB Bo Nix, RB Bucky Iriving, RB Noah Whittington, WR Chase Cota, and CB Christian Gonzalez — among others — to the roster, all of whom were absolutely critical components to the Ducks’ success.

So far this season, Lanning has already picked up commitments from Alabama WR Traeshon Holden, Alabama CB Khyree Jackson, Iowa LB Jestin Jacobs, Rhode Island OT Ajani Cornelius, and Texas OL Junior Angilau.

I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that some if not all of those players will be meaningful contributors for the Ducks in 2023. I would be willing to bet even more that Lanning isn’t done in the portal yet either.

So after those five additions to the roster, where do the Ducks stand compared to the other active portal teams in the nation? Let’s take a look.

Where the newest Ducks rank amongst Oregon’s highest-rated commits in school history

5-stars Jurrion Dickey and Matayo Uiagalelei join the Ducks as some of the top-rated recruits in school history. Where do they rank among Oregon’s best?

The Oregon Ducks have had an eventful week, with the long run-up to a dramatic signing day that landed one of the top recruiting classes in school history.

At the moment, the Ducks have the No. 11 recruiting class in the nation, with a chance that it could get a lot better before all is said and done. They signed a pair of 5-star players on Wednesday while flipping three 4-stars and making waves across the recruiting landscape.

In the end, it left Lanning with a couple of the best players to sign with the Ducks in program history with Jurrion Dickey and Matayo Uiagalelei.

So where do they rank among the best of the best to ever commit to the Ducks? Let’s take a look:

SIGNED: 4-star JUCO OL George Silva is officially a Duck

4-star George Silva, the No. 1 JUCO OT in the 2023 class, is headed to Eugene.

His name may not draw the same buzz as a Kadyn Proctor or Ajani Cornelius on the recruiting trail, but the Oregon Ducks just got one of the best available offensive linemen in this 2023 class.

4-star JUCO OL George Silva signed his national letter of intent with the Ducks, joining Adrian Klemm and Co. in Eugene.

Silva is rated by 247Sports as the No. 1 JUCO OT in the 2023 class, and the No. 3 JUCO player overall. While he may be rarely talked about in the recruiting world, it’s clear that there are few linemen with as high of a ceiling as someone like Silva.

Standing at 6-foot-7, 295 pounds, Silva is a big body that OL coach Adrian Klemm can work with to potentially get into the starting lineup in 2023 and beyond.

George Silva’s Signing Day Profile

5-star Peyton Bowen issues statement to Duck fans after controversial recruiting flip

5-star safety Peyton Bowen issued a statement to Oregon and Notre Dame fans after his wild recruitment ends with a flip to Oklahoma.

On Wednesday morning, 5-star safety Petyon Bowen made waves in the recruiting world when he announced that he would be flipping his commitment from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and instead be joining the Oregon Ducks.

Early on Thursday afternoon, Bowen once again made waves in the recruiting world, this time by announcing that he would be flipping his commitment from the Ducks and instead signing with the Oklahoma Sooners.

What a wild ride it has been.

While Oregon faithful were riding high on Wednesday after landing the massive flip, anxiety levels started to raise near the end of the day when it became clear that the Ducks were still waiting on Bowen’s national letter of intent to come through.

That wait carried through the night into Thursday morning, when it became more clear that Bowen, the No. 2 safety in the 2023 class and No. 14 overall player in the nation, was leaning towards the Sooners, his second flip in less than 24 hours.

At 12:42 p.m. PT on Thursday Bowen made it official.

The 5-star safety issued a statement to both Oregon and Notre Dame fans after the announcement, saying in part:

Soon after choosing Oregon yesterday morning, I came to the realization that the decision was not the best path for me. I immediately started to rethink my future.

Oregon and Notre Dame faithful, I am sorry for how I handled this process. Changing my decision on signing day, the hat pump fake, all of it could have been handled better. I can’t change what I did but this experience is something that I will learn from.

Here is the full statement from Bowen:

BREAKING: 5-star Peyton Bowen flips to Oklahoma, retracting Oregon commitment

After making waves on Wednesday and flipping from Notre Dame to Oregon, 5-star Peyton Bowen will now sign with Oklahoma in wild twist.

For as high as the Oregon fanbase was when 5-star safety Peyton Bowen announced his commitment to Dan Lanning and the Ducks on Wednesday morning, flipping from Notre Dame, that’s probably as low as they feel right now.

Bowen announced on Thursday that he plans to sign with the Oklahoma Sooners, going back on his commitment to Oregon and choosing a team who didn’t seem to even be among his final two options at his commitment announcement. When Bowen made his decision on Wednesday, there were two hats on the table for him to choose from; Notre Dame and Oregon. While Oklahoma was pushing hard for him down the stretch, it had appeared that they fell out of the running.

In the end, the Sooners got the last laugh.

Concerns of this being the case started to come out on Wednesday afternoon when Bowen’s letter or intent had failed to make its way to Eugene a few hours after the commitment. As fans continued to wait for the official announcement that Bowen had signed with Oregon, concern grew at a rapid rate.

Multiple reports throughout the evening showed that Bowen was potentially still weighing his options, and in the end it appears that he had a change of heart and ended up going with Brent Venables and the Sooners, staying close to home.

This is a tough blow for Dan Lanning and his squad, who otherwise won the day in the recruiting world on Wednesday.

Peyton Bowen’s Recruiting Profile

SIGNED: 4-star defensive end Blake Purchase is officially a Duck

Oregon believes it may have signed the next great Duck linebacker with the No. 1 recruit in Colorado Blake Purchase.

Oregon is quickly making it a habit of signing the No. 1 recruit out of Colorado. First, it was tight end Terrence Ferguson. Now it’s linebacker Blake Purchase.

The Ducks will definitely have a need at linebacker in 2023 and definitely in 2024. Noah Sewell might be gone after this season, Justin Flowe transferred, Iowa transfer Jestin Jacobs has just one year of eligibility left as does Mase Funa.

So there is a spot that could be ripe for the taking for Purchase. In his three seasons on the varsity level, Purchase has been credited with 158 tackles and 38 sacks. With a little more weight, he could turn into an edge rusher for the Oregon defense.

 

BREAKING: 2024 4-star WR Jordan Anderson commits to Oregon

In a surprise announcement, 4-star 2024 WR Jordan Anderson has committed to the Ducks.

It appears that Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks didn’t have enough fun with all of the fireworks to close out the 2023 recruiting class on Wednesday as the early signing period opened up. They decided to wake up on Thursday and get the show back on the road once again.

4-star wide receiver Jordan Anderson, the No. 13 WR and No. 83 overall player in the 2024 class, announced that he would be committing to the Ducks on Thursday morning. From Long Beach, California, Anderson stands at 6 feet tall, and 165 pounds. He has been on mul; tiple visits to Oregon over the past year and is obviously intrigued by what the Ducks are doing on the recruiting front.

The Ducks were able to sign 5-star WR Jurrion Dickey and 4-star WR Ashton Cozart on Wednesday, as well as adding former Alabama WR transfer Traeshon Holden earlier this month. Now they have a great start to their WR core in the 2024 class as well.

Jordan Anderson’s Recruiting Profile

Dan Lanning and the Ducks were named the big winners of early signing day

Everyone agrees Oregon was a huge winner on Signing Day.

The world seemed to be ending when Dante Moore flipped his commitment from Oregon to UCLA earlier this week. But after what the Ducks were able to accomplish on Wednesday during the early signing period, Oregon fans didn’t seem to care about Moore going to Pasadena as much as they used to.

Instead, Dan Lanning pulled up his bootstraps and orchestrated the best single day of recruiting in Oregon history, and he is seemingly not quite finished.

But until more sign on, many of the recruiting services consider Oregon one of the big winners on signing day. According to writer Andrew Ivins of 247Sports:

Shortly after 8 a.m. on the East Coast, news broke that Top247 quarterback Austin Novosad was flipping from Baylor to Oregon. Most Ducks fans on the West Coast were probably asleep, but that’s OK because that Novosad flip was really just a preview for what was to come next.

In the span of roughly six hours, Oregon went from holding the nation’s No. 14-ranked recruiting class to the No. 7 class in the land as they beat out USC and Ohio State for five-star edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei before flipping both Top247 safety Peyton Bowen and four-star running back Jayden Limar from Notre Dame. Oregon is still waiting on Bowen’s LOI at time of this article. The Ducks were also able to pry Top247 cornerback Daylen Austin away from LSU.

Not a bad day at the office for Dan Lanning, who has Oregon in prime position to sign just its third top 10-ranked recruiting class in the past 10 years.

While the Ducks are riding high, in the famous words of Ace Ventura, “In every contest, there must be a loser.” According to Ivins, one of those losers is former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal.

“No program entered Wednesday hotter than the Miami Hurricanes; you could practically see the steam coming off Mario Cristobal,” Ivins writes. “This is a phenomenal class that includes two franchise offensive tackles and offers some much-needed momentum to those in the 305. However, what is currently the nation’s No. 4 recruiting class hangs in the balance — at least a little bit. The big headline of the day is that five-star cornerback Cormani McClain (the No. 9 recruit nationally) delayed signing his LOI.”

The Hurricanes still brought in a great class. It’s what you do with that class and classes after that is where it matters. The same goes for the Ducks and Lanning. Bringing in high-rated recruits is one thing, but if that doesn’t equal wins on the field, it won’t mean a whole lot.

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Where Ducks stand in 2023 national recruiting rankings following historic signing day

Where Ducks stand in 2023 national recruiting rankings following historic signing day

Coming into the day, the Oregon Ducks had the No. 14 ranked recruiting class in the nation with hopes of moving up a few spots to get close to the top 10 in Dan Lanning’s first year with the team.

There were a lot of great players already committed to the Ducks ready to sign, and a couple of nice pieces potentially considering a flip to Oregon. It was shaping up to be a successful day.

Then the fireworks started to come in.

Oregon hit early and often, flipping 4-star Baylor QB Austin Novosad before the sun came up, and then later flipping 5-star safety Peyton Bowen from Notre Dame not long before they landed 5-star EDGE Matayo Uiagalele over USC and Ohio State. The banner day continued with the flips of 4-star LSU CB Daylen Austin and 4-star Notre Dame RB Jayden Limar, and then the cherry on top of it all was a commitment from transfer OT Ajani Cornelius.

After all of that action, it’s safe to say the Ducks moved up quite a bit in the national recruiting rankings. Take a look at where they stand now, according to 247Sports.

Note: The rankings have been updated to reflect the decommitment of 5-star safety Peyton Bowen, who flipped from Oregon to Oklahoma on Thursday. Before that, the Ducks had the No. 7 ranked recruiting class in the nation.