It feels like we can definitively say after two years of Dan Lanning’s tenure with the Oregon Ducks that three things are true — the head coach is incredibly loyal, he’s an elite recruiter, and there are few people in the nation better at utilizing the transfer portal than him.
On Thursday, he proved all three of those things. The day started with Lanning delivering a message to Duck fans saying that he was planning to stay in Eugene and not take the head coaching job for the Alabama Crimson Tide. It ended with Lanning getting a massive commitment from former Texas A&M wide receiver Evan Stewart, the No. 2 rated player in the transfer portal this year.
Stewart comes to Oregon as a former 5-star recruit from the class of 2022, where he was the No. 1 WR and No. 6 overall player in the nation. He racked up 91 catches for 1,163 yards and 6 touchdowns in his two years, and now he comes to Eugene with two years of eligibility remaining and projects to be one of the starting receivers for the Ducks.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Lanning add some top-rated portal players to the roster, whether it was Bo Nix, Jordan Burch, or Christian Gonzalez.
So where does Stewart rank among the 29 (non-specialist) Oregon transfers in the Lanning era? There are two ways to look at it. For starters, you can take into account the 247Sports transfer portal rankings. However, those rankings don’t always match what we see play out on the field. For instance, Bo Nix was a three-star prospect in the portal, but he finished his college career as a Heisman Trophy finalist in New York.
For good measure, I added my own rankings based on how good each player ended up being in Eugene.
Let’s take a look at the 25 best transfers that the Ducks have landed since Lanning has been here, and see where Stewart lands: