30Duck Moderator No. 1 Share Posted yesterday at 02:11 PM See Post No. 6 below for the new strategy, and refer to this post for current rankings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have become one of those who wait until the season starts to consider recruiting. But this isn't what we have come to consider the New Normal when it comes to recruiting. One thing that makes it a little better about Oregon being No.27 is who is at No.26. 2026 Recruit Football Team Rankings 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan2785 No. 2 Share Posted 22 hours ago It is concerning that we see USC at the top with Oregon struggling to keep hold of recruits. It's not something to be panicking about, I'm sure some of the Trojan recruits will back out, recruiting can be a roller coaster, but it is concerning to see Oregon either striking out on recruits or not being able to hold on to them. Things could look completely different in about 4 months, but it's not a good start at all so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 3 Share Posted 22 hours ago See you in December, see you when the class is signed. There are many talented players out there who have not 'committed' to date and who have OBD on their radar. With close to unregulated free agency in CFB, I'm happy that Dan and Division Street are not throwing a ridiculous amount of money at recruits who have not played a down of college football. Leave the profligate spending to folks in South Beach and South Central. OBD signed two former SC players who will start in 2025. How many of the 22 SC 'commits' will see the field this season? Not many. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllOregon No. 4 Share Posted 21 hours ago At this stage, quality is focus vs quantity in the “scores”. Avg grade, UO is #4. Things will shift. Take Bama who is #41 overall as that score includes quantity. But quality avg grade they are #2. This is like saying a baseball team ahead at the bottom of the 2nd inning is gonna always win. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Author Moderator No. 5 Share Posted 21 hours ago Right now, I don't care if USC is No.1, lack of talent hasn't been the problem, it's what Riley has done with it. He's had 2 Heisman winning QB's, no CFP's. The regular's are up on top, OBD is usually there too, but they and Texas are floundering at the moment. If Oregon is still at the bottom after signing day, that isn't good, but with the portal, NIL, recruiting is as fluid as ever. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 6 Share Posted 20 hours ago Over at 247, the principals there just revealed what they believe is the adjusted recruiting strategy for Oregon Football, and it below.. "It sounds like Division Street, Oregon's sports programs, the AD, and other various NIL outlets have started to shift their NIL focus from paying for high school prospects large sums of money but instead spending large chunks of their money to keeping its current talent on roster beyond the current season, and then hitting the transfer portal. I believe in this move and think in the long run it will pay off for the Ducks, but time will tell there." It is possible that they anticipate new maximum levels attached to NIL, and thus are adjusting to it now and not have to alter NIL contracts and deal with that aftermath later? I also wonder if they are now fully realizing their positioning in the CFB food-chain, in that even if there are few good transfers available at a given position, such as offensive line--that they will be able to attract what they want from the portal such as this year's Nevada OT Isaiah World, USC OG Emmanuel Pregnon, and Texas State OT Alex Harkey? (Whew!) Are you better off spending enormous amounts for an unproven, inexperienced HS player or star transfer at that position? I think it is obvious, and perhaps my attitude towards portal QBs might be seeping over to other positions? To pull this off--you have to be very aware of what you can truly attract from the portal, and I gotta say...Lanning and staff have been elite at evaluating, recruiting, and coaching up those who come to us from the portal. 1 2 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 7 Share Posted 19 hours ago Below is another take that makes sense considering Oregon has a Blue-Chip roster that is primarily young... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Quote:..."shift their NIL focus from paying for high school prospects large sums of money but instead spending large chunks of their money to keeping its current talent on roster beyond the current season, and then hitting the transfer portal" That's not a viable long term plan. If you don't keep bringing in high level talent, 2-3 years later there aren't enough guys left worth paying that big money. Which makes me think this is a short or medium term strategy, reacting to an unbalanced roster. Unbalanced rosters aren't the worst thing. Michigan loaded up on older guys to win in 2023. tOSU wasn't that different in 2024. This could be us preparing for something similar in 2026. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This could be an "Oregon" strategy for now? It makes sense to tailor your planning to your roster, what you have in NIL funding, and where you believe legislation is going? 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 8 Share Posted 19 hours ago On 5/29/2025 at 11:09 AM, Charles Fischer said: To pull this off--you have to be very aware of what you can truly attract from the portal, and I gotta say...Lanning and staff have been elite at evaluating, recruiting, and coaching up those who come to us from the portal. Absolutely. And Lanning and Co have pulled the best out of the portal repeatedly. There aren't many quality linemen who enter the portal but Oregon has taken the lion's share of them since the portal era started. Getting high schoolers to Oregon is always going to be difficult. We lose to distance, mom, and the girlfriend far more often than we win. So we gotta use the portal. Lanning has shown that he can take a transfer player and elevate their draft stock. Nix is case and point. He went from undrafted to a first round pick. Gabriel went from probably undrafted to a 3rd round pick. With his height disadvantage! Come to Oregon and get elevated and further developed. 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeotechDuck No. 9 Share Posted 17 hours ago I don't usually worry to much about missing on guys here and there. However, there has been a clear shift in strategy over the past 4 months, with Oregon losing 4 and 5* commits and consistently missing on high end prospects. This is becoming a trend and is very concerning. As David pointed out above and I agree with, it is challenging to get recruits to Eugene. But Oregon had built an advantage in two areas...brand and money. Oregon had the funds to compete with the big boys in the NIL game, and now they are going to pull back? I think that is a massive mistake. Losing out of Greene and Cantwell is huge and extremely disappointing. If you have money to spend on recruiting, those are the two guys you really needed. You can try and live off portal talent for OL play, but I am not sure that will get you to the promised land. Here is an excellent article posted by Smith 72 on why consistently, talent, and experience playing in a system with the same teammates for several years is so critical to the success of OLs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
