The past month has been an eventful one for the Ducks. Sadly, no one has committed, but they keep getting closer to their third recruit as everyday passes. Oregon has been active by offering more studs and by recruiting top talent hard enough to make the first cut of most recruits. Here are some of the major headlines over the last month.
Oregon Spring Game: Oregon hosted its Spring Game on April 30th and there were a lot of key recruits at this game. Here is the full list of visitors.
Billy Ross 3* OT: The West Virginia native was extended an offer about a month ago. The Huntington (WV) product has other offers from West Virginia, UNC, and Florida State. Ross is a big time lineman and Oregon proves that by offering a guy who is from the opposite coastline.
Riley Locklear 3* OT: The same day Ross was offered, Oregon offers fellow West Virginian, Riley Locklear. He is also an offensive tackle, but Locklear attends Spring Valley High School. West Virginia also seems to be the leader in his recruitment and he has other offers from: Florida State, Penn State, and Cal.
Trey Sermon 4* RB: A few days after the Oregon Spring Game, the Sprayberry running back ended his recruitment and committed to Oklahoma. Sermon had announced Oregon in his top six just a couple of weeks prior. Sermon would have been a big time get for the Ducks, especially since Oregon would be plucking him from SEC territory.
Rhedi Short 4* S: Oregon offered Short when he was still committed to UCLA. He was offered after his Oregon visit in which he told me "I enjoyed the visit a lot…honestly I liked everything." Shortly after receiving the offer and after an Arizona visit, he decommited from UCLA. Experts are now saying Oregon and Arizona are in the driver’s seat for his commitment.
Quarterback Carousel: Oregon has had a rough time with quarterbacks the past two years. But this year, their long-time quarterback commit, 4* Ryan Kelley, announced he will be backing away from his commitment. Then, about a few days later, Kelley committed to Arizona State. Now, Oregon is in the market for a new quarterback. Some recruits Oregon has been linked to are:
Elliot Baker 4* OT: Oregon offers another offensive tackle, but this time he is from the west coast. Baker is the number two JUCO recruit in the nation, according to 247sports. Baker has offers from Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and Mississippi State. In an article from Crimson Tide Recruiting, Baker stated "They’re [Alabama] my new leader coach Saban’s pitch to me. He almost sold me on Alabama. That’s why they’re my new leader." So that doesn’t look good for Oregon.
CJ Verdell3* RB: Verdell committed to Oregon after his visit to the Oregon Spring game. If you missed ATQ’s article, here is the link.
Saiid Adebo 4* ATH: The Mansfield (TX) product was offered by the Ducks a couple of weeks ago. Adebo can play both wide receiver and safety, so it will be interesting to see which one Oregon will be recruiting him for. Other teams to have offered Adebo are TCU, Notre Dame, Baylor, and Texas.
Rutger Reitmaier 3* DT: The next offer the Oregon staff handed out was to defensive tackle Rutger Reitmaier, a Tennessee star. After he received the offer Reitmaier told me: "I’m very excited about it, it’s one I’ve been waiting for". He also said he is intrigued by Oregon because "I think my skill set of speed and power fits the Oregon defense…" Some other schools who are recruiting him are Nebraska, Tennessee, and Penn State. Retitmaier just recently confirmed with me he will be at Oregon, June 8th. I have a strong feeling he is an Oregon lean, so hopefully he will commit when he is on campus.
Michael Richardson 3* OT: Oregon offers its 3rd recruit from the state of Utah in Richardson (the others are Jay Tufele and Chaz Ah You). Richardson has other offers from schools such as Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Oregon State. Richardson is the 4th OT Oregon has offered the past 3 weeks. It seems like Oregon is shifting its focus to offering linemen, moving on from defensive backs.
Darrian Felix 3* RB: The Florida product announced his Oregon offer in the middle of May which automatically made Oregon a viable option for Felix. Felix has other offers from Miami (FL), Arizona, Auburn, Maryland, and UNC.
Terrance Lang 3* DE: On the same day Darrian Felix announced his offer, Lang announced his offer as well. The Maranatha (CA) product has other offers from USC, UCLA, and Cal. USC seems to be the leader at this point, but Oregon still has time to make up ground.
Deommodore Lenior 4* CB: Lenior shortened his list of schools and Oregon made the cut. His top 10 were: Oregon, Alabama, Nebraska, Florida, USC, UCLA, LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan, and San Diego State. This is the order he announced, so it is great to see Oregon as his top school. Lenior has told me he wants to announce at a bowl game (Army All-American or Under Armour All-American) so there will be long wait for his commitment.
Tyler Smith 4* WR: The UNC commit picked up an Oregon offer, but I have not seen any interest in Smith since the offer. I will try to see where his mind is, but this just seems like a wasteful offer. No disrespect to Smith, he is a great player, but he seems solid on UNC.
Alex Cook 3* WR: Oregon target, Alex Cook, announced his commitment to Washington over Twitter. The Sheldon (CA) WR seemed to be a heavy UW lean so this wasn’t surprising it was just earlier than people expected.
Jamyest Williams 4* CB: Oregon offers STUD cornerback from Lawrenceville, Georgia. Williams has almost 50 offers, but his top schools are Clemson, FSU, Georgia, Ohio State, and South Carolina. No one knows his favorite team, but luckily Oregon has a long time to play catch-up.
Daniel Green 3* LB: Where to start….Daniel Green received an offer from the Ducks a few days before Green officially committed to USC. Oregon seemed to be the team to beat (247sport crystal ball had Oregon at 100%) even though Oregon hadn’t offered yet so it was surprising when Green committed to USC. There have been some reports saying Green would have a hard time qualifying (academically) so Oregon’s offer was a soft one, but Green had said he was going to commit in June. He opted to commit two weeks early.
De’Morreal Burnam 3* LB: Oregon had to offer another linebacker since the Green debacle, so Mo Burnam was the next in line. Even though Burnam is committed to Tennessee he told me "I’m still open" to other schools and he has been telling his recruiters that. He also told me the Oregon offer was "very surprising" because "schools like them don’t come to my school (Salem [TN])" often. If Burnam were to decommit from the Vols, I would say he is an Oregon lean.
Jeremiah Holloman 4* WR: Oregon offers another Georgia product, this time it’s a WR from Newton High School. Holloman has other offers from Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, and Ole Miss. The two teams who are sticking out are Georgia and Tennessee.
Chad Terrell 3* WR:The North Paulding (TX) WR was the next recruit to be offered. He told me the offer was "big time" and Oregon was "very capable of winning championships". He said the plan is to visit sometime in June and he has a great relationship with Coach Lubick. I couldn’t tell what his interest levels with the Ducks were, but I believe Terrell’s recruitment is wide-open.
Tyrell Shavers 4* WR: Oregon was listed on Shavers top 10 list. The Lewisville (TX) product also listed: LSU, FSU, Alabama, Mississippi State, Auburn, Texas, Ole Miss, Miami (FL), and Texas Tech. Experts think Texas has the edge, but things can change.
Malcom Askew 4* ATH: The MacAdory (AL) product released his top schools a few days ago: Auburn, Clemson, Ole Miss, TCU, Alabama, Florida, Cal, Oklahoma, Miami (FL), and Oregon. This is his top schools in order, so Oregon has some work to do. Well yesterday, Askew says "The Ducks moving up already". This is great news because Askew is a stellar recruit.
Ariel Ngata 3* OLB: First and foremost, no, he is not related to Haloti Ngata. Ariel Ngata is set to announce where he will be going to college in the Fall of 2017. Lars Hanson of TheDawgReport said his decision is down to Oregon and Washington. All signs point towards Washington, but Ngata could shock the world and join Oregon’s recruiting class.
Malik Cunningham 3* QB: Oregon is in dire need for a quarterback and right now it looks like they are either going to flip one or offer three pretty soon. The Louisville commit yesterday came out and said, "The Oregon Ducks are making a real big push" which is good to hear. Oregon has been looking a Cunningham for a while now and he may be one of the three quarterbacks Oregon offers.
Here's to another successful recruiting roundup on the great site of ATQ. As always, thank you for sticking around and reading this long article. As a treat here is a gif.