Oregon no longer recruiting DJ Foster

[duckfan96]

No offense to your post...but Best? A star? 900 somethin yards in 2 years? LGB had more yards last year...as did JStew. Lynch is having a really good year this year. Rodgers has been on fire the last couple of years.

[duck55]

Stop overlooking Cal's ability to put players in the NFL that become stars. Aaron Rodgers, Deshawn Jackson, Lynch, Best...We send some to the NFL, but most turn out to be benchwarmers, or just contributors, not big time starters. Ngata is the only Duck recently who is a household name, but anyone knew he was that good regardless of where he went.

Just my perspective. Cal's got a great record of NFLers to sell the program. Is what it is.

Blount's name is out there a lot right now. Matthews name gets tossed around quite a bit as well.
Cal does put a bunch into the NFL, as does Oregon. They (Cal) just under achieve as a team every year for the talent they have.

[olpunkjunkie]

True, Best hasn't fully arrived. A lot due to injuries.
I think of it this way. When I set up to draft for my NFL fantasy team, look at the rankings of the players. In my mind(and this is just my opinion) there are more Cal players I would go with than Ducks. If I want to win, I have to be real about the potential. If I just want to pick from the heart then I pick a Duck and cross my fingers they might have a good season. I took Jstew on year thinking I was going to get a great sleeper pick. I had to drop him after 4 weeks. Blount and Jstew have played better this year. Ed Dickson has had some good games. But really, I'm going to take Jackson over any Duck receiver who makes a team. Who wouldn't take Aaron Rodgers over...is there even a starting Duck QB currently? The running backs from both teams are a push. Both sides have good games and bad, or injuries. Nature of the position. The only for sure I would take that is Duck related would be Baltimores D, but that is much more than Ngata.
I'm not going to track down the stats, but it would be great to see a comparison of NFLers Cal and Oregon have put into the league and the longevity of those players. That would give a lot of incite to the recruiting angles the coaches are using.
As recruit, would you take a team that plays well in college, but doesn't have the success in the money league, or the team that is BCSless recently, but has a strong chance of putting you in position to make the big bucks down the line? Apparently, a lot of 4 and 5 star kids believe the hype.

[SuperDuck]

Stop overlooking Cal's ability to put players in the NFL that become stars. Aaron Rodgers, Deshawn Jackson, Lynch, Best...We send some to the NFL, but most turn out to be benchwarmers, or just contributors, not big time starters. Ngata is the only Duck recently who is a household name, but anyone knew he was that good regardless of where he went.

Just my perspective. Cal's got a great record of NFLers to sell the program. Is what it is.

Blount's name is out there a lot right now. Matthews name gets tossed around quite a bit as well.
Cal does put a bunch into the NFL, as does Oregon. They (Cal) just under achieve as a team every year for the talent they have.

Actually, with the exception of Aaron Rodgers, Jeff Tedford's record of producing great college QB's has been big time tarnished at the NFL level. Yes, Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl, but everyone knows it was the Ravens defense that got them there. Joey Harrington, Akiili Smith, David Carr and on and on have all seriously underperformed at the next level.

I think that some of it may be a combination of the depressing Eugene winters, easy access to outgoing flights from Eugene and the fact that the Eugene/Springfield area is one of the smallest in the Pac-12. Third or fourth smallest, I believe.

We're bigger than Pullman & Corvallis for sure, but I'm not sure about Boulder or how close they are to the Denver metro area. Other than that Utah (Salt Lake City), USC/UCLA (Los Angeles), Stanford/Cal (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, etc), Washington (Seattle), Arizona State (Tempe, Phoenix, Scottsdale, etc), Arizona (Tucson) are all much bigger metro areas than Eugene.

Actually, I think I recall Mike Bellotti saying something about the difficulty of getting players in and out through Mahlon Sweet has always been a challenge compared to most other conference schools.

That being said, Eugene still has a lot to offer and there are a lot of kids who don't like the big city environment, especially the gang activity.

We'll win some recruiting battles and lose some too along the way, but I've been VERY happy with the product that the Oregon staff has been able to put on the field for the past few years.

In Chip We Trust! (Well, in football. In God I trust everywhere else )

[olpunkjunkie]

Great points, SuperDuck.

I hate getting into it all, for I feel I'm trashing my town and my team a bit, but I always understand why recruits pick elsewhere. I've lived in Eugene since '91. I had an awesome college experience and stayed, and am now raising a family here. The reality I've come to know is this is a town for young families(due to better than average school system), a hippy and yuppy retirement destination, and a good spot for outdoor enthusiasts.
I feel for all the fans who don't understand that this is all Eugene has to offer, and when you recruit kids from big metro areas, this place is boring as hell. Any kid that needs solid nightlife to compliment their college fun will cross us off the list faster than DAT can run. The early '90's the college parties and nightlife were a blast, but a few overblown parties that spilled into the streets led to city government believing the college kids were all rioting and thus the cops came up with the "Party Patrol" to squash all campus fun. The campus bars all started going under, they passed ordinances to keep the "riffraff" from hanging out on 13th, and campus became a place that was...boring.
Unless you just want to hang with a couple friends in your living room, smoke pot and play video games, there isn't much else to offer here. If there was better talent to pull from Oregon, Idaho and Washington, we could sell the school as a big, fun place. But we have try and convince kids from Cali, Arizona and Texas that this cold lil hippy town is better than the rest, it's not.
We can keep hoping for the religious kids like Jstew or the outdoor enthusiast like DAT, but I'm not surprised to lose out on the rest. And no one in this town wants to change environment either. The hippies and yuppies don't want a bigger, livelier college scene(they threw fits about the new arena that was built). All new businesses that start up to cater to college kids rarely last a whole year. The cops love being paid overtime or double time to cruise around campus handing out MIPs and crashing parties. Everything I had fun doing when I was in college had been forced out by the end of the 90's.
UofO is a cash cow for the locals, but not so great for the college kids.

[SuperDuck]

I just spoke to a fellow Saguaro HS student of DJ Foster's at the pizza place across the street from where I live (Saguaro HS is 4 blocks the other direction) and told him that us Duck fans were bummed that DJ wasn't coming to Oregon. This kid seemed pretty certain that DJ is going to ASU. I will say that he was pretty "stand offish", though, as in "I shouldn't be talking about this", so I don't know whether to take it with a grain of salt or not. I told him that it seemed strange that he'd made that choice so quickly with Todd Graham just being hired and several of the ASU assistants going to UCLA, but the kid kind of went "yeah" and walked away.

I don't know why, but there's something here that smells of RichRod. He'd be a feature back in a spread offense similar to the Ducks and only be 100 miles from home. I could be way off base, but that wouldn't surprise me one bit if RichRod has already been at his doorstep.

[jimmy12]

Creepy

[justducky0]

Super Duck..........stranger danger!!

[SuperDuck]

Super Duck..........stranger danger!!

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but they were sitting at the table right next to me and we'd already exchanged a few words, so I didn't see that it was a big deal. You never know though. I think I'll just keep my mouth shut from now on. It's not like I could make a difference anyway. I just hope he's happy with his decision, whatever that might be.

[MacDuck]

Right now, with DJ tripping Cal this weekend and USC possibly next month, we should be pulling for ASU to get him. Furthermore, it's not a done deal that Mazzone ends up on Mora's staff at UCLA as some reports have indicated. If Mazzone ends up staying in Tempe that could be the deal maker that keeps Foster in Arizona and he likes him a lot.

Bottom line is Foster is going to be very good and will hurt us the least if he ends up at ASU where their overall talent level isn't nearly what it is at USC. Also, keep him in the south division, away from Cal.

[Duck07]

Right now, with DJ tripping Cal this weekend and USC possibly next month, we should be pulling for ASU to get him. Furthermore, it's not a done deal that Mazzone ends up on Mora's staff at UCLA as some reports have indicated. If Mazzone ends up staying in Tempe that could be the deal maker that keeps Foster in Arizona and he likes him a lot.

Bottom line is Foster is going to be very good and will hurt us the least if he ends up at ASU where their overall talent level isn't nearly what it is at USC. Also, keep him in the south division, away from Cal.

is that from an article or a message board? i thought it was a given he was gone unless Mazzone thinks the job will be his next year, lol.

[MacDuck]

Right now, with DJ tripping Cal this weekend and USC possibly next month, we should be pulling for ASU to get him. Furthermore, it's not a done deal that Mazzone ends up on Mora's staff at UCLA as some reports have indicated. If Mazzone ends up staying in Tempe that could be the deal maker that keeps Foster in Arizona and he likes him a lot.

Bottom line is Foster is going to be very good and will hurt us the least if he ends up at ASU where their overall talent level isn't nearly what it is at USC. Also, keep him in the south division, away from Cal.

is that from an article or a message board? i thought it was a given he was gone unless Mazzone thinks the job will be his next year, lol.

I too thought Mazzone to UCLA was a done deal until I went to ASU's Scout board this morning to check up on info. Seems to be a considerable amt of debate over there re Mazzone's status. Most are hoping he stays, so maybe it's more wishful thinking on their part, but nonetheless, it does seem to have some legs that it isn't a final deal at this time.

[cmmadness]

Sorry for beating a dead horse, but why would Foster want to sign up for the train wreck in Tempe? After last night's performance I'd leave skid marks on the tarmac at PHX airport.

Anyone know how the Cal trip went? Anyone know what this guy is thinking?

[TheMaehlMan]

Sorry for beating a dead horse, but why would Foster want to sign up for the train wreck in Tempe? After last night's performance I'd leave skid marks on the tarmac at PHX airport.

Anyone know how the Cal trip went? Anyone know what this guy is thinking?

Cal is still a legitimate darkhorse, but I still think he ends up at ASU. The only reason why I understand Foster's thinking is that he loves ASU. If I were a great basketball prospect during the Ernie Kent to Altman transition I still would have gone to Oregon even though it was kind of a mess, so I kind of understand.

Despite the issues at Pitt they did have that one running back rush for a ton of yards as well, so that could be appealing to Foster..

[MacDuck]

Sorry for beating a dead horse, but why would Foster want to sign up for the train wreck in Tempe? After last night's performance I'd leave skid marks on the tarmac at PHX airport.

Anyone know how the Cal trip went? Anyone know what this guy is thinking?

Cal is still a legitimate darkhorse, but I still think he ends up at ASU. The only reason why I understand Foster's thinking is that he loves ASU. If I were a great basketball prospect during the Ernie Kent to Altman transition I still would have gone to Oregon even though it was kind of a mess, so I kind of understand.

Despite the issues at Pitt they did have that one running back rush for a ton of yards as well, so that could be appealing to Foster..

Some good analysis in your post Maehlman. If I'm a Cal fan I'm liking how ASU continues to play undisciplined football and hoping DJ doesn't like it. On the other hand, DJ has always loved he home town team despite their shortcomings. He was all giddy over the Ducks after watching us play inspired ball and beat his Sun Devils. Then it's only a matter of days after getting home that he's got ASU right back on top.

My bet is in the end, after Graham & his staff are able to make their pitch, that he ends up staying home. His tie to them is very strong. He's looking for reasons to stay with them. Though they've been doing everything they can possibly do to blow it with Foster, if Graham plays his cards right he can sell the RB stats you mentioned as well as a new regime playing smarter more disciplined football. Hope they get it done with DJ as I don't want to see this kid in our division.