Ted Miller's take on our Recruiting

[dthomas=ddixon]

Dan from Olympia, Wash., writes: I have been avidly following Duck football and recruiting for years and can't understand with our fan support and facilities why we cannot land more blue chip recruits? I thought Tajh Boyd was a lock after his visit and once again was disappointed when Clemson swooped in from nowhere and scooped him up from under the coaching staffs noses.Please help a faithful but troubled fan understand why we can't compete for the big recruits.

Ted Miller: Want to know why Oregon doesn't compete for big recruits as much as you would like? Go to a handful of high school football games in Oregon. Then go to some in Florida, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Southern California.

It's like varsity vs. JV, right?

Most prospects want to stay close to home. Clemson was WAY closer to Boyd's Hampton, Va., home than Oregon.

Oregon has to find 18-year-olds willing to move far from home -- and often away from sunnier climates.

Oregon does really well to sign as many elite prospects as it does. Consider this outstanding recruiting map put together by SI.com. And consider this conclusion:

Some coaches in sparse areas are better than others at convincing talented players to leave home. The state of Oregon produced only 44 BCS-conference signees in five years, but Oregon and Oregon State combined to win 81 games. What does that mean? It means Ducks coach Mike Bellotti and Beavers coach Mike Riley deserve raises.

The Ducks have finished in the top third of the conference in recruiting the previous two seasons. They may only finish in the middle this year. But the ultimate measure is winning, which Mike Bellotti has done a lot of since taking over a once middling program.

[brich75]

Dan from Olympia, Wash., writes: I have been avidly following Duck football and recruiting for years and can't understand with our fan support and facilities why we cannot land more blue chip recruits? I thought Tajh Boyd was a lock after his visit and once again was disappointed when Clemson swooped in from nowhere and scooped him up from under the coaching staffs noses.Please help a faithful but troubled fan understand why we can't compete for the big recruits.

Ted Miller: Want to know why Oregon doesn't compete for big recruits as much as you would like? Go to a handful of high school football games in Oregon. Then go to some in Florida, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Southern California.

It's like varsity vs. JV, right?

Most prospects want to stay close to home. Clemson was WAY closer to Boyd's Hampton, Va., home than Oregon.

Oregon has to find 18-year-olds willing to move far from home -- and often away from sunnier climates.

Oregon does really well to sign as many elite prospects as it does. Consider this outstanding recruiting map put together by SI.com. And consider this conclusion:

Some coaches in sparse areas are better than others at convincing talented players to leave home. The state of Oregon produced only 44 BCS-conference signees in five years, but Oregon and Oregon State combined to win 81 games. What does that mean? It means Ducks coach Mike Bellotti and Beavers coach Mike Riley deserve raises.

The Ducks have finished in the top third of the conference in recruiting the previous two seasons. They may only finish in the middle this year. But the ultimate measure is winning, which Mike Bellotti has done a lot of since taking over a once middling program.

kinda sounds like we are getting spoiled and forgot how bad it used to be,after reading this miller has a great point, the fact that we get 3 star kids is great let alone some of the studs we end up with..
Oregon and oregon st do a great job at doing more with less than any other top 25 schools i can think of,Belloti and riley do great jobs and have put the state of oregon on the map the last 5 years or so(more so Oregon than oregon sT)i THINK AS FAR AS OREGON GOES OUR FUTURE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER..ITS A GREAT TIME TO BE A DUCK FAN!!

GO DUCKS!

[ducksrock]

For sure...some of the yesteryear duck teams tended to stink up the field a bit....win/loss wise, anyway...Always entertaining to watch, but the wins tended to be a bit scarce....The program is lookin up towards a higher plateau....Just gotta get to that next level and stay there for a while....Considering the lack of population in the State and that both Oregon and OSU have smaller enrollment than most of the competition, we are doing very well, Thank You...
Gooooo Ducks.....

[fpsduck]

So long as we never relive the early '80s, I can't complain about our recruiting.

Jorgy was so bad he wasn't even the starter.