How to Improve Recruiting?

[Supreme]

What do you think Kelly and company need to do in order to take advantage of USC's sanctions and upgrade recruiting efforts both in California and abroad? The Ducks could definitely use some big uglies in the trenches, and more athletic linebackers and outside pass rushers. If Oregon intends on remaining a national power year in and year out and competing against the Bama's and Florida's of the world, consistently finishing in the top 15 of recruiting rankings is a priority. What can Oregon do to get players like De'Anthony Thomas, Ronald Powell, Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Robert Woods, etc, to commit and play for the Ducks? Any ideas, and do you think doing so consistently is possible?

And before people claim recruiting rankings are irrelevant, the last 7 national champions had at least one #1 ranked recruiting class. In order to bring a National title to Eugene, the Ducks will have to go through teams like Bama, Florida, and Texas, and in order to beat those teams, you have to recruit as well as them.

[Brophdog88]

Win....a lot

[dthomas=ddixon]

Win. Everything else is in place. And really, I'm pretty happy with players like Bair, Matthews, Boyett, LaMike, Barner, Maehl, DThomas... I can keep going if you want. We don't need every 5* recruit, we need guys who fit what we're doing & the personality of this team. Thats how Chip recruits & I think he's doing a pretty darn good job.

[brich75]

I don't know but it seems like every body is getting commits lately except us.. I thought there would be more action on this board last week.

[Supreme]

Win. Everything else is in place. And really, I'm pretty happy with players like Bair, Matthews, Boyett, LaMike, Barner, Maehl, DThomas... I can keep going if you want. We don't need every 5* recruit, we need guys who fit what we're doing & the personality of this team. Thats how Chip recruits & I think he's doing a pretty darn good job.

I'm happy with our players. I love our squad, and I think Chip is doing a great job. However, that doesn't change the reality. The reality being that those programs who consistently bring in top 10 classes, full of 4*'s and peppered with 5* prospects, are the programs who are consistently in BCS bowls, and are perennial national title contenders. I for one am ready for the University of Oregon football program to take that next step into greatness. In order to do so, top level recruiting is a necessity.

[karlhungis]

Our recruiting under Kelly has been impressive. I think it is definitely heading the right direction and now it just takes some patience. I think that a big win in SEC country will certainly help us. I am curious to see how this recruiting season pans out. Especially now that we have a QB that throws the ball and a Defense that is aggressive.

[buckmarkduck]

UO recruiting is solid, I'm not sure it needs much improvement. Really the only way I see UO going from finishing from 10-20 ( and once in a while top 10)every year to making the leap to the top 10 on a regular basis is for the state of Oregon to grow to about 10 million people.

[Duck07]

Other than not being able to pair Heimuli with Easley at DT in last years class, we're locked as a top 25 recruiting team now. Will we ever get to be like Texas and sign our entire class before the season starts? Probably not. Winning a NC would help too.

[Boom]

I think Chip has the right formula...... Win 10+ games and recruit talent nationally, especially in Texas & Florida.

The talent level has noticeably increased every year since Chip join as a coordinator and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon.

[wlduck]

Expand the stadium to hold at 70K. Among other things, that is a common denominator of the national powers. Star players want to play in front of big crowds.

[greenyellow]

Unless a big infusion of population and talent moves closer to Oregon, I don't think that Oregon can do anything but win and hope that players from across the country want to come out here.

[wlduck]

Unless a big infusion of population and talent moves closer to Oregon, I don't think that Oregon can do anything but win and hope that players from across the country want to come out here.

This is a great point. I think we have come to take for granted that we will have a good football team every year, but the truth is our prominence as a football power will always be somewhat tenuous. A few years ago ESPN published a study that showed the correlation between football success and proximity to recruits. The state of Oregon was the "outlier". It is pretty amazing that we have two successful programs given our access to players.

So the obvious thing is to continue building off of our unique brand. Facilities, uniforms, the whole Oregon thing, has to stay cutting edge. We are doing a great job right now, but we can never let up, or we could fall quickly.

[Supreme]

Unless a big infusion of population and talent moves closer to Oregon, I don't think that Oregon can do anything but win and hope that players from across the country want to come out here.

You have a point, but then there's teams like Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, and LSU; Whom like Oregon, reside in states with low populations and limited talent pools, yet each program consistently finishes with highly ranked recruiting classes due to feeding off talent in surrounding states. We border California, the third best "football state" in the country. We need to figure out how to seal it off from poaching programs. Teams like Florida and Oklahoma need to be kept from pulling highly ranked prospects out of California, and instead be pushed to Oregon.

I think stadium expansion, and a string of BCS Bowls can do that, and putting more players in the league can do that. We just need to figure out how to make it happen.

[Supreme]

UO recruiting is solid, I'm not sure it needs much improvement. Really the only way I see UO going from finishing from 10-20 ( and once in a while top 10)every year to making the leap to the top 10 on a regular basis is for the state of Oregon to grow to about 10 million people.

You aren't sure it needs improvement?

Recruiting Classes by Year Over the Last 5 Years

2010: 13
2009: 32
2008: 19
2007: 11
2006: 49
2005: 28

We need to become much more consistent.

[buckmarkduck]

Big difference between OU, AL, SC and LSU recruiting and recruiting to Eugene. NorCal has nothing until you get to Sac which is what 6 hours away? OU is like 3 hours from Dallas and LSU is just 3 hours from Houston, both of those cities are a ton bigger than Portland or Sac. Oregon may border California but it's not the same thing, not even close.

Unless a big infusion of population and talent moves closer to Oregon, I don't think that Oregon can do anything but win and hope that players from across the country want to come out here.

You have a point, but then there's teams like Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, and LSU; Whom like Oregon, reside in states with low populations and limited talent pools, yet each program consistently finishes with highly ranked recruiting classes due to feeding off talent in surrounding states. We border California, the third best "football state" in the country. We need to figure out how to seal it off from poaching programs. Teams like Florida and Oklahoma need to be kept from pulling highly ranked prospects out of California, and instead be pushed to Oregon.

I think stadium expansion, and a string of BCS Bowls can do that, and putting more players in the league can do that. We just need to figure out how to make it happen.