Jayden Woods Gearing up for Busy Slate of Spring Visits
The state of Kansas is loaded with talent in the 2025 cycle and Oregon head coach is one that's been sure to take notice.
One of the recruits he's after is Shawnee (Kan.) Mill Valley EDGE Jayden Woods. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound prep has a group of top schools he's working from and spoke with Ducks Digest about the latest in his recruitment.
Oregon is one of many schools that will get a visit from Woods this spring and he laid out his visit schedule with the recruiting dead period nearing an end.
"I have a ton of visits lined up," he said. "Penn State, Michigan, Tennesse, Florida, Michigan State. And then my two officials Wisconsin and Purdue and then Oregon on April 11."
Woods' pair of official visits will fall on June 1 and June 14 to Wisconsin and Purdue respectively.
He's never been to Eugene before and spoke more about why he wants to see Dan Lanning's program.
"Just the people. The coaching staff," Woods said. "They came down to my school a handful of times back when I was a sophomore and a junior too so that just means a lot to me. Especially how far they came from and Coach Lanning was able to come last month and sit down with me my grandma---that meant a lot to me too."
The Ducks sendt players at his position to the NFL in recent years like Kayvon Thibodeaux and Jordan Burch looks like he's next in line.
"Then just seeing how they produce the outside backers and how they rotate a lot too really piqued my interest to go down and take a visit."
Lanning has taken a strong interest in players from the Midwest, specifically names like fellow Kansas standouts Linkon Cure (TE) and Andrew Babalola (OL).
For Woods, it's a plus that he's being recruited by a coach that comes from hails from his area.
"Especially us being from the same place it means a little bit more," he said of his relationship with Lanning. "That he's from Kansas City too just like I am. He has the Midwest values is what one of my coaches say at my school."
The edge rusher likes what he saw from the Ducks last year, particularly on defense.
"They were really good team. Really good defense. Really relentless and just full out effort is what I saw."
He released a top group of schools earlier this month and hopes this string of visits will bring more clarity to his recruitment.
"I'm at my top 13 right now. This spring is kinda gonna help me get down to around three to five," Woods said. "Three to five is my goal, no more than five. So really, just anything in between three and five is my goal. Right before the officials start."
These next few months will be important, as he has a strong idea of when he'd like to wrap everything up and make a commitment.
"First week of July. Right after the official visits end and that dead period starts."
When he isn't working on the football field or managing his recruitment, Woods is in track season at Mill Valley, throwing shot put and discuss and running both the 100 (11.9-2023 season) and 200 meters (25.0-2023 season).
Jayden Woods off the field
"I'd say video games and golfing. Those are kind of my two things that I do off the field. I just started golfing, taking it serious this year. Golfed last year, but it's like a really addiction sort of sport in my opinion. It's really frustrating too. It's probably why you get flashes of success and then everything else you're just trying to chase that."
