Oregon Receives Unfortunate Recruiting News for Five-Star Target

While the Oregon Ducks are heating up on the recruiting trail, they seem to be trending in the wrong direction when it comes to the recruitment for five-star athlete Honor Fa'alave-Johnson from the class of 2027. The Ducks are reportedly falling behind in the race for the gifted five-star out of the state of California, according to Rivals.

The talented prospect is from the state of California and has earned himself a ranking that has him listed as the No. 16 best player in the nation, No. 1 athlete in the country, and the No. 1 player in the state of California, according to 247Sports composite. The talented prospect is nearing a decision, as he will make his commitment on Saturday, March 14. With the decision coming up, the Ducks aren't doing as well as they would hope.

Oregon Ducks recruiting Honor Fa'alave-Johnson cathedral catholic usc lsu notre dame texas miami dan lanning eugene. — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning looks to the clock towards the end of the first half as the Oregon Ducks face the Ohio State Buckeyes Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in the quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oregon Ducks Falls Behind in Race For Honor Fa'alave-Johnson

With Fa'alave-Johnson recently announcing that he is committing soon and cancelling previously-scheduled visits throughout the spring and summer, multiple recruiting predictions for USC came in from the experts at Rivals.

Analysts like Max Torres, Max McCuistion, and Scott Schrader have all logged predictions that the USC Trojans, which is an in-state program, will be landing the prospect when he announces his decision. This raised the chances of USC landing the prospect to 83.9 percent as of Wednesday, March 11.

This is unfortunate timing for the Oregon Ducks, as the decision is set to be made in a few days.

Fa'alave-Johnson's decision is one that will be made between six schools: Oregon, USC, Miami, LSU, Texas, and Notre Dame. While all schools have a fighter's chance, the two schools in the race primarily seem to be the Trojans and the Ducks thanks to their West Coast proximity.

The talented prospect is fresh off a huge season with Cathedral Catholic High School.

This is a program that is currently rated as MaxPreps No. 80 team in the nation, and finished the season with only three losses. Cathedral Catholic's record for the 2025 season was 11-3, as their season came to an end when the program was defeated by Folsom in the playoffs. This was the fourth game of the playoffs for the program as well. The team defeated some of the best teams in the nation, including Los Alamitos, which was their final win of the season.

The star of this team was Fa'alave-Johnson, the prized recruit that the Ducks are pushing for, as he finished his season with a total of 28 touchdowns (21 of which were rushing), as well as finishing with 1,265 total yards on the season when it comes to rushing, and 564 on the receiving side of things.

The uber-talented prospect also played on the defensive side of the ball, as he was a defensive back who finished with 38 total tackles and two interceptions. Where he plans to play in college remains to be seen, but he is listed as a safety and as an athlete on most recruiting sites.