Oregon Leaves Another 'Great Impression' on WR Malachi Durant
Malachi Durant is a top target for Oregon in the 2024 class and the Graham (Wash.) Graham-Kapowsin wide receiver made a return trip to Oregon this week.
"They left a great impression," Durant said of the trip. "They showed me a bunch of stuff I haven't seen before. I got to talk with Dan Lanning. That was a great experience."
Lanning has been a hit with recruits since the day he was hired but this trip gave the 6-foot-1 wideout a chance to get closer with the Oregon head coach.
"He's a great guy. I really got to get to know him a lot more this trip. I got to sit in the meetings, watch how he ran practice and watch how he sets up practice and all that."
Competition is one word that came to mind when Durant was describing practice.
"When he ran practice he leaned it more towards competition. So his players are always competing," he said. "Then he has the day after that they'll go and do walkthrough, so there's also learning that gets involved in their weekly schedule."
Junior Adams has been a major player in his recruitment as well since the two have been close for a long time.
"It was good," Durant said about his time with the wide receiver coach. "I've always had a good relationship with June so I've gotten comfortable enough where we can just sit there and talk, laugh, joke around. It feels like I'm talking to a family member or a close friend. I got really comfortable with June."
The Ducks have been a top school in Durant's recruitment and this trip only solidified that.
"Oregon is still high on my list. They showed me a bunch--like their freshman apartments that they get for like incoming freshmen. We got to talk to like their student academic advisors, and got shown how their day-to-day basis is when they have class and have school. So I really love that and we got to talk a lot about how they do NIL and all that."
His favorite part of the trip was getting to sit in on team meetings, which made him feel like part of the team.
Junior Adams also put a personal touch of his own on the trip.
"Letting me sit in the meetings and sit up close to the coaches," Durant said of what the Ducks did to make him feel like part of the team. "When it came to them putting in install with coach Junior Adams actually helping me understand some of the stuff they were installing and all that-- it really made me feel like I was one of them."
Another highlight of his mid-week trip to Eugene was getting to have dinner with early enrollee freshman wide receiver Ashton Cozart, who originally hails from the Northwest. The two got to talk about his transition to college and how things have gone for him during spring practice.
With another successful trip to Oregon in the books he'll be visiting another Pac-12 school next.
"I go to Oregon State this weekend. So I'll be visiting up in Oregon State Saturday."
Durant has given some thought to his official visits and he's confident the Ducks will get one of the five trips.
"Official visits like I said Oregon for sure," he said. "I want to take an official to UCLA when I get all that UCLA stuff sorted out. That's a school I want to actually take a real official visit to. Oregon State for sure. I haven't figured out those last two."
The Washington product is working on setting dates for his official visits but he plans to have a decision after his trips.
"I'll take my officials and then I'll probably end up having a decision after those."
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