Reid's Rundown: Oregon Resurrecting Texas Pipeline
Welcome to the very first edition of Reid’s Rundown. In this series I’ll be focusing on relevant topics in the world of Ducks recruiting.
To start things off, I want to focus on the program’s attempt to build a pipeline to Texas, widely regarded as one of the most talent-rich states, to go along with Florida and California in producing elite college football prospects.
The Golden State has produced the most Oregon signees in every single Duck recruiting class since 247Sports began recording classes in 1999).
One of the defining narratives to start Oregon’s 2022 recruiting class has been a move into Texas engineered by Cristobal and staff. The Oregon program has a long history of reeling in talent from the Lone Star State.
LaMichael James, Darron Thomas, Josh Huff, Bralon Addison, Justin Hollins, and Verone McKinley III were all Texas products. However, through the history of the program Texas has been more of a supplemental talent base, rarely yielding the Ducks more than a player or two in a single cycle.
Recently, Oregon’s approach to recruiting in the state of Texas seems like it may be changing. According to the 247Sports database, Texas prospects hold the second-most Oregon offers of any state this cycle with 31, trailing only California which sits at 40.
In part, the Ducks’ new recruiting strategy comes as a response to the hiring of Steve Sarkisian at the University of Texas. Sark made clear in his comments and with his staff hires, that he intends to leverage his West Coast connections built during his stints at Washington and USC--into recruiting success.
The first major sign of this effort came when the Longhorns secured a commitment from Maalik Murphy, a prized 5-star quarterback out of California. The developments in Austin provide important context for the moves being made by Cristobal and his staff.
But let’s get back to the Ducks.
In 2021, Oregon secured just one commitment in Texas, coming from Mansfield Timberview product Terrell Tilmon. So far in the 2022 class, the Ducks have already picked up commitments from two of the state’s top talents, and we're only in April.
4-star safety Landon Hullaby, also from Mansfield Timberview, joined the fold in late February. At the time, the commitment came as a surprise to most of the recruiting world, going against all 8 crystal predictions on 247Sports, which forecasted Hullaby to join his older brother Jaden at Texas.
Then on March 31, Oregon landed wide receiver Stephon Johnson out of Lancaster, Texas, who is currently a 3-star prospect, ranked the No. 35 wide receiver in 2022.
Johnson was a terrific addition to the 2022 class in his own right, and you can read more about his impact from Max here.
Among the first to congratulate Johnson on social media was his fellow Texan-Duck Hullaby. Now the attention is starting to shift towards what impact these two commits may have on the recruitment of other Texas targets.
The pair recently hinted at their intention to grow the Texas to Oregon pipeline on Twitter.
I’ll be publishing a follow up article going through all the relevant Texas prospects who hold Oregon offers, so look out for that.
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