Telling the truth and keeping promises do have meaning after all.
With this new world of NIL’s, the transfer portal and early signing period, it’s vastly different from just a few years ago when February was an exciting month in college football recruiting.
Teams are losing players left and right and having to field a complete team for an upcoming bowl game is becoming a chore.
Oregon isn’t any different.
The Ducks have had over 15 players either declare for the NFL draft and opt out of the Holiday Bowl or have transferred. But not one of those players who have left is a Dan Lanning signing.
Every single one of his signings from last season has remained in Eugene.
“One thing that I’m proud of right now is if you look at our freshmen, we don’t have a single freshman in the transfer portal right now” said Lanning on Wednesday.
“What’s that mean? It means what we said last year is reality. We’re excited about the direction we’re headed and that’s the same thing we’re looking for as we add pieces moving forward.”
Lanning was able to close the deal on many recruits that gave verbal commitments to Oregon, and was also able to flip several others who were “committed” to other programs.
Notre Dame in particular can’t be fans of Lanning as he was able to flip 5-star safety/returner Peyton Bowen and 4-star running back Jayden Limar away from the Irish.
Of course, you can’t win them all and Oregon learned that lesson as longtime commit Dante Moore, one the best quarterbacks in the nation, switched it up in the last few days and went to UCLA instead.
Not to be deterred, Lanning had a Plan B, C, and D.
He was able to convince Baylor to commit and 4-star quarterback Austin Novosad to come to Eugene instead of Waco.
Lanning also shocked the world when 5-star defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei flipped from USC to become a Duck.
So while Year 1 of the Lanning Era has been a work in progress with some questionable coaching decisions, this is still a very young head coach learning on the fly.
It seems as if Lanning is killing it in recruiting and is quickly becoming Oregon’s greatest recruiter. Also, the kids he is signing are definitely drinking the Kool-Aid he’s serving and staying for more.
With a few more of these types of classes, Oregon will be dominating the Pac-12 and could be a consistent entrant into the College Football Playoff.
Still more to come. Stay tuned here to ODFN.