Oregon recruiting is by far the best it’s ever been. But it’s still not good enough. Football
Say what you want about what went wrong yesterday, and there were certainly a few of them. But ultimately Ohio State just straight up had better players. Muhammad, Reed, Johnson and Savage (3-star transfers) could not check Smith and Egbuka (5-star HS players). Cornelius (0-star transfer) could not check Sawyer (5-star HS player). They don’t have a player like Caleb Downs (5-star) or TreVeyon Henderson (5-star).
There are first-round draft picks at every position on Ohio State’s roster. Derrick Harmon, who was probably the best player on the field wearing green yesterday, is the only (borderline) first rounder for Oregon.
This program has come so far, further than any program in CFB over the last 15 years. They are a 95th percentile program. But you have to be in the 99th percentile to win a national championship.
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u/Duck_Caught_Upstream 5d ago
The last two HS classes (AKA Dan’s 2nd and 3rd full HS classes) have been in that 99th percentile.
The problem is those guys were freshmen and Sophomores this year.
As things are trending Oregon’s most talented teams will be taking the field in 25,26,27 and haven’t already played
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5d ago
I wonder if an Ohio State fan posted the same thing after they lost to us or Michigan. Relax. Sometimes it's about specific matchups or specific schemes. It was a bad night for Oregon but if they played 8 more times it could just as easily be 50/50.
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u/charliepup 5d ago
And Michigan won the national championship with mostly 3 and 4 star players. In fact I think in the years Harbaugh was coach, Michigan only signed like seven or eight 5 star players, total.
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u/stuh217 5d ago
Yes, historically the teams with higher grader recruits do better than those with lower average recruits. But that's not ultimately why the Ducks got annihilated. It didn't help, sure, but there was plenty of questionable play calling all game and the Fuckey-- I'm sorry, the Butteyes played better in every aspect of the game.
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u/Bulky_Ad_1956 5d ago
I would say that the last two classes are definitely good enough. But we’ve only had two of them. Ohio state has been recruiting like that forever. Takes time to build that kind of roster but Dan has Oregon heading in the right direction.
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u/testiclefrankfurter 5d ago
I think you are mostly right but Conerly will be drafted high and Burch has a first round projection too. Downs and Smith though are the two best players. Which is crazy because they are a sophomore and freshman respectively.
Ohio State had more talent and, in that game, better coaching. That'll win every time.
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u/lonewanderer727 5d ago
This might shock you, but there are guys who are recruited at 5 stars who don't play like 5 stars, and guys who are recruited at 3 stars who play like 5 stars. Either way, we're starting to bring in a healthy amount of 4 & 5 star talent in both recruiting and the transfer portal on a yearly basis. Not sure why there's a "we can never compete" mindset. Holy doomer.
NIL is also the great equalizer, for better or worse.