Alabama signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class Wednesday. No surprise. Nor was it much of a surprise that the top four recruiting classes all came from SEC teams, with the Tide followed by Georgia, Texas A&M and LSU. The real shocker came in at No. 5.
It wasn’t Clemson or Ohio State or Notre Dame. For the first time, Oregon produced a top-five recruiting class after never compiling a top-10 class in its history, according to 247Sports.
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The momentum for the Ducks’ historic class started to gain steam last spring when a few top Southern California prospects committed to Oregon and its first-year head coach, Mario Cristobal.
“Keyon was the catalyst, the first one to hop in, and led to the CaliFlock,” Cristobal told The Athletic on Wednesday, referring to Keyon Ware-Hudson, a 6-foot-3, 303-pound defensive tackle from Orange County prep powerhouse Mater Dei High School who ended up choosing the Ducks over USC, Michigan, Washington and Florida, among others.
Ware-Hudson was soon followed by four-star teammates Mase Funa, a linebacker, and Sean Dollars, a running back, and then a bunch more SoCal standouts, including Mykael Wright, ESPN’s top-ranked cornerback prospect. It’s one thing to get big-name commits. It’s another to get them signed once the big boys from around the country come calling. Lord knows plenty of schools stirred up some noise in the past, but when it came to closing, USC usually big-footed its way into a lot of other folks’ recruiting dreams. Not this time, though.
Cristobal, the national recruiter of the year in 2015 as an assistant at Alabama, even beat out his old boss Nick Saban for the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect, Kayvon Thibodeaux, a 6-5, 243-pound edge rusher also from Southern California. In all, Oregon snagged five of the top 15 prospects in California, and it compiled the Pac-12’s No. 1 recruiting class for the first time. How did the Ducks pull it off?
“I think that Oregon is an awesome place and the staff did an unbelievable job getting (the word) out there,” Cristobal told me. “They really did a good job in a passionate, genuine and truthful manner, just working with a lot of energy and making sure that the Oregon story, and our place, was out there. People were invited in constantly so we could show ’em what we’re all about. It really paid dividends in a historical way for our program.
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“I think that now people see the direction of the program. They see the investment in the strength and conditioning program. They see our networking opportunities and life after football opportunities, which are second to none, through all of the contacts with our alums or just being associated with Nike. People know how good Oregon has been, and they feel that we’re working our way back there fast.”
For much of the past decade, the recruiting landscape has been tilted east. With the exception of USC, most of the top recruiting classes have come from outside the Pac-12. Cristobal, though, doesn’t believe that the same approach can’t work on the other side of the country that he relied on at Miami and Alabama. It’s a philosophy he learned from his father: Hard work and being real and being genuine transcends all of those funny lines on the map and any geographic barrier.
For anyone who has ever been around Cristobal — a guy who played in college for Jimmy Johnson — in his near two-decade coaching career, they know how intense and ultra-high energy he is. He’s very much the same 6-foot-4 whirlwind who transformed a rudderless wreck of a program at FIU into one that won a bowl game by his fourth season. The only real change is that now he’s more seasoned and more organized after having spent four seasons under Saban in Tuscaloosa. His frenetic, flashy recruiting presentation has seemed to mesh very well with the Ducks’ high-gloss, cutting-edge persona. It’s brash compared to what the Pac-12 is used to, but blue-chippers are buying in like never before in Eugene.
“It plays a tremendous role not only with prospects but with their parents and seeing the energy and passion that our coaches have for our place and for our craft,” Cristobal says. “That’s such a huge thing now. We host a lot of visitors. We want to make sure when they’re here, they get to see us in full force. I rather they’d come for practice than a game. The game is fun and entertaining, but I want them to see what they’re gonna get on a daily basis and see exactly what we’re about, and I want them to see our team and how they’d fit in. We want complete transparency so the guys can feel comfortable when they make a decision.”
Similar to last year’s Ducks signing class that featured five massive O-linemen, this group has plenty of SEC-sized maulers, led by 6-6, 389-pound Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, the nation’s top-rated junior college tackle, and 6-5, 327-pound Jonah Tauanu’u, the nation’s No. 74 overall prospect. But it’s the depth of the class of athletes that really has the Ducks staff so excited. They feel like Wright will be the most talented corner in the program once he arrives in Eugene. Linebackers Funa and JUCO transfer Dru Mathis will provide more toughness in the middle of the defense. Mycah Pittman and JR Waters, a pair of wideouts, are expected to give Dillon Mitchell some much-needed help at the position, while Dollars and Jayvaun Wilson are being counted on to give the running game a jolt. And then there’s Thibodeaux, who should improve what was the nation’s No. 64 pass rush from Day 1.
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“He’s got it all,” Cristobal says. “He’s got everything you want in an elite pass rusher. He’s not only a pass rusher, though. He can play the run. He’s an all-down player.
“As a pass rusher, he’s got an unbelievable get-off and explosiveness. He’s got great length and the wingspan. He has power. He can go speed-to-power, great edge rush. He can dip and rip and close on the quarterback. Great balance and body control and powerful, heavy hands. And this is a large human being that is only gonna get bigger and faster. Not to mention he’s got a super-high IQ. We expect a tremendous impact.”
As for what he’d say to any skeptic who would have said you couldn’t have a top-five class in Eugene, Cristobal says, with a little chuckle, “I try not to associate with those people. We just go. Anyone who comes and sets foot on our campus or in our facility, instantly they recognize that it’s one of a kind. It’s unique. It won’t be duplicated, not in our lifetime. We want to continue to honor those that built this place by busting our tails and putting the word out there about what Oregon is all about.”
- On the flip side, one program that had a clunker of a day was Miami, which followed up a top-10 class last year with a group that ranked No. 38 and saw a bunch of departures. The ‘Canes have a lost a lot of steam since opening the season ranked in the top 10 of the polls. Losing top-flight defensive coordinator Manny Diaz to Temple when he became the Owls’ new head coach was just the latest blow for a program that’s gone into a tailspin. Diaz had been the best thing about the Mark Richt era at Miami, and now he’s gone.
- Northwestern relied on some shrewd player evaluations to help the Wildcats win the Big Ten West this season. The Wildcats start seven players whose only Power 5 offer was from Northwestern. Among them are RB Isaiah Bowser and Montre Hartage, their best DB. This year, Pat Fitzgerald’s team had the nation’s No. 46 class. It’s the highest they’ve been ranked since the 2001class was No. 26. There are no players ranked higher than three stars in this group, but six who signed Wednesday got their first Power 5 offer from the Wildcats — WR Wayne Dennis, OG Conrad Rowley, DE Adetomiwa Adebawore, OG Dominick D’Antonio, OLB Bryce Gallagher and DB Cameron Mitchell.Fitzgerald and recruiting coordinator Chris Bowers have proved to have a keen eye for talent. Keep an eye on Adebawore, an explosive 6-1, 250-pounder with long arms, whose height might have scared off some schools, and D’Antonio, who is only in his second season playing football.
- When Ed Orgeron took over the LSU program, his No. 1 priority in recruiting was to lock up the state’s top talent. On Wednesday, he and his staff made quite a statement that they’re doing just that. Not only did LSU land Derek Stingley Jr., the nation’s No. 1 cornerback recruit (and No. 1 overall prospect according to Rivals) but they also reeled in five-star RB John Emery, five-star OG Kardell Thomas, WR Trey Palmer and LB Donte Starks — five of the top six players in Louisiana. Only five-star DT Ishmael Sopsher, the No. 2 player, didn’t sign Wednesday, and he remains available in a battle between the Tigers and Alabama. Two years ago, after Orgeron got the job following the dismissal of Les Miles, the Tigers only signed two of the top nine players in-state.
“That was two years of recruiting,” Orgeron told The Athletic. Sopsher, the one remaining top in-state prospect, would also address the biggest area of need for the Tigers this winter on the D-line. - Props to Mack Brown for pulling off the biggest flip of the early signing period, getting in-state QB Sam Howell to decommit from Florida State. Howell should be an ideal fit for new offensive coordinator Phil Longo’s version of the Air Raid. Longo tried recruiting Howell to Ole Miss, but with the Rebels’ NCAA issues, he didn’t have much of a shot.
- Ron Carr, the former Yale OT commit whom I wrote about Tuesday in my O-line story, signed with Duke, choosing the Blue Devils over USC among others that came hard after him as his stock skyrocketed in the past month. One year ago, Carr was 6-3 and 205 pounds; now he’s 6-4 and close to 245 and has college coaches gushing about his athleticism and potential. Remember his name.
- Boldest statement: Courtesy of Alabama signee Trey Sanders, the nation’s top-ranked running back, who told ESPNU a few moments after announcing he was going to play for Nick Saban: “As a freshman, I do plan on winning the Heisman, nothing less. If I come short, I will be a finalist.”
- Alabama signee who might make an even bigger impact in 2019 than Sanders: watch out for DE Antonio Alfano, the top-ranked player in New Jersey. He is 6-5, 285, fits a bit position of need in the program and he can really run, having been timed in the 40 in the 4.8s. Better still, he arrives in January.
- Best under-the-radar Power 5 signing: New Kansas State coach Chris Klieman getting Ball State graduate transfer James Gilbert, a former All-MAC running back who’s run for almost 3,000 career yards, in his first signing class on pretty short notice.
- Best way-under-the-radar Group of 5 signing: Texas State WR Dylan Jantz. New Bobcats defensive coordinator Zac Spavital loved Jantz when he was at Texas Tech, and the kid was impressive at their summer camps, but at around 5-9, 170, he was a bit smaller than the Red Raiders liked. The kid does have terrific speed, though, clocking 10.8 in the 100, but it’s his production that really catches the eye. In the past two years, he’s amassed 3,311 all-purpose yards and 68 touchdowns, recorded 106 solo tackles, 10 interceptions and 38 passes broken up AND blocked eight field-goal attempts.
- Stat of the Day: Just how much has Kirby Smart and Georgia dominated recruiting in the SEC East? In the past three years, the Dawgs have landed 15 five-star recruits according to the 247 rankings. The rest of the SEC East: 2.
(Photo by Steve Dykes / Getty Images)
Bruce Feldman is the National College Football Insider for The Athletic. One of the sport’s leading voices, he also is a sideline reporter for FOX College Football. Bruce has covered college football nationally for more than 20 years and is the author of numerous books on the topic, including "Swing Your Sword: Leading The Charge in Football and Life" with Mike Leach and most recently "The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks." Follow Bruce on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB
