It Is Not About Recruiting!?

Dave Kensler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

It has become a statement acknowledged as fact: Recruiting is paramount to an effective team. As such, you might not like what I have to say. But when I look at the college level of the sport as a whole, I see the hype of recruiting, National Signing Day and related hoopla overblown in terms of significance. We are talking …

Oregon Football Recruiting: Official Visits Are Getting Tight – Who Gets Them?

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

With about two weeks left until the national letter of intent day (NLI) or signing day on February 4th, who is not looking at the prospects and trying to figure out how to get key commitments to Oregon from players and juggle the limited official visits? Due to sanctions, Oregon lost one scholarship in each of two years (limiting the …

Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: Oregon Can’t Beat Ohio State

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Did it start in 2012 when the Ohio State Buckeyes robbed the Oregon Ducks of highly touted all-purpose back Dontre Wilson right under their noses? Or did it begin before that when Ohio State out-recruited Oregon for top high school prospects? Either way, the 2015 recruiting class will not be different, with the Buckeyes winning this contest by a large margin …

Why Would Football Recruiting Be a Challenge at Oregon?

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Oregon is known as a winning-prone football team in the last decade, and should have no trouble recruiting elite high school players year in and year out. With 10 wins this season, the Ducks have their seventh straight 10-or-more-win season, which is tied for first with Alabama. The Tide is appealing to football recruits these days because of their massive …

Oregon’s Uncharted Territory in Football Recruiting

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

While the 2014 college football season is currently reaching the height of recruiting for the class of 2015, Oregon also has interesting features in planning for the 2016 class. There will be two high school juniors in attendance for the Stanford game on November 1st. With two commits already in this class and potentially one more announcing by the end …

Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: How Does Autonomy Change the Recruiting Game?

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

A widespread change might be in place for football. The National Collegiate Athletic Association recently voted in favor of giving the five “power conferences” autonomy, to allow the student-athletes to participate in governing the entity they are bound in playing for at a Division I university. If sustained by the end of October, 2014, how will this affect the recruiting …

Scott’s Turf: Recruiting or Sales?

Scott Reed FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

My FishDuck Friends — I wish to roll out a new feature called “Scott’s Turf” on the site that will appear on every Monday, which will have opinion-editorial pieces written by Scott Reed. Scott has been writing recruiting and game analyses articles every week for the Oregon franchise of Rivals.com Duck Sports Authority for many years. I’ve known him long before FishDuck.com …

Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: Did the Earth Just Shake?

Jason Fowler FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The recruiting wisdom of Mark Helfrich is becoming more evident as time goes on.  Most recently comes the news that Hawaii defensive tackle, Ratu Mafileo, got his “eligibility” green light from the NCAA and can now attend and play football at UO.  The nephew of former Oregon great, Haloti Ngata, sheds new light on a 2014 recruiting class that was …

Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: It’s Still About the Offense

Chris Charbonnier FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

The Oregon football program is not regarded as a defensive juggernaut.  An elite defense wasn’t the catalyst behind the evolution of the Oregon brand.  In this new era of Oregon football, where fans expect championship runs, the offense seems almost to have become an after-thought.  Improving the defense has become the focal point of radio pundits and TV personalities.  Let’s …

Oregon Football Recruiting Analysis: 2015 Class Size Prediction & Scholarship Breakdown

Chris Charbonnier FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

While it seems like the 2014 class just signed their papers, the 2015 cycle is already well under way.  Two of the common questions early each year are: “How many scholarships are available?” and “How will those scholarships be used?” Using a method I’ve used each of the past two years to predict upcoming class numbers to within one player, …

Two Recruiting Revelations That Surprised FishDuck

Charles Fischer, Mr. FishDuck FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

We all know of them, the “Web Wackos” who post crazy stuff about Oregon football on the major recruiting message boards.  You would think they had never experienced a recruiting season before, and perhaps for some of the 14-year-olds posting (in maturity, if not biological), that is true. Sitting at the recruiting luncheon in Eugene, Oregon, a week ago made …

Wait-and-See as NLI Comes and Goes

Joel Gunderson FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

It’s the easiest thing to do — to make snap judgments or knee-jerk reactions. Those are what this world is based on (smartphone and twitter in hand.) However, in this instance — and it’s the same every year — the results from college football’s ultimate exploitation event, National Letter of Intent day, won’t be seen for another 2-3 years, and …