Andy & Ari On3 - Is Oregon a BLUEBLOOD or still only a NEWBLOOD? | Remembering Khyree Jackson

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Oregon got a commitment on July 4 from Duncanville, Texas, receiver Dakorien Moore, who is the highest ranked player to ever commit to the Ducks. He’s the type of player Oregon didn’t typically land before, but the Ducks’ 2025 class might wind up including the top-ranked or second-ranked (or both) player in the country at multiple positions.(0:00-2:50) Intro(2:51-9:06) Dakorien Moore Commits to Oregon(9:07-11:36) Remembering Khyree Jackson(11:37-13:27) Nebraska Coaching Staff Shuffle(13:28-17:40) Rest of the Week(17:41-43:59) Justin Hopkins from ScoopDuck joins(44:00-1:01:47) New Blood or Blue Blood Discussion(1:01:48-1:05:08) Conclusion, Recapping 4th of July WeekendJustin Hopkins of On3’s Scoop Duck joins Andy to discuss how Oregon has enhanced an already effective roster-building operation under coach Dan Lanning. Andy also wonders if Justin was correct last week when he wrote that Oregon isn’t a blueblood program yet but seems headed there. Andy wonders if the Ducks have possibly already crossed that threshold.More from Justin Hopkins and ScoopDuck here: https://www.on3.com/teams/oregon-ducks/Justin also shares memories of former Oregon and Alabama cornerback Khyree Jackson, the Minnesota Vikings rookie who died in a car crash this past weekend.Later, Andy builds on that blueblood conversation. How do we define a blueblood? Who are the bluebloods now? And how does a newblood — a program that has enjoyed great recent success but doesn’t have a history of dominance — become a blueblood?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/V5jji6XT7Z4Host: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. Hope everybody had a healthy, fun, relaxing holiday weekend. I hope all of you passed along our 4th of July show to your casual friends who need some help as we enter a college football season unlike any other. I had some people saying, why are you doing this? The people who listen to your show already know this stuff. I was like, that's why we told you to pass it along to your friends who don't know this stuff. Our friend Mitch, he's the guy who always asks when they're bringing

divisions back. He's mad at me now because he had a lot of Minnesota fan friends and Wisconsin fan friends. He was going to bet them that they wouldn't win the big 10 West this year and just take their money. It was one of me. One of those, I bet you, you won't win the big 10 West. Oh, I bet we will want to put $5 on it. Okay, good. I win done. So Mitch, while I want that episode to go far and wide and everybody to hear it and see it, for your sake, I hope a couple people missed because that is a really good idea. I got to admit, that's a very good idea. It's a good way to get a quick five bucks.

Let's talk about some of the news that happened over the weekend. We had some internal discussion at on three i so for those who don't know hayes faucet is the guy who makes the recruiting edits so when you see a guy commit and there's the the cool kind of online poster that has the person's name and the picture of them and they're standing over the stadium of the the school they've committed to so hayes faucet does those fact, he did one for me when I committed on three. He has said over the years, because he's been doing this for several years now, that the traffic from players wanting to commit gets the highest around July 4th.

And he's had to tell players, hey, guys, stop trying to commit on July 4th. And as he's gotten more sophisticated with this stuff and come to work it on three and come to work with people who understand how news cycles work and how you get the biggest pop when you have a news story or an announcement, we've tried to tell him to pass this message along to the players. Hey guys, July 4th, probably not the best day. You're not necessarily going to get the best pop for your announcement because people are with their families, they're traveling, they're doing all this stuff. The time you want to do it is like a Monday or a Tuesday when people are stuck at work and bored and have nothing to do

but read about you. So I think the message got across to most people. It did not get across to DeCorean Moore, and I'm kind of glad it didn't because if you're going to commit on July 4th, then commit with fireworks on July 4th. If you're watching the video right now, that is DeCorean Moore on Instagram Live committing to Oregon with the green smoke billowing, the fireworks blasting off, and he's got his Oregon t-shirt. That is excellent. So that's the nation's number one wide receiver in the on three industry rankings. He's the number three overall player. He's the highest ranked recruit to ever commit to Oregon. And Oregon's got a few

more guys that they are going after this recruiting cycle that are either number one, number two, number three at their position group. And there's a chance this class could be number one in the country by the time all is said and done. Now, right now, the DeCorean Moore commitment, he's from Duncanville, Texas. He pushes Oregon to number three in the team rankings for the class of 2025. Now, obviously, none of this is official until guys start signing in December. But this is a big one for Oregon because this is a receiver from Texas that Texas really wanted. And Texas has been fantastic for receivers under Sark.

Oregon got him anyway. They also have a commitment and they've had since January Dallas Wilson, who's from Tampa. He's the number five wide receiver in the country number 28 overall recruit so there's a really good chance that Oregon could be in the top three when all is said and done they're in their number three right now but they're behind Ohio State and Alabama they're just ahead of Georgia and LSU the way Dan Lanning is recruiting and the guys they're targeting it, it's pretty spectacular. This is a level of recruiting that we have not seen from Oregon historically.

They have gotten the occasional five-star. They have gotten the occasional big-time recruit. But they've not really stacked a class like this. I kind of go back to Dan Lanning's first game as Oregon's head coach. Remember, they played Georgia in Atlanta, and Dan Lanning had just been Georgia's defensive coordinator coach. Remember they played Georgia in Atlanta and Dan Lanning had just been Georgia's defensive coordinator. So obviously he knew Georgia's roster inside and out. And that game was just a beat down. It was embarrassing. And Oregon had really good players. I mean, a first round quarterback in Bo Nix starting for them,

they had a good roster, but Georgia had a great roster. And Dan Lanning obviously knew how that worked, probably went in knowing exactly how that game was going to go. And now he is trying to create a roster that looks really similar to Georgia's roster, that looks similar to Ohio State's roster. So Mario Cristobal kind of laid the foundation there. He was getting really good players, especially on the line of scrimmage, but Oregon was still not quite recruiting at the volume of elite recruits that you have to recruit at to continuously compete for national titles. Now, Michigan last year is the outlier, though we'll see in the NIL era, does it change how you construct your roster? Do you have to get

those guys? Can you do what Michigan did where you do get some ultra elite recruits, but also get a lot of very good recruits that you evaluated very well and that you develop into NFL players and then plug veteran guys who are going to be NFL players in through the transfer portal. That's what Michigan did under Jim Harbaugh the last few years. And it definitely worked Oregon going the more traditional route here, going the route that George has gone that Nick Saban did with Alabama that Ohio state's been doing. This is the way that most teams have competed for national titles. If they've competed national titles. And it's tried and true. It is tried and true.

And the NIL era has helped Oregon in that aspect because their collective division street is one of the ones that was organized first, that was ahead of the curve. And I think they've done a better job than most schools with that. Now, does that mean they're outbidding everybody? I don't think they're blowing people's offers out of the water money-wise, but I do think they're organized, they're getting in first, and they're making really competitive offers. And I think that helps. I think it certainly helps.

And it helps kind of break the chokehold that a few schools had on the top of the recruiting rankings. So we're going to talk to Justin Hopkins later in the show from ScoopDuck about what all this means for Oregon, who they've got left on their board, what this class could look like going forward, and also kind of where Oregon fits into the grand scheme of things. You see the headline is Oregon, a blue blood or still only a new blood. I want to ask Justin about this because he had a column last week and he had written something several years ago about whether Oregon could ascend to blue blood status. And last week he says, you know, there's still not a blue blood because they need that national championship to really be a blue blood. So we'll talk to J-Hop about where Oregon fits in the grand scheme of things. And later in the show, I want to ask you guys what you think a blue blood is, because I'm calling Oregon a new blood because they've been successful in this era.

They don't have the richest of history. It's not like Oklahoma or Ohio state or something like that. So how do you become a blue blood? Like what is a blue, but we have to try to define blue blood. And then how do you become one? Because I do think there's, there's a few schools that may be on the cusp of getting into that group. And also, can you kick somebody out of the blue bloods group or do they just stay in there forever? Are they always grandfathered in, but even if they're not performing up to snuff right now.

So I want to get your opinions on that. I want to write a column about this, but I feel like we have to talk about it. We have to define some things before we do that. So we'll talk about that later We have to define some things before we do that. So we'll talk about that later in the show. Other Oregon related news, and this is just incredibly sad. Kyrie Jackson, corner who played at Oregon last year, played at Alabama before that. He was recently drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. He died in a car crash this weekend in his home state of Maryland.

He was with his high school teammates, Anthony Litton and Isaiah Hazel. All three of them passed away after this accident. And there was a driver who was speeding, who was trying to pass them, clipped their car, sent it flying off the road. And all three of them died in the crash. The police are investigating whether alcohol was involved. But it's just an incredibly sad story. Three young men whose lives were completely ahead of them. Kyrie Jackson. Talk about Anthony Litton and Isaiah Hazel were his teammates at Wise High in Maryland. And so Litton had played at Florida State and Penn State.

Hazel played at Maryland and Charlotte and when those guys went d1 it inspired Kyrie Jackson who was not in a position to go to a d1 school right out of high school he ended up going to to a community college in Kansas he went to Fort Scott Community College in Kansas and then worked his way to Alabama and he's at Alabama and he's behind Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terry and Arnold Terry on Arnold first round draft pick Kool-Aid was a second round draft pick of the Saints so he's behind those two guys couldn't crack the starting lineup transfers to Oregon leads them in interceptions last year you look at the outpouring of support from all the the guys that he's played with on his various teams.

It was just, it's so sad. And, you know, in college football, there's a story that goes back several years. Brandon Burlesworth, who played at Arkansas, one of those inspirational players you'll ever see, was a walk-on at Arkansas, became their best offensive lineman, gets drafted by the Colts. He's going to visit his mom between getting drafted and starting camp, and he dies in a car crash. And so very similar situation where young man, life all the way ahead of him, and just terrible, just terrible. So thinking about Kyrie Jackson's family and Isaiah Hazel's family and Anthony Litton's family today, because that's just, I cannot even imagine. Cannot even imagine getting that news.

Also, I've talked about a little bit of news from Nebraska. There is a coaching staff shakeup in Nebraska. So Evan Cooper, who was the secondary coach at Nebraska, resigned late last week. The university's deeming it personal reasons, but Evan Cooper was a longtime Matt Rule assistant. Worked for him with the Carolina Panthers at Baylor and at Temple. So the thought was that Tony White, the defensive coordinator at Nebraska,

who's got a really good defense this year, who got some sniffs for head coaching jobs last year, the thought was if Tony White moves on to coordinator at Nebraska, who's got a really good defense this year, who got some sniffs for head coaching jobs last year. The thought was if Tony White moves on to a head coaching job, Evan Cooper was going to be the guy who slotted in as the defensive coordinator at Nebraska. He has now resigned. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Nebraska plans to hire former Buffalo Bills DBs coach John Butler to replace Cooper. And Butler's an interesting one because Butler actually resigned from the Bills this past offseason because he got passed over for the defensive coordinator job. And his thing was like, I'm ready to be a defensive coordinator right now. I want to be a DC.

And so he went looking for DC jobs. He didn't get one, but his thought was, okay, if I don't get one, I'll take another DB coach job if it looks like it might lead to something. So here's the thing. If he comes in, has a good year, if the defense at Nebraska is as good as everybody thinks it's going to be, and Tony White does wind up getting a head coaching job, then maybe he's in line to be the DC at Nebraska. So it makes a lot of sense how this, how that Ascension plan might work and why he might be interested in that job. So not an ideal situation. This is not something that they had planned. Obviously you don't, you don't do this sort of

thing a couple of months before the season open or a month before you start camp, but that is the situation at Nebraska now. Also this week, it's talking season. The opening of talking season, the first sets of media days this week. We've got Big 12 media days and Mountain West media days out in Las Vegas. The Big 12 starts on Tuesday. We're getting Mike Gundy on Tuesday. He's always entertaining. We got Dion, Coach Prime. He's talking on Wednesday. Cannot wait to hear from everybody. Cannot wait to hear what everybody's message is. Because this is like, we get fresh stuff.

They start dropping nuggets of news. Things are happening. Things start to speed up as we get closer to the season. So Big 12 of the Power Conference, Big 12 this week, SEC and ACC next week, Big 10 the following week. It is going to be a wave of fresh stuff from all these guys. Now, we will have a little sneak preview of something you might hear at Big 12 Media Days because Brent Brennan, the Arizona head coach, is scheduled to join us

on tomorrow's show. Now he doesn't talk till Wednesday in Las Vegas, but he is scheduled to join us on tomorrow's show. Very excited to talk to him because he takes over for Jed Fish. And when Jed Fish took the Washington job, you were thinking, okay, what's going to happen here? Because they have all this talent. They've got Ted Arroyo McMillan, TMAC, one of the best receivers in the country, if not the best receiver in the country. I think Luther Burton at Missouri, Mecca Bucca at Ohio State, they'll have some arguments about that. But TMAC is absolutely one of the best receivers in the country. Absolutely a first round draft prospect. He's got no feet of throwing and passes. They've got a bunch of guys who came in in 2022.

Jed Fish's first full cycle recruiting class there. And you thought, okay, how many of these guys are going to go to Washington? Well, guess what? They almost all stayed. So Brent Brennan comes from San Jose State and takes over a fantastic situation. Arizona is one of the schools we're looking at to compete for the title in the new Big 12. So we'll talk to Brent Brennan about that, what it means to take over. This was a job he was a finalist for when Jed Fish got it.

So he's been ready to make that move. Also tomorrow, talk to Steve Wiltfong about all of the commitments, the recruiting news. There's a lot going on here in the next week or so in the recruiting world. Watch out for Michigan, everybody. Everybody's wondering, okay, what's going on with Michigan? The first few months of the Sharon Moore era, what's going on in Michigan? Why are they not just loading up on commitments? They just won a national title. Well, they also just changed coaches. And I think a lot of people had to get in and see the new coaching staff, see how that was going to work before they decided how they felt about the sales pitch. Well, it sounds like some decisions are getting made here in the next few weeks. So watch out for Michigan in that respect. We'll talk to Steve Wiltfong about that tomorrow. But now let's talk

a little more Oregon because this Decorium Moore commitment, again, historically significant. They have not gotten a recruit of this caliber ever to commit to them. And it's crazy to think about that because Oregon's been really successful over the past 15 years. And what really going back 30 years, Oregon's been successful, but I think it really sort of ratcheted up when Chip Kelly became the head coach and they've had two national title game appearances and you think, okay, well,atcheted up when Chip Kelly became the head coach and they've had two national title game appearances. And you think, OK, well, they're they're up there with everybody else, but they've been doing it with players that, you know, kind of a cut below what the Ohio States and the Alabamas were working with. They're not doing that anymore. They are now competing with those schools for players year in, year out, and they're starting to get them. Instead of being the finalists but not getting them,

some of those guys are starting to announce for Oregon. It's a big deal. Let's talk to Justin Hopkins of ScoopDuck.com about what this means for Oregon, where the Ducks fit in the grand scheme now. We're joined by Justin Hopkins, the publisher of On3scoopDuck.com, and it has been quite a week in Eugene, Oregon. I guess we should start with the 4th of July commitment, the fireworks from DeCorey and Moore, the receiver from Duncanville, Texas.

This is one that I know Oregon wanted him very bad, but when that green smoke appeared, how happy was the Duck fan base? Yeah, you know, it's one of those things. If you think about it, historically, Oregon has been in the top two, top three, whatever, for a lot of five stars from Texas, from the Southeast, some of the elite guys. And they really have yet to land one, right? I mean, of course, they have Dallas Wilson committed, but he was actually a four star at the time and, you know, has seen his ranking increase DeCorean Moore is different right so every Duck fan sitting there like is this really is this the one is this really the one and it turns out it was so yeah just kind of like that moment of disbelief and relief and then excitement like all wrapped up in about five to ten seconds uh for Duck fans well this is the highest rated recruit who's ever committed to Oregon it's hard to to explain to people just because they've been so successful we were talking about this before we started recording i i i look at the beginning of organs you know this era of oregon football kind of the end of the rich

brooks era going into mike blotty but i think a lot of people kind of tag it to when chip kelly took over as the head coach but let's say let over as the head coach. But even if we just start there, even if we just start in 2009, Oregon has been ridiculously successful relative to most college football programs. But I don't think people realize they've done it in a lot of cases with guys who are sort of unearthed. There were occasional DeAnthony Thomas, like big-time recruits. But it wasn't like they were beating out the biggest of the big dogs for players. And it feels like they are now. Yeah, no, you're a hundred percent right. Like DeCorey and Moore is different. What Oregon's doing recruiting wise is different.

We're really not used to seeing Oregon beat out Alabama or Ohio state or, you know, Texas or these elite, elite schools for recruits. And Dan Lanning's doing it left and right. You know, back in the day, Oregon did get a few five stars here and there. But largely it was beating out USC, who was recruiting a little bit better at the time for those guys, which was still a big win. But these are more monumental wins and it's really just amazing to see the tide changing you know i know you and i talk about it but just the way oregon's recruiting they're recruiting like a true blue blood and it's pretty amazing and and nationwide because if you look at you know if you look at our team rankings at on3 there's a tab you can click

on that shows you the average distance from home for each school's recruiting class. And Oregon's is like 1300 miles and nobody else is over six or 700. And most, you know, a lot of the good recruiting schools are at 300, 400 average distance. Oregon has a lot more work to do because there's just not that, that talent doesn't necessarily live in the Pacific Northwest. And it used to be, yeah, they could go to Southern California and get some. But, I mean, look at this class. So you mentioned Dallas Wilson earlier. He's in Tampa. They're recruiting DJ Pickett, the five-star cornerback from Zephyr Hills, Florida,

which is one county north. Dorian Brew, the five-star cornerback from Conroe, Texas, committed last week. Jordan Davison from Mater De, in Orange County in California, he committed, that's a more traditional one, but like the tight end, DeSan Brom from, from Derby, Kansas, you know, they're going everywhere. It seems for people. Yeah. It's like, okay, who are the top two or three players in, in the, you know, talent producing States? Okay. let's go after them. And like I say, I mean, that's unheard of.

Like if Oregon ended up with Dallas Wilson and Dorian Brew were the only two, most Duck fans would be like, okay, that's pretty good. We're pretty happy. But, like, you're looking at what they're doing right now. And DeCorey and Moore, just, you know, everybody, everybody and their mom thought this kid's going Texas, he's going Texas, he's going Texas. And next thing you know, Dan Lan everybody and their mom thought this kid's going Texas. He's going Texas. He's going Texas. And next thing you know, Dan Lanning and Junior Adams and the crew just pull a rabbit out of the hat once again.

Well, and Texas is a hard thing to sell against right now when you're recruiting a Texas receiver because they've had success with Sark's offense. You know, we just saw Xavier Worthy go in the first round. So, like, it's understandable that, you know, somebody might want to stay close to home and go to a good school but Oregon does seem to have you know an edge and you know since Dan Lanning got there Mario Cristobal recruited well at Oregon but it feels like it has risen several levels higher since Dan Lanning got there 100 i mean this thing changed with mario cristobal i mean he showed that you can recruit to oregon he deserves a lot of credit for

that and i know duck fans are upset with crystal ball with the way he left but he opened the door here i mean he really did and i think what you've seen is obviously dane lanning is very good at what he does but i think he's also shown that he's committed to the University of Oregon and staying long-term and wanting to be there. I think the university, and yes, largely Phil Knight, have rewarded him by reciprocating that, right? I mean, let's not pretend Oregon's getting these guys for free. There's got to be some good NIL backing there, and I think Oregon's committed to Dan Lanning the way that he's committed, and you're seeing that, and one thing that I want to say, and I'm'm going to say now because I'll forget because I have a bad

memory Oregon is not richer than these other schools sure Phil Knight has a lot of money right and he can spend whatever he wants to spend but he's really not out here writing senseless checks I think in a lot of these cases oregon isn't necessarily beating these guys out with nil money i think they're being competitive they're making fair offers but you look at oregon and you look at usc right now they're different they're recruiting completely different levels right now oregon does not have more money than usc right that's a very rich school down there they got a lot of big, big pockets. Okay. But the structure is the key organization of Oregon's NIL is the key. It's put together in such a thoughtful way. And there's so many long-term benefits as what,

as to what Oregon presents on their NIL packages. That's really what gets the parents and the kids motivated because it's, again, it's not them. Here's $ w and the kids motivated be it's not them here's $5 m ridiculous. Like look, he offer, but then look at h stack up for you and how grow your brand and really things. And I think that' missing. I know a lot of

Oregon because they're re level that we've never se understand. I just don't think they're out there out buying everybody. They're competitive. And we're learning that as the, as the numbers start to come in, as we get some more data and, and, you know, the players help us with this stuff too, but yeah, Texas has money. Texas has a good collective. Missouri has money. They have a really good collective. Alabama, Ohio State, obviously they've recruited well forever. Georgia, LSU, they've recruited well forever. And the other thing I always laugh at, because this was always the people would say, well,

if you could pay the players, Phil Knight's just going to buy everybody for Oregon and Nike. Well, okay. I'm looking at our top five industry ranking right now for the class of 2025, Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, LSU, Georgia, all Nike schools. So you can't really favor one over the other either. And I realized he's not day to day anymore there, so Division Street, their collective, seems to have been better organized and better organized sooner than almost everybody else's. Yeah. I mean, honestly, they're the blueprint that everybody's trying to copy, right? They're trying to, hey, what's Division Street doing? Because they're doing it right. And it's not just pure money. It's organization.

It's all those things that they're doing really well. And they are, I mean, really, they all those things that they're doing really well. And they are, I mean, really, they are setting the bar for NIL collectives. And the, you know, the best part is they, they figured it out. It's not just recruiting. Okay. They're doing a really good job with team stuff too. That's why you don't see Oregon lose many of their, of their top players over for transfers every year. So, you know Division Street's just got it going on on both avenues uh if you will so let's talk about this because you you revisited this column last week as all a lot of these guys were committing and a lot of this was happening the is Oregon a blue

blood and you say no you say they're not there yet I'm not sure I agree with that I feel like this was kind of the final step. And I guess you can say they've got to win a national title. And they don't have one in their history. There has been no first-time national champion since the 1996 Florida Gators. So the next first-time national champion will be the first in a long, long time, in 28 years. If it's this year, it's 28 years.

But Oregon would be my pick based on just what they've done. They've gotten in the national championship game twice in that span. And now they have a roster that feels like it can compete with the teams that are winning national championships. No, it's, there's a few schools that the blue blood debate is really interesting about. Oregon's one of them. blue blood debate is really interesting about Oregon's one of them you know I think Clemson's one of them LSU there's some that you know okay USC is another one right USC is definitely a blue blood but their success has been you know quite removed from now

and Oregon's an interesting study because the name of the game anymore is branding right we know that branding at a school level, branding at an individual player level, like branding is key, right? And you might argue there's not very many bigger brands out there than the Oregon brand. I mean, there's just not. It's everywhere, the uniforms, the innovation, all of those things.

I mean, it's truly an elite top five school in that regard. They just don't have a national championship yet. And to my point in that column, like with what Dan Lanning's doing now, imagine Dan Lanning on the recruiting trail with a national championship under his belt, you know, look out. Well, and that's the thing. We've seen schools that have outpaced their traditional recruiting, like Texas A&M did it a couple of years ago.

But I would argue this class that Dan Lanning is putting together is much more organized, and you can see how it fits needs. And we'll talk about the safeties. They're still recruiting some safeties, like Jonah Williams and Trey McNutt. I think they're the top two safeties in the country right now. They're trying to get those guys. There might be other ones in the class who are really good. And then they've got to decide how many do they want to keep if all these guys commit.

And that's the sort of problem that Nick Saban had at Alabama, the sort of problem that Kirby Smart has at Georgia, where they might have to turn somebody away who 10 years ago would have been the top ranked player in their class. You're a hundred percent. Right. I mean, I, I, it's funny cause I joked about this with Josh Newberg the other day, but it's like, man, I feel like I'm Bama online's Tim Watts. Now the way he's covered recruiting for, you know,

two decades under Nick Saban and all, you know, two decades under Nick Saban and all, you know, I, we got these five stars. We're going to have to let this top 150 player go like, what everybody wants that kid. Like, yeah, we just don't have room anymore. Oregon's doing that. And to your point, you know, Oregon, we've seen Oregon recruit classes well before, but a lot of times there's been some filler like and by that I mean they went and signed a highly ranked wide receiver that frankly they didn't need they already had four or five committed they didn't need a sixth one but they did it because it inflated their rank right we're not doing that here the the roster management's second to none I mean honestly

I think Oregon wants to take two safeties in this class. I think that was the plan all along. And they very well could end up with Trey McDutt and Jonah Williams. And, I mean, they wanted to sign probably two corners in this class. They could potentially end up with DJ Pickett and Brandon Finney, and they're going to be done. Like, they're going to be happy and be done, and there's no hard feelings. And it's, to your point, it's pretty crazy how efficiently they've recruited. Yeah, DJ Pick pickett another one five star plus corner from zephyr hills florida he's committing on july 17th considering florida

miami and georgia so that's the fact that they can go into florida now or they could go i mean they went into maryland that you mentioned finney he's he's from maryland that they believe they beat out penn state for him which is a school that would traditionally recruit that mid-Atlantic region. So, yeah, Dan Lanning. And what's interesting about Dan Lanning's background, he's an unusual background coach. A lot of guys are in one tree. They've coached in one region.

And I know people associate Dan Lanning with Kirby Smart because he was the D.C. at Georgia before he got this job. But he also worked at Memphis under Mike Norvell. He worked at various places. He grew up in Kansas. So this is a guy who's been a little bit of everywhere now. Yeah, and he's really kind of brought the best parts all together, right? I think, you know, when I, when I look at Dan Lanning and I, and I, you know, maybe I catch him in a private setting or, you know, somewhere where the cameras aren't on and

all that, you know, he really reminds me of kind of a combination of Kirby Smart, Nick Saban, and Mike Norvell. And what I mean by that is, you know, Nick Saban is a grinder, worker. I mean, incredible coach, right? One of the best ever to do it. But he's not super personable, right? Mike Norvell, kind of a rising star still, even though he's a little bit more, you know, aligned than maybe Lanning is now. Super personable guy, right?

Like really smart, really good, like not to take it, but he's very personable. Yeah. He looks at Lanning and it's like, okay, you're kind of like both of them. Cause landing's a hoot, man. He's, he's a good guy. He'll remember stuff. You're like, how do you remember that? You know? Um, and just, uh, you know, he's got kind of all of that. And then of course, you know, I mentioned Kirby smart, you know, Kirby's obviously one of the top defensive minds and just a recruiting monster. And you look at it, not that Nick Saban wasn't, but you just look at it and Lanning's like really kind of all three combined. Yeah.

Nick Saban and Kirby Smart kind of like wake up every day trying to figure out how to kick everybody's ass. And I feel like, I feel like Lanning's got that vibe to him too. Even though, like you said, he can joke around with you like Mike Norvell can, but it's just beneath the surface. You kind of feel that little, little bit simmering there. Oh yeah. I mean, there's, there's no doubt that he's got a fire unlike anybody else. And that's a,

you know, that's an infectious thing, right? Your team picks that up. Recruits pick that up. Parents pick that up. You know, that's something that they, you can't fake, you can't fake that. I mean mean you can tell people you're working hard and do all this and that but i mean at the end of the day you can't fake it these guys recognize you know coaches that are that way and like i said i also think you know there's this too and this isn't a bad thing kids are different now than they were 10 years ago 20 years ago like just they're just aware their mental makeup their emotional makeup, they're different. And you have to recruit, you know, I think the old school way of kind of maybe the hardcore

Nick Saban, because even Nick Saban had to adjust a little bit before he retired, you know, in the way he recruited, in the way that maybe he talked to some kids at practice and this and that. And I'm not saying anything negative here. I'm just saying that's a reality. And I think Dan Lanning's ability to be approachable and to be flexible and to relate is really good. And I think that pays off. So we've talked about the guys who may be there in 2025.

Let's talk about the guys who signed in 2024. Who out of that freshman class do you expect to have an an impact in oregon's first big ten season the hard part is when it comes to that they signed so many impactful transfers and didn't have a lot of holes i think we're going to see a lot of those guys redshirt and so interesting yeah and so like a jeremiah mcclellan or ryan pelham you know, those guys are really, really good players and they would probably not necessarily start, but at least play in most wide receiver rooms. I think they're going to have a really tough time in Oregon. I mean, you're looking at, you know, Evan Stewart and Tez Johnson and, you know, all those guys that are there now. And that's what makes this scary, right? You're going to take that 24 class and all those guys are going to have probably full eligibility. And then you're going to combine that with 25 class. Oregon will have a pretty solid group of guys that won't be around next year that either go to the NFL early or have to go to the NFL or have ran out of college eligibility and i think dan lanning knows that which is why they place such an emphasis on this 25 class because these two this 24 and 25 group are going to come in and

now you're looking at you know the next two three years potentially with this group all together um i guess if it comes together organ's going to be really good for a while but yeah i mean the hard part is the transfer right because you got dylan gabriel you got derrick harman evan stewart that i just talked about jabbar muhammad all those guys are going to come in and play like i mean they're going to play kobe savage from from k-state dude's going to light up the big ten i mean yeah it's just you know it's down a list it's like you know i think they made the push to be in the in the playoffs this year and they're building you know that class in this next class to be you know kind of the continuum after that yeah it is it is interesting how they basically filled every

every need in the transfer and and i look at like it's interesting because dante moore probably qualifies as that class of 2024 quarterback or i mean you could call him the class 2023 quarterback because he was committed to being that class kind of realized he needed some seasoning after getting to play a little bit and that i i still find that completely fascinating because usually you don't see that with quarterbacks where they go you know what maybe i do need to learn a little bit and go work with will stein and work behind Dylan Gabriel. That's going to be a unique case study. Like it really is. It's going to be an outlier. We might not ever see that again in college football and in the, you know,

in the transfer portal era. And it, like you said, it's like how they did that, how they, I don't know if you want to say they convinced him or helped him realize that himself, but like, you just think it's like, man, you guys got Dylan Gabriel and Dante Moore and he knows that he's probably not going to start this year which by the way I've heard that competition has been really exciting you know all all summer uh and all spring uh those two are battling back and forth so um I would say that it's hard to say Gabriel won't start but I think those two are a lot closer than folks think. We had Will Stein on a few weeks ago.

I feel very confident in Dylan Gabriel, I think, at this point. But they have a very talented backup, which I mentioned this last week regarding Texas, because Quinn Ewers has not played a full season yet as a starter. He's gotten hurt both years and had to miss games like if you have designs on the national title you're gonna have to play 16 or 17 games to win it you better have a good backup quarterback you better have a good backup everything yeah I agree it's it's no longer how good is your is your starting lineup it's your

two deep like that's how we're gonna have to start looking at teams is you longer how good is your starting lineup. It's your two deep. Like that's how we're going to have to start looking at teams is, you know, how good is Bama's two deep? How good is Georgia's two deep? Ohio State, Oregon, you know what I mean? If they just got a good starting 11 or a good starting 22, yeah, that's probably great for the first half of the season. But when that second half and then that last third gets there, you know, you're playing good on good every week at that point.

And your guys are tired and beat up and it's going to take its toll so you know now your strength and conditioning program is really tested you know your your sports science your sports injury science those guys are tested and your depth is going to be truly tested i mean the teams that we see more than likely win it probably still have their starting quarterback and are the least beat up at the rest of the positions along the way. That might very well be the case. Yeah, and Oregon wants to be in that club. They want to be in that group. So we'll see if they have what it takes.

Now, you mentioned what they got out of the transfer portal this year. A guy who came to Oregon through the transfer portal, let's talk about Kyrie Jackson, because one of the saddest stories you're going to hear. He passed away this past weekend, died in a car crash in Maryland. A couple other college football players also passed away with him. Kyrie Jackson played at Oregon. He had been at Alabama before that and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings

in April and, and, you know, had his whole NFL career ahead of him. And what did he mean to Oregon in his time there? Yeah, I think when somebody gets the chance to talk to Dan Lanning about, you know, that tragedy, I think you're going to hear probably a very emotional story because there's a guy that was at Alabama and we know came out of high school with tons of potential tons of you know five-star elite player all the tangibles you'd want as a corner and just it it wasn't all clicking at Alabama right like played but wasn't the guy that maybe they expected maybe found himself in Saban's doghouse a little bit and was playing behind two first rounders like right that That's part of it, too. Yeah. But somehow comes to Oregon and decides,

hey, I'm going to go. I'm going to check something else out. Maybe a change in scenery is what I need. And I don't I mean, obviously, me being an Oregon guy and following Oregon, the outpouring I saw from former players, all of the coaches, former coaches that have left to go to other jobs, just really resonated that, man man this guy was one of those guys that walked into a room and lit it up with his smile and lit it up with just kind of being there in his presence and being a like a positive spirit and so I think that's something obviously we could talk about Kyrie the football player and that's all that's you know that is what it is Kyrie the person just it seemed as though he was someone everyone wanted to be around and couldn't help but smile when they saw him.

And that's going to be missed from playing in the NFL. It felt like everybody who'd played with him every step of the way, the guys who played with him in Oregon. Terryon Arnold has a really touching tribute to him who played with him in Alabama. Yeah, it did seem like he just had such a bright light anywhere he was. So prayers with his family and just awful, awful story. did seem like he he just had such a he was a bright light anywhere he was so uh you know prayers with his family and and just awful awful story but uh j-hop thank you so much because this is this has been a really interesting discussion and now I think I need to I need to figure out

who the blue bloods are I I think that's the next step like who who are the blue bloods of college football because we gotta we gotta college football? Because we gotta, we gotta agree on a definition. We gotta figure all this stuff out because I do think if Oregon's not one, what do you gotta do to become one? No, I love your work. I respect your work.

And I would love to read that and get your thoughts on it because I'm like you, like, what are the parameters here? What are, is it because you'm like you, like, what are the parameters here? What are, is it because you you want a national championship? Is it because you've got X amount of boosters? Like what's the criteria, you know,

and college football has changed so much that I think your blue blood criteria from 10 years ago is not the same criteria today. Right. Oh, exactly. I mean, that's the thing that, you know, you mentioned LSU, it does lsu block well yeah if we're talking about this century a hundred percent they won three national titles and they always have good players so but but it took nick saban kind of unlocking the formula for that to work with oregon it took i mean it was a team effort I've done stories about how they use the power of Nike and how, you know, Tinker Hatfield came in and helped them. And it's amazing. It's actually the Oregon rise in football is a really good business story as much as it is a sports story and I think it speaks to the power of of the brand of Oregon right because and I have to give credit Rob Mullins does a pretty dang good job at his job and you know just like I said I

think it speaks to the brand of Oregon if we're talking about pure Brands Oregon is a blue blood brand I mean you go anywhere around the country and you'll see oh yeah it's identifiable like and I think that's a good question. And maybe as I create that criteria list, if I put your logo in front of a kid in Miami, in New York, in California, and in Texas, do they all recognize it? Can they all start naming players? I think that matters because I know if I put that Georgia G in front of them, they'll know that. They'll know the ohio state oh the block oh they'll know the michigan block m but they'll also know that that oh yep 100 you're 100 right it's just it's like coca-cola right i

mean you know it don't change the name you know it which is exactly right yeah which reminds me of like when at&t changed its name to singular like 15 years ago it's like what are you doing that lasted for a minute but yeah they that's the power of branding and i would say oregon's a blue blood brand but they haven't won a national championship you got an interesting column to write i do i do appreciate the assignment i like it this is this is good off-season stuff right here. J-Hop, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you, buddy. So that's Justin Hopkins, and that is a really interesting conversation.

And you guys have been talking about this in the chat. JD, so marketing means you're a blue blood now? What? Laugh out loud. We're not saying that. I asked some folks on Twitter about this. It got some really interesting responses because it's sort of, you know, what is a blue blood?

How do we define this? And I would say, I think J-Hop probably has it right where you can't include Oregon in that category because they don't have a national title. That feels like the bare minimum prerequisite. So Oregon has to win a national title to get into that club. But my other question is, how do we define that club? And once you get in, can you be kicked out? Because Nebraska was certainly a blue blood for a long, long time. Are they a blue blood now? Because I would argue that Nebraska hasn't been nationally relevant for quite some time.

I'd say that, you know, part of the below Pelini era, like when they played Texas in the 2009 2009 big 12 championship game like that was a really good defense it was a pretty non-functional offense but that's the last time we thought of them on that stage at that level that was 15 years ago so that's the question. The Crimson Card Yu-Gi-Oh! Blue Bloods Win Natties two or more in the last two decades. That's not many. Like, okay. Two or more in the last two decades. Is Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, LSU.

I think we count USC, Clemson. That's it. I don't think it's that recent either. Got some interesting responses on Twitter about this too. One from Tuska's Burner burner which i thought was a this is a this is the best one i've seen in terms of kind of defining a blue blood and having maybe a rolling definition where you can you can kind of pluck people out put people. So three plus generations of elite history, one of which has to be the last two generations. For example, Georgia Tech is no longer a blue blood. Notre

Dame is on the cutting block. Notre Dame hasn't won a national title since the eighties. Notre Dame has been competitive, has been able to get in the college football playoff, got in the BCS championship game. But I think that's a very fair definition, which would leave Oregon out. Because Oregon is very much... Now, I would say Oregon is a couple generations good. Because like I said with J-Hop, it kind of goes back to the Rich Brooks era.

It changed when Chip Kelly got there, when he became the head coach. Then it sort of went into hyperdrive. But the other thing I'll say about Oregon is this feels like a second era beyond the Chip Kelly one. What's going on right now? Now, again, Dan Lanning, and we've said this on the show a bunch of times, they've got to turn this into championships. They had the best roster in the Pac-12 the past two years and didn't win the Pac-12. That's on them. They'll have one of the best rosters in the Big Ten. They will not have the

best roster in the Big Ten because Ohio State does, but they'll have one of the best. So can you turn that into Big Ten championships or get into the college football playoff, win a national championship. Obviously the national championships, the big one. But the thing with Oregon, I find interesting is Chip Kelly's when he really raised them to a new level, 2009, 2010, that era, it was based on a paradigm shift that Chip Kelly created. He used a rule change, a clock rule change going into the 2008 season to create an offense that no one knew how to stop. What's interesting about this is they rode that for a little while. Everybody figured that out.

And now Oregon is doing it differently. Now they're trying to do it the way Georgia does it, the way Alabama did it, the way Ohio State does it. And I think that's an interesting point in this is, can you do it like that? But no, are they like Oklahoma or Ohio State where there's multiple generations of being really good? No, they're not. All day on Twitter said, Oregon's collective is run by nike executives or ex-nike executives and billionaire phil knight with an open checkbook it might be true what hopkins said about them just being competitive but this is a purposeful effort by phil knight

to buy a title nothing wrong with that stop dodging that nobody's dodging that fact i don't know how to break this to you guys the teams with the most money have been the ones competing for national titles. Has NIL allowed your organs, your Tennessees, your Missouris to get players that they haven't been able to get? Yes, absolutely. But wasn't everybody complaining about there only being a few teams that could actually compete for titles. Isn't it a good thing if more can? Is that what we wanted? Willie says, got to be a rolling 20-year window of team accomplishments. I am glad you mentioned that, Willie, because I did some numbers crunching. Because I was curious about who the best teams have been this century.

Who have the best programs been in this century? Because it's a very what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. The players that are being recruited were born in the 21st century, don't really remember the early part of the 21st century either. So who's been the best? So I just did pure winning percentage. We use the real definition of a century. So we start in 2001. So 2001 through 2023, who's won the most? Well, the two that have won the most are the two you'd expect. Ohio State's number one at 251 and 46. Alabama's number two at 249 and 61. So you had some Mike Shule years in there that have to be accounted for. But it's like what we always say, Ohio State's always good.

There is no down period in Ohio State's history. They're always good. Alabama has had down periods, but has had periods of massive dominance. The Saban era, the Bear Bryant era. number three is Oklahoma at 242 and 63. What do we say? Other than the mid to late nineties, Oklahoma has always been good. Always, always, always. This is why I say Oklahoma will be fine in the SEC because Oklahoma is always good. Number four is Georgia. It's very interesting with Georgia because there were a lot of people who, unless Georgia won its first national title since 1980, until it broke through there, which it did in the 2021 season, people would not recognize Georgia as being a good program.

But Georgia has been good the entire century. Mark Rick took over in 2001, and he was good but not quite good enough. And then Kirby Smart comes in and presses the gas pedal all the way down. LSU number five. Nick Saban getting to LSU in 2000, one of the most significant events in college football of the last 50 years, because he unlocked what LSU is and created the formula for winning in this century. And he won a national title there. And Les Miles won a national title there. And Ed Orgeron won a national title there.

And Brian Kelly is certainly capable of winning a national title there. So, like, is LSU a blue blood? If you look at their, their history before this era, you'd say no, because they've had good teams. They've had some good periods, but they don't have those sustained dominance periods going until you get to the 21st century. Number six is Clemson 227 and 79 so you had the the first few years you had the time where they were okay but not quite there and then Dabo comes in and we've talked about this Clemson's had double digit until last year Clemson had double digit wins every year since 2011 it's wild they've been wildly successful. Who's number seven on that list? Why it's the Oregon ducks.

So Oregon behind all of these, these programs, the only other one on this list so far that has not won a national title since 2001 is Oklahoma, which won one in 2000, which played for national titles in 2003, 2004, 2008. So very, very similar profiles here. The difference between Oregon and Oklahoma is Oklahoma has Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer in its history, and Oregon doesn't have that. So you're probably wondering where some of these other ones, like one that I think is interesting, well, two, Florida State and Florida. Because if we go to Tuska's burner,

which I think is a great definition of multiple generations of dominance, some of it being in the most recent generation. So Florida has two national titles in this century, has three national titles total. So three national titles in the past 28 years. Florida State has three national titles going back to 1993. So all fairly recent. Florida State, I would argue, has two different eras because the end of the Bobby Bowden era was a lull. And then the Jimbo Fisher one was different. And I would argue that what's going on now at Florida State

with Mike Norvell is also different because they had another lull, tail end of Jimbo Fisher and Willie Taggart. So does that make them qualify as a blue blood? I don't know. Florida, meanwhile, one very compressed period of success that lasted a good amount of time that lasted, basically, Steve Spurrier gets there in 1990. And you really go through the tail end of the Urban Meyer era. So Urban Meyer leaves after the 2010 season. So you basically have this 20-year period of massive success at Florida.

The question is, is it two eras or one? Because all you've got between Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer is the Ron Zook era, which lasted three years. He got fired for all his, his failings as an on-field coach, though. Ron Zook was a master talent evaluator and compiler. Like those three years might not have been what Florida fans wanted, but he put together a hell of a roster in those three years to leave for urban Meyer. So I like with Florida, it feels like kind of one era. And then they've been on this roller coaster ever since where they've had some good years and then they've had some really bad years. They've not had that consistency that say an Oregon is now Oregon's had one really bad year

in there, but Oregon's been more consistent. You know, Oklahoma has been more consistent. Ohio state has been ridiculously consistent. Georgia has been consistent. So it's the consistency that's been lacking. Like LSU has had a little bit of a roller coaster. Auburn is the poster child for the roller coaster. Auburn and Florida, I'd say, are probably the most similar in this situation where they have won national titles recently. They've competed for national titles fairly recently. They have had really good years fairly recently.

And they have had some stinkers. So it's hard to figure out where these schools fit in there. But your Notre Dames and your Nebraskas, can you kick them out of this club? I don't know. The truth says Notre Dame has been irrelevant since 1977. They won the national title in 1988, the truth. Come on.

You guys, hard on Notre Dame. Very hard on Notre Dame. I do want to put one more definition out there that I thought was very interesting. Don on Twitter. Blue blood traditionally means of noble birth implying a generational thing for college football i think you have to have success for sustained periods of time multiple decades if not generational organ no florida state and florida probably the latest additions i again like we just said i i don't know because i think the multi-generational part

with florida was it one generation or or or have they been able to do it over multiple generations? If you want to say the Spurrier and Meyer eras were distinct, then yes. I think you can put Florida on that list. The traditional real definition of blue blood, it means of noble birth. It means you're a hemophiliac because you have a lot of incest and your family tree has more trunk than branches. That's what it means. That's why they call it that.

But that's really where we're at. But I think it's a fascinating discussion because I do think you have to consider recent success. I think you should be able to be kicked out of this club, but you probably should be able to get back in very like USC. I'd say was a blue blood for sure. And then the Pete Carroll era cemented it with that really, you know, most recent era of dominance. Cause they were really good. I mean, going back through some of those early century records, USC was incredibly dominant the first part of the century.

So if Lincoln Riley gets them really going, then absolutely. They're right back. We had a poll in the chat. Is Oregon Blue Blood 27% yes, 73% no. And again, I think you've got to win that national title. I think the national title is the key there. So Oregon doing the things you're supposed to do to win that national title. It's just a matter of, can they break through and we need to see it on the field. Dan Lanning is,

is in year three as a head coach. We talked about that with Kirby smart, you know, Kirby smart gets to the national title game in year two as a head coach, doesn't win it. And then the next few years as he's trying to get back, you had people, oh, he'll never win it. But he was right there every single year. And the thought was, okay, he's going to break through if he keeps doing this. And he did, and he won two of them. Intelligence Savage. intelligent savage maybe the definition of the blue blood has changed since we last thought on what is a true blue blood i i actually think that's a legitimate question

because i still think recent history matters recent history is, especially in an industry where you are beating, you know, 17 and 18 year olds in, and those, those are the ones that are going to decide whether you're good over the next few years. You have to be recently good. And then if you're not recently good how do you how do you jump start that like oregon figured out how to jump start it clemson figured out how to jump start it and then kept it going i think that's that's the trick and i think there's there's a few schools try like texas i think has gotten it jump started again so we'll see but this is a great discussion and i am going to work on a column about this we'll see if i can come up with a definite like a good true definition of what we're going to call

a college football blue blood and make a list of who the college football blue bloods are and then who's just ready to to jump on that list if if they have a little more success. And like Oregon, I think we can safely say they're going to fall just outside. And if they win a national title, then we probably put them on that list. But it's going to be fun to find out. It's going to be fun to find out if they can do it. Because I find this very interesting, where you do have schools that are now recruiting at a different level. And they are doing it in a way that we thought only a few schools would be able to do. The NIL era has spread it out a little bit.

Not a ton. Not a ton. It's not like there's 30 schools that can do this now. But we said if you could shear off four or five from Alabama's class, from Georgia's class, from Ohio State's class, and sprinkle them elsewhere, it might change the dynamics of things. Now, we don't have enough sample size to know if that's truly what has happened yet. But I suspect that's what's happened. A couple more things before we go. to know if that's truly what has happened yet. But I suspect that's what's happened. A couple more things before we go. The Texas and Texas A&M rivalry,

I just, I cannot wait to see these guys play again on the football field because they hate each other so much. This video appeared this weekend, a drone show over Austin with Bevo and it says saw him off. This is in midair. These people hate each other so much and they get to play football again against each other this year. I cannot wait. One more interesting piece of video that popped up over the weekend. They painted the ACC logos on the field at Cal this weekend. There are ACC logos on the field at Cal.

You are looking across the bay. The Pacific Ocean is just right out there. But you're in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I cannot wait. I ran into Justin Wilcox, Cal's football coach, at the ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. And he's basically just, what am I doing here? What is going on? But the Cal, wait, now, remember, Cal had the home and home with Auburn already set up so that Auburn came to them last year they're going to Auburn this year so that that's one cross-country trip

that's not even having anything to do with the conference move they were already make that but then their other road games are in Tallahassee, Pittsburgh, Winston-Salem, and Dallas. And if you look at Cal's schedule on the Cal website, they got the ACC championship game on there. I appreciate the optimism. I appreciate looking ahead. I appreciate feeling like, all right, this is going to be the year. The opinion says they should change the name to the All Coast Conference. I still think Coastal Elites was right out there for them, and they just chose not to do it. But yes, the Atlantic Coast Conference logo is now on the field at Berkeley.

Everybody go up to Tightwad Hill and go get a good look at it. What a world. Tomorrow, we are scheduled to have Arizona coach Brent Brennan joining us on the show. Also, on three director of recruiting and transfer portal, Steve Wilfong will join us to talk about a lot of commitment action over the July 4th weekend, a lot coming up over the next couple of weeks, because remember high school players start preseason camp at the end of this month. A lot of them want to be locked in and have their commitments done before they get started.

We got some big, big names that are going to be committing here in the next few weeks. We'll talk to Steve Wilfong about where they might be going. And then yes, on Tuesday, Big 12 Media Days begins. Talking season is here. We are so close to actual football, but of course we're going to talk about it first.

I'll talk to you tomorrow.