Here you go, another edition of Wednesday Whispers:
COACHING WHISPERS
The early part of this New Year has been spent, for the most part, chasing down leads on the coaching front. In many respects, nothing has changed since Monday. Dameyune Craig still appears to be the primary target for Taggart as the next offensive coordinator for the Ducks. As of late last night, nothing had changed on that front.
But why the hard push for Craig? While it is true he is seen as a strong recruiter, he also has an established relationship with Taggart. In fact, this will not be the first time Taggart has offered Craig the role of offensive coordinator. He did so after the 2015 season, but Craig chose the better pay and prestige of the SEC moving from Auburn to LSU over the role of offensive coordinator. That is what is making the decision difficult for Craig this time around. He feels a sort of friendship to Taggart and to turn him down two seasons in a row, while also securing a raise, could be his last opportunity at a coordinator slot.
What else is the hold up? Craig has spent all but a brief span of his life in the southeast. Born in Alabama, college at Auburn, even played for the Carolina Panthers before going into coaching in 2003. This would be a monumental move for he and his family, so there is much to consider. LSU assistant coaches are off work the rest of the week giving Craig plenty of time to consider his options.
Should the Ducks not be able to lure Dameyune Craig away from LSU, an Alabama source told us that “it’s possible, Taggart targets Mario Cristobal,” for the Oregon staff. “Cristobal is associate head coach and OT's coach. Bama has Key as the overall OL coach,” the source continued. We actually can confirm through other sources that Cristobal has been offered a position by Taggart including coaching the offensive line. Cristobal is likely to have several options should he choose to leave Alabama, so this is another name to watch over the course of the next week.
The other coaches we looked deeper into all were on the defensive line. We know that Taggart and Leavitt want desperately to tap into a coach with ties to the Polynesion community. We know that he tried to get WSU defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, but he and his family are firmly entrenched in Pullman and happy there.
A couple of names that floated around both seemed plausible. CJ Ah You, a first year defensive line coach at Vanderbilt, is thought to be a rising prospect in the coaching ranks and would be an under the radar hire. Multiple Vanderbilt sources said that “Ah You would be a big score with his ties to Poly culture and Hawaii. He's Vandy's guy in that regard.” With that, however, we also heard from a separate and very reliable source that no contact has been made and that they do not believe Ah You would leave Vanderbilt for Oregon.
Inoke Breckterfield, with strong ties to the state of Oregon having played for the Beavers, was another name we were told might have some interest. Wisconsin sources told us that they had no heard of any contact between Oregon and Breckterfield, but said that they “wouldn’t be surprised if he (Breckterfield) left. It seems like most of his recruiting ties are on the west coast.” Breckterfield only makes $215,000, so the Ducks could certainly offer him an opportunity to move closer to where he has family and still pay him more than he makes at Wisconsin.
We think, at this point, Joe Seumalo is much lower on their wish list. Seumalo has strong ties both to the state of Oregon and the Polynesian community, but just is not as high on the wish list for Taggart and Leavitt. With Seumalo it is not a money issue – it is mostly a personality fit issue.
Before anyone looks too deep at the Taggart-Harbaugh connections, we reached out to Stanford sources just to see whether Taggart might have called on Diron Reynolds. Simply put – no. Reynolds was groomed to be the replacement for Randy Hart at Stanford. When Hart retired following the 2015 season, the Cardinal quickly hired Reynolds from Oklahoma.
RECRUITING WHISPERS:
It has been quite the week around the Oregon football program. Offers continue to pour out the doors of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex like snow in the Willamette Valley? Seems like this year is full of more snow than normal, so it was the best comparison to make!
With the 2017 class quickly getting ready to sign, head coach Willie Taggart has not been shy to look towards 2018 with his two most recent offers to a three-star cornerback and a four-start wide receiver. It is the four-star receiver, Brian Hightower, who is most intriguing. Another IMG Academy product, Hightower is also the antithesis of the late 2017 offers. He is a bit bigger at 6-3 and 196 pounds than many of the receivers targeted for 2017.
Where are the whispers?
Bryan Thompson, once thought to be a Duck lean who then committed to Boise State following the firing of the Duck staff, re-opened his commitment over the holiday weekend. This is important because Thompson has a very good relationship with new wide receiver coach Jimmie Dougherty. That is not to say that he is anywhere near a Duck lock – not yet – just that the Ducks are back in the hunt. Thompson also has very close ties with new Baylor Co-Offensive Coordinator (and former Duck OC) Matt Lubick. There is also going to be some competition from the north as Washington looks to enter the mix. Needless to say, this one is not decided.
And then there are some visits which are coming which hold even more promise for a commit. One such visit will be from
Isaac Slade-Matautia. The 6-1, 225 pound linebacker from Hawaii is somewhat private and does not talk much – but we have very good reason to believe that his established relationship with defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt and the immediate potential for impact at Oregon could lead to a very important ‘quack’ from the talented linebacker. We cannot be sure it will happen during his official visit (January 13), but there is a reason to believe Slade-Matautia will eventually be a Duck.
We told you before that Stephen Carr might be considering the Ducks – nothing has changed on that front. Carr is still committed to the USC Trojans but does plan on an official visit to Eugene. This is the longest of long shots at the moment because Najee Harris is either going to stick with his Alabama commit or flip to Michigan. If either of those happen, we expect Carr to stick with the Trojans on signing day.
Bruce Judson has also set an official visit – one which is also likely to be a quack watch weekend of January 20th. In fact, that weekend is shaping up very well for the Ducks as they will also be hosting
Demetri Burch and
DeMarco Artis on official visits.
Though the class once looked lost at sea, it is starting to shape into a fantastic late-blooming class. Having a coach be fired and losing some of the top commitments is a very difficult situation, but Taggart has really picked up the slack and filled his time wisely. While it would be impossible to predict a class ranking, do not be surprised at all if the Ducks find a way to push into the top 20 this year.
One final recruiting thought; has there ever been a crazier recruiting story than
Latavious Brini? From not even being on the Duck radar to getting an offer simply by tweeting out that he wants to visit? I cannot recall anything quite like it in the short history of Twitter based football recruiting. It does show one thing – the new coaching staff is absolutely paying attention to social media in a manner unlike before.
Speaking of unlike before, Deommodore Lenoir has said he will make his final decision on signing day this year. We still expect him to join his close friends Jaylon Redd and Thomas Graham, along with team mate Nick Pickett to make a return of the quack commit to the Ducks.
The commitment frenzy seems frenetic these days. While it was next to impossible in the past to know what lay behind the black curtains of the HDC, those seem almost opaque now. With every ‘quack, quack’ tweet from a coach, it seems that they want the world to know good news still looms. Last night Jimmie Dougherty jumped into the fray with a similar tweet letting Duck fans know that a commit might be at hand. Who might that commit be?
