Oregon Football's roster IS on par with Ohio State--and could be better | Oregon Ducks Podcast

Again YouTube comments X formly known as Twitter or join the flock over at subex get Priority Access and all sorts of other perks mailbag has been chalk full and I love seeing that I get through them as quickly as I can this one from Mike can you compare our three deep roster do you mean two deep or three deep roster with say that of Georgia or Ohio State I know this is about building depth so 247 Sports does not yet have their team composite scores out for the the 2024 season evaluating all all the talent or at least I wasn't able to locate that exact metric but for the 2024 recruiting cycle Ohio State brought in the fifth ranked High School class and the number eight transfer portal class conversely Oregon brought in the third ranked High School class and the second best transfer portal class now those are just numbers on a sheet my notes specifically for for today's show I do indeed prepare contrary to what some may think I hope it's evident that I prepare anyway I digress so if you look at that you might think well Oregon's got the better Russia they got the better High School class they've got the better transfer portal class but what you have to remember is not every player from that transfer class and especially not every player from that high school class is going to be playing this year and it's also hard to keep track of previous recruiting classes because if you say well Ohio state has averaged you know whatever five and a half over the last three years and Oregon's average eight and a half with their recruiting class rankings they were number nine a season ago number three in 2024 and I think about number 17 uh is what it was back in the 2022 class when you know Chris Ball left and then Landing came in they were able to you know kind of Salvage it and land big recruits they ended up 13th overall actually for for the high school class which is pretty darn good so I I I think for Oregon they're in Ohio State's class in terms of the roster and I think that's where Oregon fans need to be thinking first it it's easy to jump to you know a Georgia who I think are the preseason National Title favorites they they are according to fandu literally and I think they should be in the minds of college football fans like I I really think that this is George's world and we're just living in it right now cuz don't let last year's coming up short in the SEC Championship Game prevent you from from remembering they won back-to-back national championships and Morgan hired their head coach from there for a reason everybody wanted a piece of what Georgia was doing so I think Georgia is on another level but for Oregon right now not just in the short term because Ohio state is also a national title Contender but in the Big 10 landscape that's where your attention has to be I know regionality has been kind of thrown to the wind in college football but the first thing you want to think about is okay can we can we win our conference can Oregon emerge as the Big 10 Champions this year the answer is yes they they can absolutely be in in that sort of conversation and I think now that the spring transfer portal window has come and gone it might be worth bringing Jay Stevens of lockdown Ohio State back on let me know if you agree in the YouTube comments and we can kind of talk about where these two rosters sit right now cuz I think they're the two best teams in the Big 10 and frankly as time goes by I feel better about Oregon than I do Ohio State now the Buckeyes have an incredibly talented roster they've got the best individual defensive player in JT tuao or Caleb DS frankly if you were to just say hey who are the 10 best or five best transfer or overall players between these two teams those two guys would probably be at the top of the list and they're both playing for Ohio State but then you'd probably have Jabar Muhammad uh in there maybe a Jordan bur or a Jeff basa you know that that would sort of but Oregon can not just can contend with Ohio State I think they can beat Ohio State at right now with a game being played Aon Stadium I'd pick him to beat Ohio State the Buckeyes still don't know for sure who their quarterback is it's probably going to be will Howard but the fact that Howard who who I like and think is solid and can be better than what he's shown at Kansas State when given you know the resources that he's got Ohio at Ohio State and the weapons around him and they've got a great Back Field and Chip Kelly will will dial up a great run game for him and everything I feel better about having Dylan Gabriel compared to will Howard after Spring football is come and gone and Howard wasn't able to put the clamps on the starting job like you got an inexperienced guy in Devin Brown who was a talented recruit and a true freshman Julian sayian out there pushing him for the SP there have been zero Rumblings that Dante MO Austin Nova said who both look great in the spring game by the way are pushing Dylan Gabriel because Gabriel is clearly the starter and he's showing the coaches and the rest of the team and everybody else media and fans alike that that's a starting quarterback and you don't have to worry about it and I I I just feel better about Oregon than Ohio State right now so you know doing a whole to deep comparison uh Jay and I might get back together to to do that at some point here uh on an upcoming episode of the show only if you want me to this is of course uh the people's show so let me know what you guys think down uh in in the comment section another question here came in from bud I understand that the TV networks will be selecting Big 10 games this week for their broadcasts next year perhaps we already know this but given that Oregon is a top tier School in the Big 10 for the foreseeable future you got that right is it likely Oregon will play Ohio State and Michigan more often than other teams in the conference I would think so and the the selection that he's referring to is the Big 10 conference essentially saying what games are we putting in prime time which ones do we want to showcase and that that Oregon Ohio State game I I don't know how it's not going to be game day with the amount of offseason hype these two teams are generating the brands and television numbers that uh that they've fostered over the last several years I think that's going to be a big time college football game I don't know how game day could be looking anywhere else the the the lineup of games that week I don't think is incredibly strong uh let me just just double check it here cuz you know there there will be other options and you also don't know what storylines are going to pop up but that that October 12th game between Oregon and and Ohio State let's see I think I'm on and like it's just it's just not an incredibly loaded lineup of games like I I I still haven't seen one just Penn State USC that could be a really good game Oklahoma Texas okay that's tough that's tough that is really tough so that's the only other game that's the only other game Miss LSU perhaps uh could be a huge game there but um you know I think between Miss LSU Texas Oklahoma in the SEC you have Florida Tennessee and then you have Ohio State Oregon all right so there are more games than I Remember full disclosure I did not remember there being that that many games there still I I I think if you're the Big 10 I don't know how you're not putting Oregon against Ohio State and Michigan like that's part of what's generating the interest and Intrigue with Real Alignment is like man you're going to go against these teams we used to call them bowl games now we're just going to call them conference games so yeah I don't know that Ohio State Michigan in fact I am almost certain they won't be on the schedule every year at least one of them will be I cannot see a year in which you miss both Ohio State and Michigan if they do Oregon better win at least 11 games uh is is all I'll say there uh this question came in from John hi Spencer a daily lurker here we call them every dayers John let's let's have a better term than lurker for yourself with a question about the up coming football season for D Ducks you know with a d and whatnot lots to talk about the offense and defense sides of the ball but little about special teams how do we improve uh as much there as we have on offense and defense so the this is a this is a two-fold question because I think there are two areas in special teams one not not one not three two there are two specifically that Oregon has to get better at at to have the third side of the ball be improved from a year ago and I'll tell you what those are the two areas I was referring to are the kick return game and clutch field goals so let's start with the return game every dayers like yourself John may remember me saying this stat previously but uh for those who uh pop in and out of the show I appreciate you all anyway or if you're finding it for the first time I'll bring you up to speed a year ago or did not have a single kick return over 25 yards that's just bad not good that should be a wideopen position put somebody back there that's got a better feel for it no disrespect to Gary Bryant I I like having him as a wide receiver does some yard good yards after catch stuff if he hadn't returned kicks last year I'd probably look at him as a candidate to do it because of the work that he does after he kep CES the football however a season of it is in the books and it didn't produce a whole heck of a lot so that's the first area but the second one is is clutch field goals and this has been a oh what's the best word to describe it Troublesome area for the Ducks over the years if if you have to give Camden Lewis credit for beating Washington State in 2019 that was a big kick they were down a point and there's no tie no overtime nothing you're either winning or losing Oregon won the game that was his true freshman year since then does anyone have a clutch kick that Oregon is like what what's the last clutch Oregon field goal that that was truly like hey sent the game to overtime one in his time expired I mean it might might be that 2019 kick 2021 can't think of one off the top of my head that was a big time clutch field goal 2022 they didn't need any really well didn't have a chance to kick one at the end of that Washington game didn't kick field goals of the Washington game in Seattle this year so you see what I'm saying like that's the other area and look adaka Sappington uh is coming over from Oregon State he missed one field goal last year great that's fantastic did he have to kick any in a high pressure situation I don't know I didn't watch every Oregon State game the way I watched every Oregon game this is locked on Ducks not locked on beavers so that that's it it's hard to measure that like Grant Mets in the spring game you know turned some heads when he made a 49 yard field goal it was great it was awesome that guy is not expected to be the starter that's what Sappington in theory was brought in to do but maybe Mets is better I don't know but I don't know what these guys do when the pressure's on and that's what Oran need it's a hard thing to find Alabama didn't have clutch kickers for for a very long time so those are the special team areas I look for because I think the punt return game was good Oregon didn't fumble the ball last year knock on W and I thought the punting game with Ross James and a little bit of Luke dun I thought it was outstanding Ross James was awesome I I think he's really really good uh and and I look forward to having him back this year