Oregon opened July with a recruiting splash, and it came from a player the Ducks beat out a heavyweight field to land.
On Wednesday, Tae Walden Jr announced for Oregon, choosing the Ducks over Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, and LSU. The commitment gives Dan Lanning another major win as Oregon keeps rolling after putting together eight commitments in June.
Walden brings a versatile profile to Eugene. Rivals lists the 6-foot-2, 175-pound prospect as an athlete, and he’s ranked as the No. 70 player in the country, the No. 3 athlete in the class, and the No. 4 player in Tennessee. If he were slotted strictly as a cornerback, his national ranking would place him 10th at the position.
That label makes sense because Walden is more than just a defensive back projection. He’s coming off a season at Collierville in which he posted 42 catches for 912 yards and 10 touchdowns, and his production as a receiver and kick returner gives Oregon some real flexibility with how it could use him.
The Ducks also got a little more clarity on the top end of their defensive back board. Walden immediately becomes Oregon’s highest-ranked cornerback commitment in the class, though that may not last long. Just 15 minutes after his announcement, Hayden Stepp was set to reveal his decision, with expectations pointing toward another Oregon pickup.
The path to Walden was important, too. After Ai'King Hall flipped away from Oregon and the Ducks missed on five-star cornerback Donte Wright, the cornerback picture in this class had started to look thin. Stepping in with Walden gave Oregon a needed answer, and doing it while beating four SEC programs only adds to the significance.
There’s also a bigger recruiting picture here. With Walden in the fold, Oregon now has a commitment from the 16th different state represented in this class, a sign of how wide the Ducks’ recruiting reach has become.
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The setback does not change the fact that the Ducks have addressed the front and can afford to be more selective with what remains. Even so, this was the kind of recruitment Oregon had hoped to win, and the timing only heightens the anticipation around the rest of the day, with a pair of highly regarded cornerbacks still expected to make their decisions. [Read more 🡒]