EUGENE - Trent Ferguson’s path to Oregon started with basketball, not football, and it nearly stopped cold when a bad landing between his sophomore and junior years at West Salem High School left him with a dislocated heel.
He was reaching for a block off the backboard when everything went wrong.
“I just remember laying on the court thinking, ‘Oh, is this it? Am I done?’”
Ferguson said. “Ended up going to the ER, got it popped back in, and started start the recovery process.”
At the time, Ferguson was still a hoops prospect. His father, Joe Ferguson, had been a 6-8 forward at University of Portland in the early 1990s, and the younger Ferguson was playing AAU ball against some of the Pacific Northwest’s best talent. But while he was stuck on the couch during recovery, he kept watching the NFL combine - and hearing from Marty Maurer, a former NFL player and Oregon State grad, that his frame could work perfectly on the offensive line.
That idea took hold. With help from his mother, Ferguson shifted into football and built himself up fast.
“In five months, I gained 50 pounds,” Ferguson said. “Went from 245 to 295 when I played. I got healthy enough to play the last four games of the football season my junior year.”
He was a beginner when he finally got on the field, but he didn’t have to be polished to stand out. Ferguson says he had no real grasp of offensive line technique at the time, yet his size and power still overwhelmed defenders.
That raw talent showed up in his fourth football game ever, when he lined up against then-Sheldon senior linebacker Teitum Tuioti, who would later become his Oregon teammate and is the son of Ducks defensive line coach Tony Tuioti. Several Oregon coaches were there that day, and Ferguson later learned they were pointing him out to one another.
“Who is that kid?”
Dan Lanning first saw Ferguson on film in a surprising place: West Salem lacrosse. Even there, the Oregon coach said Ferguson’s body type and force stood out.
“Trent has an unbelievable work ethic,” Lanning said. “He puts in the time.
He expends a lot of effort. And he’s one of those guys that’s been big for a long time, and now has really grown into his body.
He can move people up front.”
A visit to Eugene followed just a few days later, and Oregon offered him a scholarship on that trip.
“I never dreamed that Oregon would be my first offer after my fourth football game ever,” Ferguson said. “I didn’t even really know how to play football.
I was just extremely physical and dominant. ... When Coach (Adrian) Klemm told me they wanted to offer me a full ride, I just stared at him, speechless.”
Once he arrived at Oregon, the learning curve got steep. A’lique Terry had become the offensive line coach by then, and Ferguson spent the spring of 2024 figuring out the basics - inside zone, outside zone, foot placement, leverage, all of it.
“I spent the whole spring getting my ass kicked by first-round draft picks,” Ferguson said. “And it kind of was that way for a while, honestly.
I just knew that it was a process. I remember Derrick Harmon just making my life hell every day when I was on scout team and enjoying every moment of it.”
He kept himself on track by writing down three small goals each day, then checking them off and building on that progress.
That patience paid off. Ferguson did not play as a freshman, but as a sophomore in 2025 he appeared in all 15 games, including 36 snaps at left tackle and 21 snaps as an extra offensive lineman in jumbo packages.
Now weighing 322 pounds, he’s no longer just the local kid with size and upside. He’s a lineman with command of the basics and a chance to compete for a spot in Oregon’s unsettled offensive line rotation.
This summer, Ferguson went with other Oregon athletes to the Dominican Republic through a church program to help build a basketball court for local kids. Far from home, the whole route he’d taken - from basketball prospect to football recruit to Duck - felt even bigger.
Oregon had plenty of options on the offensive line, but the Ducks chose him early.
“He didn’t have to offer me that early,” Ferguson said of Lanning. “Like, he could have waited and seen if other schools would have been interested. But he offered me immediately, because he saw something in me and believed in the local kid.
“And that means everything to me. So, every day I’m able to go on the field, I feel like I can kind of repay that, just out of respect to Oregon and the standard that’s been built here.”
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