On the 17th of June, the Oregon Ducks received a commitment from defensive end and three-sports-star Cody Carriger. The track star from Butte high school in Montana is a little-known recruit on a national scale, and he is a huge sleeper on the most recent Ducks recruiting class. Carriger is a huge 6’6″, 230 pound presence who can also run a 40-yard dash in 4.85 seconds and the 100 meter dash in 11.47 seconds. He plays with a rare intensity and is one of those players who is willing to go the extra mile to be prepared to play.
The only other Pac-12 team who gave an offer to Cody Carriger was the rival Washington Huskies, but the Ducks were particularly aggressive in their quest to add the weakside, Big Sky defensive end. He is a diamond in the rough, and this should be taken literally. It is beyond difficult to find players like Carriger in Montana, and Chip Kelly said that Carriger would have been a four-star recruit if he was from California.
ESPN hasn’t even bothered to put recruiting information up on him, while Scout and Rivals have him rated as a three and two star recruit respectively. Rivals ranks him as the third best player in the state, while Scout ranks him as the 90th best defensive end in the country.
Those who have watched Carriger’s uncanny and freakish mix of strength, size, and speed know that he is a four-star recruit who can impact a football team. He should be starting by year two and actually had a vertical jump of 35.5 inches. That’s incredible, and Jerry Azzinaro has a great project on his hands. Carriger is also the son of a former linebackers coach, which means that he has the knowledge pedigree in him. With some coaching, Carriger will be a legit defensive end for the Ducks.
In addition to being a track and football star, Cody Carriger was also a star basketball player in college (which explains the superb vertical leap). This guy has versatile athleticism, and it’s as tantalizing as it gets. It’s just not natural for a defensive end to be able to jump three feet in the air and run as fast as a linebacker, but that’s exactly what Carriger is capable of doing. His relative obscurity has helped the Ducks quietly add a gem, and he is an unheralded prize in their recruiting haul.
If Carriger was from a bigger state, then every Pac-12 team would have been after him. Instead, the Ducks only had to compete with the Huskies, and that didn’t prove to be such a big challenge. Carriger is a starting caliber end who has the potential to be a conference All-American. That’s some good upside, especially for a player who is one of the least-known recruits in the land.
It’s time to give Cody Carriger his due, because he might just be one of the best defensive end recruits in the Pac-12 this year. And yet, the man with the 3.5 GPA is still a relative unknown. How can a 6’6″ end with high-line athleticism go unnoticed? Well, he won’t be forgotten for long, and “Cody Carriger” is a name that Pac-12 fans need to keep in their heads. Your starting quarterback will be well acquainted with him in the future. Carriger is a hard worker who is ready to get to work after receiving the full-ride scholarship, and he has said that much.
“Their facilities down there … no where else in the world, man,” Carriger said. “They pulled out a uniform and it had my my number (44) on it. They did their home work.”
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