Oregon Ducks Football Recruiting: Joe Mixon and Lorenzo Featherston
The Oregon Ducks are busy identifying targets in the 2014 class, and two players who have been receiving some interest from the Ducks are four-star athlete Joe Mixon and weak-side defensive end Lorenzo Featherston from the state of North Carolina. Mixon in particular is of note, because his recruitment has really picked up over the past couple of days.
One of the top 200 recruits in the 2014 class, Mixon can play at either running back or outside linebacker and is ranked by 247Sports has the 20th best athlete in the class. He received offers yesterday from the Colorado Buffaloes and Washington and snagged another Pac-12 offer today from the California Golden Bears. He also has in-conference offers from the Washington Huskies and Oregon State Beavers.
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The offer from Cal today was his first from an in-state school, and he already has some high early interest in the school. The 6’2″, 195 pound Freedom High standout is one of the top 20 recruits in the state of California and is also interested in the Washington Huskies. The 1,100-yard rusher also took it to the house 24 times last season and is being looked at by major programs such as Alabama, Miami, Oklahoma, Boise State, UCLA, USC, and Nebraska.
The top four-star recruit took an official trip to California, and the Oregon Ducks have become a recent elite team to take a closer look at the talented athlete. Running backs coach Gary Campbell checked in on Joe Mixon yesterday, and these past two days have been absolutely huge for Mixon.
Lorenzo Featherston picked up an offer from the Clemson Tigers yesterday, but Dabo Swinney will have to compete heavily with UNC for the defensive end. The Tar Heels offered him last month and are in a high standing in his recruitment, along with the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers. Featherston also has early interest in the Oregon Ducks and Nebraska Cornhuskers.
UNC has shown very high interest in the Greensboro prospect, as they have hosted him on an unofficial visit and sent Deke Adams to check on him last month before offering him five days later. Clemson is the third school to have offered Featherston, and Florida, N.C. State, and Virginia Tech have also shown interest. The 6’7″ DE has received heavy interest from the ACC and SEC, and he currently has three teams in the Carolinas taking a look at him.
It will be interesting to see how Oregon responds to the interest they have been getting from Featherston early on in the process for the hyper-athletic 2014 pass rusher.
You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.