Oregon Ducks Football: Notre Dame leads for Max Redfield

2013 four-star safety Max Redfield has been one of the most talked about recruits in the country after decommitting from the USC Trojans, and he told Scout.com that the rival Notre Dame Fighting Irish lead in his recruitment. Redfield is coming off of a solid visit to the Washington Huskies, and they are still in the mix in his recruitment. However, it is Notre Dame at the top for now.

USC is also close in his recruitment, and the Oregon Ducks are the top darkhorse. Redfield’s decommitment from USC meant more interest in Oregon, due to Chip Kelly’s rule that committed prospects cannot visit Oregon. Redfield reportedly has an official visit lined up to Eugene this weekend.

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The Ohio State Buckeyes have also emerged as a team that is still involved in his recruitment, and it will be interesting to see if he decided to plan a visit to Columbus. It looks like it will take an extremely impressive visit for another program to land the four-star prospect, because ND is going to be tough to beat.

The top 50 recruit is one of the top five safeties in the nation, and most recruiting sites regard him as the third best recruit in the state of California. The Mission Viejo star could still end up at Oregon, but the Trojans might have a better shot at landing him. The thing is, his recruitment is somewhat intertwined with the recruitment of fellow top safety Leon McQuay III. He has USC and Oregon among his finalists, and a commitment to either school could change the complexity of Redfield’s recruitment.

However, McQuay is expected to decide on his school after Redfield, so that should not affect Redfield’s decision much at all. Some say that it helps give Notre Dame an edge, but I don’t buy it at all. Redfield isn’t going to pick a school based on what McQuay will do, especially since Oregon and USC would be fine with having Redfield anyone and don’t have their eyes specifically set on one or the other.

But Notre Dame is the favorite right now, and it’s going to take a considerable effort from a school like Oregon to land him. All eyes will be peeled on the Stanford game, because that’s likely Redfield’s visit date to Eugene. The Ducks would love to land Redfield, who would be a perfect fit to their defense with his terrific coverage ability. He’s a fast, instinctive safety with plenty of ball skills and could very well be the best coverage safety in the 2013 recruiting class.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.