Oregon Football: Willie Taggart And Coaches Used Police Escort To Recruit

The Oregon Football coaches recently took a local Eugene/Springfield Recruiting trip with the help of a police escort from the Eugene Police Department.

The University said it was to keep the trip that visited six Eugene/Springfield High Schools on time and also keeping all the coaches together when they made their appearance back on January 13th.

According to the Register-Guard,  the Coaches had two motorcycled police officers in front and two behind.  One of the reasons was to keep the caravan ‘on time.’ Then again, it’s not everyday you see this type of behavior and ‘White Glove’ treatment to College Coaches on a recruiting assignment.

The amazing thing about this, it is totally legal. The Officers were paid from the U of O Recruiting Fund for their services that ran about six hours. The escort ran with no lights or sirens to attract additional attention

"For Taggart’s escort, each officer volunteered for the work and was paid overtime for 5½ hours, for a total of $2,459 in overtime reimbursement rates, billed to the university,John Hankemeier, Eugene Police Department Spokesman"

UO Athletic Department Spokesman Craig Pintens said this is the first time that Oregon has used the Eugene Police Department in Recruiting, but he felt it was important considering, at the time, National Signing Day was less than a month away.

It was also noted in the report that the Police Officers who worked in the escort volunteered their hours. The Athletic Department paid the Eugene Police Department $2500 for their assistance.

Next: Oregon Football Recruiting: 4-Star Cyrus Habibi-Likio Commits

National Signing Day is Wednesday, February 1st.