Oregon football still in the running for 4-star DL Gracen Halton

Oregon football lost four-star Gracen Halton to decommitment this week, but the Ducks are still one of his finalists ahead of a signing day decision.

Just two days ago, four-star defensive lineman Gracen Halton decommitted from Oregon, leaving Dan Lanning with another hole to fill in his 2022 class.

It’s been a tough first recruiting cycle for the new coach because of a rash of decommitments following the departure of Mario Cristobal. The class has gone from top-10 to No. 63 overall and that’s because the group went from a healthy amount of commits down to just 10 as of Jan. 28.

Losing Halton hurt because he looked like he was going to have an early impact on that defensive line and Lanning was making him feel like a priority. But his decommitment isn’t the end of Oregon’s chances, according to Greg Biggins of 247Sports.

Biggins’ report states that Halton will announce his commitment on Feb. 2 on CBSSportsHQ and his finalists are Miami, Oklahoma, and the Ducks.

The current trend is Oklahoma as the Sooners received a crystal ball for Halton just the other day but Miami can’t be counted out because of Cristobal. He visited Oklahoma and met with the new staff and is planning on checking out Miami this weekend to see Cristobal’s new program. He’s also met with Lanning and the new coaches at Oregon which give the Ducks a serious shot.

So why did he decommit if he’s still considering Oregon? He said that he did so to give all three of his finalists a fair shot.

Oregon isn’t out of this one yet so expect Lanning to push hard for him with signing day approaching next week.