A tall tree grows in Brentwood, Tennessee, coveted in Eugene

Recruiting comes at you fast. This week the Ducks got their 13th commitment in the 2027 class in Illinois offensive lineman Cameron Wagner, they're in pursuit of 5-stars KJ Green and Ismael Camara, and already they've started working on the 2028 class.

Friday they offered 6-5, 292 sophomore defensive tackle Ayden "Lumberjack" Woodruff, a four-star from Ravenwood Academy in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Woodruff won a state championship at Division II-AA Battleground Academy in 2025, and early in his prep career he's shaping up to be a battleground in 2028 high school recruiting. The quick, mobile and agile big man already boasts offers from Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, Indiana, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Ole Miss, Texas, USC, Michigan, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Last fall he took game visits to Bama, Michigan and Ohio State. The in-state Volunteers covet him. Part of the reason the SEC no longer dominates college football the way it once did is that NIL and the portal have made high profile recruiting searches national, and players like Woodruff get offers and attention from all over the country. It's big business, bigger than ever with rosters topping $40 million in NIL money and top players landing $5 million contracts.

The Ducks embrace this national challenge. Their No. 7 2027 class includes 13 players from 11 different states. They go toe-to-toe with the SEC heavyweights and top ten programs, joining the high stakes pursuit of players like Lumberjack.

And what Lumberjack wouldn't want to go to Oregon, the home of tall trees like first-round draft picks like Derrick Harmon, Kayvon Thibodeaux and DeForest Buckner, a program with four potential first-round draft picks on their 2026 defensive line in Matayo Uiagalelei, Teitum Tuioti, Bear Alexander and A'Mauri Washington?

Elite traits emerge early, but the disparity in size and competition makes evaluations tricky

Woodruff has the potential to become a disruptive inside force like Washington, but he's hard to evaluate as a high school player because the competition at exclusive private schools in the Tennessee system varies widely. At Battleground he starred for a school with around 950 students, and he was simply too big and too fast for the players around him, crushing opponents half his size.

That's not his fault-- there are simply not many high school sophomores who are 6-5, 295. That's part of the reason the Ducks have to travel 2,000 miles to find them. As new Oregon football general manager Tyler Dean said on the TD Show podcast, "You're looking to build a board of 300-400 kids out there and try to figure out which guys that have interest in Oregon."

This spring Lumberjack transferred to Ravenwood Academy, a 6A power with an enrollment of 1,950. That will give him a chance to show his skills against a few more Division I players, but he won't truly meet his match until he arrives on a Power 4 campus or starts attending those combine events for elite players.

To build that board the Ducks have to cast a wide net and take on the most aggressive recruiting programs in college football head-to-head. It's too early to tell which schools Woodruff will zero in on, but the Ducks offered early because they have perhaps the most finely tuned radar in the game. Whether Green (Stone Mountain, Georgia,) Camara (Gilmer, Texas) or Lumberjack Woodruff, if there is an elite prospect with the right DNA for Oregon, they will find them.

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