Garlington, Reyna commits reveal the strength of Oregon's new recruiting strategy

With 17 commitments Oregon ranks No. 6 in the 247Sports Composite, a standing that will change every few hours from now until the end of July.

Remember last year at this time Richard Wesley flipped to Texas after jumping into the pool with Dan Lanning. The Ducks had lost high profile recruiting battles for Jared Curtis and Jackson Cantwell, and the outlook for the class seemed dismal.

Dan Lanning and his staff went on a tear, adding Messiah Hamilton and Jett Washington, Davon Benjamin, Kendre Harrison, Immanuel Iheanacho and Anthony Jones, and by the time Signing Day came Oregon compiled the No. 3 class in the country, their third straight Top Five recruiting class.

Oregon recruiting classes in the 247Sports Composite

2027 (in progress) No. 7
2026 No. 3
2025 No. 5
2024 No. 3
2023 No. 9
2022 (first Lanning recruiting class) No. 16

This is what's known as stacking classes, the surest route to long term success as a program. It's allowed the staff to shift their strategy in an important way. With the foundation established, the Ducks are free to focus on roster building and roster management.

They not only sign top tier players with immediate impact like Harrison, Jalen Lott, Iheanacho, Brandon Finney and Dakorien Moore; at the same time they stock the roster with developmental athletes with high upside like George Van Sandt, Achilles Reyna and Malachi Garlington.

A generation ago the Oregon program relied on players like these, the finds and diamonds-in-the-rough, the kids from Grants Pass and Spokane with a work ethic and a chip on their shoulder. Now the Ducks are in a position where they don't have to choose. They compete nationally for the best talent while rounding out the roster with developmental players with overlooked potential and intriguing traits.

With the explosion of NIL, this two-track approach becomes more important. Few schools achieve depth and roster balance. It's agonizingly difficult to have depth. Even with rosters approaching $45 million and more, finding value is crucial.

Outside Texas Tech and Miami, few teams can afford to simply buy talent and bid for every player in the portal. A smart GM and coach have to be strategic, identify the premium prospects that really fit while developing an overall roster with talent, balance and upside. They have to include some players who will stick and commit to development.

Garlington, for example, is a two-sport athlete, 6-3, 180, a taller receiver with some explosiveness, good hands and a terrific catch radius. In his highlight film he takes a shallow crossing route thrown at his knees and turns it into a 40-yard touchdown.

Van Sandt, same thing. He doesn't have the eye-popping measurables of Harrison, but he's a solid football player with good size who was thrilled to land an Oregon offer and likely to work hard to crack the two-deep. He might take two or three years to achieve that goal, but the potential is strong.

Reyna, the 6-8, 250 edge rusher from Rainier Beach High School in Seattle, just started playing football last year. He played on the basketball squad that won the Washington 3A state championship.

With that size and athleticism, he could prove to be a bargain, a steal. His father Jay Reyna played defensive end at Washington State, the winner of the Frank Butler Award for most inspirational senior in 1991.

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