The biggest remaining priority in 2026 Oregon football recruiting

Isaiah World, Alex Harkey, Matthew Bedford and Emmanuel Pregnon are redshirt seniors going into 2025. Center Iapani Laloulu, big and agile, is a draft-eligible junior.

The Ducks' year to strike for a run at a first NCAA Championship is this year, 2025, unless they can convince Laloulu to run it back for his senior year. A'lique Terry faces another rebuilding/reloading project in 2026, and the defense will lose Dillon Thieneman, Bryce Boettcher and Matayo Uiagalelei to the league.

Thieneman and Uiagalelei have another year as true juniors but both project as high NFL draft picks, possible first-rounders. It should be another record year for the Ducks in the NFL, as many as six in the first two rounds. Even Dante Moore is draft-eligible, but he'd have to take an enormous leap to come out.

Teammates say he's going to be a great quarterback for the Ducks. Makhi Hughes will have the option to enter the draft. Kenyon Sadiq also. The Ducks have amassed a war chest with their sound approach to NIL and the revenue-sharing money, but players with a first- or second-day draft grade are hard-pressed to postpone their dream.

Dan Lanning's last three recruiting classes have ranked 5, 6, and 9 and he's done equally well in the portal. It's a talented roster provided Moore progresses on schedule and the wide receiver situation sorts itself out.

The secondary will be fine. Thieneman will see to that, and he's surrounded by long, athletic talent.

With four senior starters on the offensive line, the time is now. Next year the Ducks will be young, young, young up front, though Douglas Utu, Ziyare Addison and Fox Crader are blue-chip prospects. Redshirt sophomore Gernorris Wilson played eight games last year

The depth chart works better for a title run in 2025, unless the staff is really aggressive about retention. Hughes, Uiagalelei, Laloulu, Thienenman and Moore will have pivotal decisions. The schedule is harder too, at Illinois, at USC, at Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Washington in Autzen Stadium in 2026.

A program can't count on striking gold in the portal every time out. This season looks like the year, unless they're really lucky in enticing players to stay. It could happen but it'd be exceptional.

The better hope is to aim high this year, though road trips to Penn State, Iowa and Washington look daunting. The trap game comes Friday night November 14 at home against Minnesota. The Ducks play the previous Saturday in a 6 p.m. PT game at Kinnick Stadium versus the Hawkeyes-- they'll be on a short week.

Most polls have them ranked no. 6- No. 9, solidly in the playoff field, finishing 10-2/11-1. Winning a first-round game would be a success. To go any further, they'd have to win a neutral-field game against someone like Georgia, Texas or Ohio State.

But I don't see how the 2026 team survives a second year of replacing four starters on the offensive line, unless they do an awesome job in development this season, able to go a little deeper in rotations.

And they've got to get busy in offensive line recruiting this fall. They're looking to flip a pair from the Cal Bears, tackle Tommy Tofi and 6-3, 290 Koli Keli, a tackle from Farrington High School in Honolulu, Hawaii who visited June 20.

They're trending for Immanuel Iheanacho and Kelvin Obot but they've got to close the deal. The money they saved not chasing Ryder Lyons and Jackson Cantwell, they've got to spend some of it now. That's where this class will be won or lost, and it'd help to pick up Texas receiver Jalen Lott and cornerback Davon Benjamin, an elite cover guy.

It takes dudes to win. Dudes have different body types. They move different and look different. Anthony Q. Newman says you can recognize them right away; they just look springy. Washington is one of those dudes. Offord, McNutt, Hampton, Harrison, same thing.

The Ducks recovered some serious momentum landing Bryson Beaver, Jett Washington and Messiah Hampton in June. Nailing down the o-line class is critical. That's a place where the foundation has to be built in high school recruiting.

Keep a close eye on USC. They've gone nuts in the marketplace for 2026, stacking up 30 commits and 20 blue-chippers, most with a promise of "stay-committed" payments in their senior prep seasons.

That class is impressive, but it won't help them win this fall. Lincoln Riley has to win now to avoid getting tarmacked after going 8-5 and 7-6 in the last two seasons. Unless they hit in a big way in 2025, with road games at Illinois, at Notre Dame, at Nebraska and at Oregon, Michigan and Iowa at home, Riley won't survive to sign them.

A host of Trojan commits could be ripe for poaching in the late stages before early signing day. Expectations are high. Boosters want a playoff team, now.

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