You want to talk class ranking update? Fine. But stop looking at the 247 composite like it means something in May. We are sitting exactly where we need to be and the panic merchants need to touch grass. Oregon stacking five 5-stars looks great on a graphic but half those kids are going to flip before December anyway. That is just the nature of the game now. I have been watching this staff work the trail since the dead period lifted and the crystal balls we are getting on under-the-radar West Coast prospects tell a different story than the public rankings.
People keep asking why we are not in the top five on the 247 team rankings and I keep pointing to the same thing. The composite does not fcator in evaluation wins. Our staff identified a kid from a California high school nobody is talking about, got him on campus for an OV, and locked him in as a silent commit while the big programs were still fighting over the same five names. That is how you build a class that actually sticks. Not by buying a bunch of 5-stars who are going to enter the portal the second they do not start as freshmen.
I look at the Rivals team rankings and I see us hovering around the top ten and I am fine with that. We have position-specific needs and we are addressing them. The offensive line haul is coming together quietly. The defensive back board is deeper than it has been in years. And we are not done. The summer dead period is when the real work happens. The bagman operation is structured differently than what Oregon is doing and that is going to pay off when signing day comes around and our class is still intact while theirs has holes.
Everybody wants to crown Oregon the recruiting king right now but I remember last year when they had all the hype in May and then lost three 5-stars in December. Let me see the signed letters before I hand them the trophy. We are building something sustainable here and the 247 composite does not measure that.