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As Oregon’s recruiting profile has expanded nationwide over the past decade, the Ducks have become plenty familiar with the area around Oklahoma.
Receiver Jeremiah McClellan — and head coach Dan Lanning — hail from bordering Missouri. Freshman inside linebacker Braylon Hodge is from neighboring Colorado and a whopping eight players from Texas now live in Eugene.
Yet there are no Ducks from Oklahoma — a state that has produced only two Oregon players since 2010:
- Terry Wilson Jr., a quarterback from Del City mostly known around Oregon as the player briefly in a battle for the starting job with Justin Herbert when Willie Taggart took over the program in 2017.
- Xadavien Sims, a defensive lineman from Durant who played in four games with the Ducks over the last two seasons before entering the transfer portal.
Now, we know Oklahoma loves its football. The Oklahoma Sooners are a blue blood of the sport and Saturday’s opponent, Oklahoma State, spent decades as a consistently good program until its recent downturn. If you didn’t know their players, you might have at least seen or heard the mulleted longtime coach Mike Gundy, who is still a man, but no longer 40. (He’s also no longer the coach, partially thanks to Oregon’s 69-3 dismantling of the Cowboys last season.)
So why are there no Oklahomans rubbing shoulders with the Texans in Oregon’s locker room?
It’s not that the state isn’t putting players on Power 4 rosters — it’s just that Oklahoma doesn’t harbor the number of top-end recruits Oregon dances with these days.
Texas produced 69 blue-chip recruits — prospects rated four stars or better — in the class of 2026. Oklahoma had four, with its top player, offensive lineman Daniel McMorris, landing at Cal.
So no, Saturday’s trip to Stillwater isn’t much of a homecoming for any of these Ducks.
But the Texans are still going to enjoy the proximity.
“Of course it is close,” said receiver Dakorien Moore, who grew up outside of Dallas. “My mom is dealing with all the family and stuff that she’s going to bring to the game. I’m just out there playing football.”
An up-and-down return
Evan Stewart’s long-awaited return to the football field had some high points.
It was the senior receiver’s first game since the 2024 Big Ten Championship, and he caught eight passes for 72 yards.
But two miscues as the team’s punt returner helped keep Boise State, a team Oregon otherwise statistically dominated, in the game longer than it should have been.
Lanning stressed that needed improvement. But it’s also something that Oregon’s coach said he believed Stewart could do.
There is certainly trust there between these two.
If you’re in, you’re in
I’ll get to a more expanded look at the rosters of the men’s and women’s basketball teams later in September, but there was a little bit of news today out of Matthew Knight Arena.
Yes, Wei Lin is back.
The Oregon point guard, who entered the transfer portal following the Ducks’ dismal 2025-26 season, is on the roster again for reasons UO coach Dana Altman was pretty frank about.
“We’ve never had somebody enter the portal and then come back,” Altman told reporters. “It’s kind of like you ask somebody for a divorce, and the divorce is in place. But that doesn’t mean I don’t stay in contact with the guys. … Wei just didn’t have the offers that he wanted and felt like he could still make a contribution here.”
Lin averaged 6.6 points per game last season with the Ducks while shooting 34.4% from the floor and 29.5% from three.
“Wei is a worker, I’ve got nothing against his work ethic,” Altman said. “He turned the ball over a little bit too much for me last year for what I was looking for, what our team was looking for. Wei is a really good kid, everybody loves him on the team. … He wanted to come back and the coaching staff felt like it was worth bringing him back. I just had to remind him, ‘If you’re in, you’re in.'”
A messy first sample
We debuted our Sunday Duck Report over the weekend, where I took a look at Oregon’s season-opening win over Boise State.
Yes, the 34-27 victory was messy. But it was a win — and I thought it was pretty revealing in how the Ducks secured it.
“So it all comes back to how we respond,” Dante Moore said.
INSIDE look
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Light-years of changes. I don’t think I could pick one thing. But you’re drinking out of a fire hose at first.”
— Oregon coach Dan Lanning when asked to compare himself now to his first game at Oregon.
UPCOMING GAMES
- Soccer vs. Rutgers • 6 p.m. • Thursday
- Volleyball at No. 7 Arizona State • 6 p.m. • Friday
- Football at Oklahoma State • 9 a.m. • Saturday
- Volleyball vs. UC Davis • 1 p.m. • Saturday
- Sccer vs. Maryland • 1 p.m. • Sunday
- Volleyball vs. San Diego • 2 p.m. • Sunday
- Men’s golf at Vuori Invitational • Mon-Tue
- Women’s golf at Jackson T. Stephens Cup • Mon-Wed
STORIES I’m WORKING ON
We’ll have full coverage from Week 2 in balmy Stillwater coming up this weekend.
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If only it were just a dry heat,
Tyson
