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We seemingly have an answer to one of the biggest questions of the Dan Lanning era at Oregon.
While the Ducks have had stellar quarterback play during Lanning’s four seasons, each of those teams was led by a player who didn’t begin his college career in Eugene.
That led to a fair question: Would a premier high school quarterback still consider Oregon, given the Ducks’ propensity for the portal?
Will Mencl says yes.
The dual-threat quarterback from Chandler High School in Arizona announced his commitment to Oregon on Wednesday, giving the Ducks a player some recruiting services, including Rivals and On3, rank as the top quarterback in the 2027 class.
Mencl is 6-foot-3, 205 pounds and has a precise right arm. Last fall he completed more than 70% of his passes for 3,815 yards and 33 touchdowns against five interceptions, and he chose Oregon over Auburn and Penn State.
It’s not the first time Chandler High has been fruitful for Oregon. Current Oregon defensive lineman A’Mauri Washington went there, as did backup quarterback Dylan Raiola, who spent a year at Chandler before finishing his high school career in Georgia.
With Mencl on board, Oregon now has nine players committed in the 2027 class, which ranks fifth nationally in the 247Sports Composite.
And the Ducks are looking pretty solid at quarterback for the future.
Raiola is expected to take over for Dante Moore next year, and though he has two years of eligibility remaining, a strong 2027 could very well see him depart for the 2028 NFL draft.
As the roster stands now, that would leave Akili Smith Jr. (2025 4-star), Mark Wiepert (2025 3-star), Ryder Hayes (2024 walk-on) and Mencl in line to compete for the 2028 job.
That’s not a bad place to be sitting here in 2026.
Granted, this is college football. Not that much can change in two years, right?
The art at PK Park
There are many things Justin Arp considers dear to him in his phone’s camera roll. But on a Friday afternoon in early April, the one thing the Oregon baseball groundskeeper wanted to show off wasn’t his family.
It was a baseball mound.
“When I say it’s a piece of art, it’s a piece of art,” Arp said as he pulled up a photo from the Miami Marlins’ park.
To be clear, the photo Arp displayed wasn’t even the main mound of the Major League stadium. It was the bullpen mound, which Arp marveled at for its meticulous condition and angles.
“Holy smokes, man,” the 37-year-old said. “I can spend time on things, but I don’t think I could spend enough time to get it that precise and perfect.”
That robot has a cannon
Oregon offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer isn’t going to name names, but there was a missed catch during the Ducks’ scrimmage last week.
It wasn’t a perfectly thrown pass, but it was catchable — just outside the comfort zone of the intended receiver. It’s spring ball, so the drop wasn’t a big deal. But afterward, Mehringer had a question for the player.
“That one wasn’t thrown right at you, it was thrown outside the frame of your body,” Mehringer said. “So, what do you think you should be doing on the Monarc?”
The Monarc Seeker is a 6-foot-tall, 300-pound modern take on the old JUGS machine – football’s spinning-wheeled version of the pitching machine that’s been prevalent across practice fields since the mid-70s.
But instead of needing an extra person to load a football to be launched at a receiver in a fixed location, Monarc has a brain.
Crossing the finish line
It was near-perfect conditions for the 21 Lane County runners who finished the Boston Marathon on Monday.
With cool temperatures and a tailwind, 11 of those runners broke the three-hour barrier.
Among those finishers were Lyndy Davis, 36, a Eugene mother of two who works as a manager in e-commerce for HP in Corvallis, who finished in 2:48:44, and Gabe Wasserman, the twin of our photographer Isaac Wasserman, who clocked a speedy 2:39:36.
Sarah Lorge Butler has the full recap here.
The Traffic Report
Duck of the week
Naulivou Lauaki Jr., Oregon baseball
Oregon baseball is on quite a roll. And while this week’s player of the week could be the 10 members of Oregon’s pitching staff who combined to limit No. 6 Oregon State to just three runs in Oregon’s 7-3 win, we have to go back a few more days to highlight this moonshot from Naulivou Lauaki Jr. on Friday against Illinois.
Lauaki, a redshirt freshman from Utah, hit three home runs in the series. But none went further than this three-run blast, which reportedly traveled 497 feet.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“You know, this game is fun, and we talk about that, and we want the guys to go out there and enjoy the moment and embrace it.”
— Oregon defensive coordinator Chris Hampton on Saturday’s spring game
UPCOMING GAMES
- Women’s Golf at Big Ten Championships • Friday-Sunday
- Baseball vs. Penn State • 6:05 p.m. • Friday
- Softball vs. Ohio State • 6 p.m. • Friday
- Football Spring Game • 1 p.m. • Saturday
- Softball vs. Ohio State • 4 p.m. • Saturday
- Baseball vs. Penn State • 4:05 p.m. • Saturday
- Softball vs. Ohio State • 12 p.m. • Sunday
- Baseball vs. Penn State • 12:05 p.m. • Sunday
- Baseball vs. Gonzaga • 2:05 p.m. • Tuesday
STORIES I’m WORKING ON
We’ll have full coverage from Isaac Wasserman and myself coming from Saturday’s spring game over the weekend.
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See you at Autzen,
Tyson
