Rj Schaer Posts

Partially at least. Fans of the Buffs and Brian Cabral know he was a member of the '85 Bears and holds onto that ring religiously. He also says he's not afraid to bust it out his Super Bowl ring when he walks into a kids' house and remind him about the success he's had at every level. And he shouldn't be.

Cabral played on Colorado's 1976 Big Eight championship team, and he's living proof of the success that's happened and will happen in the future in Boulder. Busting out a huge rock for proof probably makes for a nice discussion piece too though.

Nobody offered Maehl before Oregon did. But they all wish they had after he started tearing it up his senior year at Paradise High in California. Maehl will come in and play defensive back for the Ducks after doing everything in high school. He's 6' 2" and 190lbs. but has hops, closing speed and great instincts.

His junior year he had 18 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, playing both ways. He's a three-sport star, can flat out fly to the ball and should give the Duck corners a run for their money in the very near future.

Qualifying: Not an issue. He should be in.

Playing time: A likely red-shirt just because of the stack in front of him. But don't be surprised if he breaks through. He's got a lot of Walter Thurmond toughness and skills in him. And at 6' 1" he can match up a little better against the bigger wide receivers in the conference. If he pushes himself the way he has to this point, he'll start for the Ducks.

The Eugene Register-Guard is reporting that Coach Mike Bellotti may announce his decision on an offensive coordinator as quickly as the day after signing day. Thursday. Bellotti says he interviewed five candidates, one of them being a current Oregon offensive assistant, and one of them was interviewed on Monday.

He declined to say which of the offensive assistants were interviewed. It's widely known that one assistant would like to become an offensive coordinator someday. Who that is, I'll let Bellotti announce if and when he's ready. Or talk about at another time.

As for who it might be? Well, since he's interviewed people already, outside the program I'll guess he's interviewed, Bill Musgrave. Bryan Harsin, Chip Kelly, and a wild card that I won't bring up, just in case I'm right.

I've said it here before. I think Harsin or Musgrave would be a home-run hire for the program.

Huge day tomorrow. Maybe just as big on Thursday in terms of Oregon's future.

Eugene Goree's a tremendous player from the state of Tennessee who's not going to Tennessee, or anywhere else in the SEC for that matter. Instead, he'll bring his 6' 4", 281lb. defensive tackle frame to Boulder and probably be standing on the sidelines ready to play every other down. He's likely just one injury away from losing his red-shirt year and seeing action. With just Jason Brace, George Hypolite and couple others battling ahead of him, Goree looks like he's just outside the two-deep entering summer camp.

Fortunately, the Buffs got a good on in Goree. He was one of three finalists for the 'Mr Football' award given to lineman in the 5A classification, and was first team all-state in the football-crazed state of Tennessee. He won't start this year, but again, like a lot of others in this class, at minimum he should start for year and anchor the defensive line for Hawkins from his sophomore through his senior years in Boulder.

Probably the most overlooked big talent coming in this year for Oregon. Hanna played on the same team as Carson York and is one of his childhood friends. As an example, Hanna recently sent his tapes to Rivals and immediately jumped from a two-star to a three-star. (There was some talk that they liked it so much, he might've even jumped to a four-star if they'd seen it earlier and been able to evaluate it at the same time they looked at all the other linebackers.)

Hanna's six three, 225lbs., and runs a legit 4.5 forty. He brings the wood. He drills people. He's a run-stuffing force and he's gonna get his chance to compete for a starting linebacker spot early. Like, in 6 months. Oregon's finally recruited a linebacker with the size out of high school to play linebacker the way Blair Phillips did this past year as a senior.

Don't just take my word for it, watch the video of him in action.

Qualifying: Not an issue. Smart guy with good grades and scores.

Playing time: Could play this fall if he shows he can in August. My guess is he won't. Again, not because he couldn't make the plays, but because in Allioti's defense, the middle linebacker makes all the calls. for him to learn all of it, and be able to direct traffic out there for others just weeks after getting into the system is pretty hard to do. If he redshirts, expect him to play his redshirt freshman year, and be a fixture in the middle for years for the Ducks.

Hanna might be the guy I'm most excited about on the defense. At worst one of the top two or three. He's played the position he's going to play in college so the adjustment's a tiny bit easier. He brings tenacity at a position that has to have it. And he's a Northwest kid with all the right tools.

The first of two players Bellotti and his staff reeled away from Mike Stoops in Arizona, Terrance Pritchett's the 13th rated outside linebacker in the entire nation according to Rivals.com. He's a 6' 3", 205lb. ball carrier eating screaming machine who runs a 4.6 forty and lays it down when he gets to the ball.

On his visit he said a couple things stood out to him. The ASUO Multicultural Center for one, where he told Ducks Sports Authority's John Copp, "I was very impressed by the new multi-cultural center," Pritchett told us. "It wasn't really like anything I saw elsewhere." The other was the crowd at Autzen and the support they give on game day.

Qualifying: He's got a 3.69 GPA and is in. No issues at all. In fact, he could tutor some of the other players probably. He and Drew Davis.

Playing time: Does he play this fall? Maybe, does he start in '08? Um...YES. This guy's got the most talent of any of hte outside linebackers in this class. No reason to think he won't make the academic transition and ifhe were to redshirt this year, he could easily wind up starting for four years at Oregon. He's that smart, that focussed and that gifted.

Might be the fastest player arriving in this class for the Buffs. Josh Smith is a speed burner who's 6' 2", 175lbs. out of Moorpark, CA. He's the 61st rated wide receiver nationally by Scout.com and probably should've been a lot higher. he and Simas should combine to give the Buffs tremendous size on the outside for a long time. Something they've lacked in recent years is someone who can both stretch the field, and make plays up high when they need them. In Simas and Smith, Colorado got two this year. Smith was the 8th rated wide receiver in California after the season by Scout, Simas was second.

One adjustment Smith will have to make is playing in a more balanced offense, he put up nice numbers last year in an offense that ran the ball a ton. (That's because Moorpark was led by Darrell Scott at running back, a player who may be the nation's top back next year.) The upside is that he might know more about how to block than most receivers showing up. The downside is he's probably not used to having to work so hard to get open, like most freshmen receivers, and he's got to get in sync with the quarterbacks quickly and learn all the nuances of a more balanced, complicated offense really quickly if he's going to contribute. He can, and probably will do those things, but it's a must in Hawkins' offense.

Smith caught 26 balls for 55 yards and 9 touchdowns last year as a senior.

William Wallace is the classic definition of sleeper. He was All Conference and all everything as a sophomore. Then hurt his knee as a junior and everything stopped. Not sure how his health was, teams stopped recruiting and following him. But he put in a ridiculously good senior year before committing to Oregon. He can flat out fly with 4.39 speed, and played opposite Oregon's Walter Thurmond on their championship team back in '04.

At 5' 11", he'll no doubt play cornerback and get a look at returning punts during his career at Oregon. He averaged over 30 yards a kick return and over 16 yards per punt return his senior year. He's a great late pickup for Oregon who's doing everything they can to avoid the disaster of starting true corners. Wallace will never be put in that position.

Qualifying: Shouldn't be an issue, he's got the grades and the score.

Playing time: Unless he gains a couple years of Pac 10 experience between now and August, I think he's a redshirting. But with Bates' issues still unresolved and the Ducks wanting to move Jarius Byrd to safety, there is some light ahead of him. Especially with all the multiple wide receiver sets teams throw at each other in the Pac 10. Thurmond was a phenomenal recruit for a guy who wasn't at the top of everyone's list. It looks like Wallace could be too.

Another offensive lineman. Blake Behrens is a 6' 4", 280 pounder out of Phoenix. And he's going to come in and get a look at eatery guard or center for the Buffs. he told Buffalo Sports News' Andrew Friedman, " Behrens is still being looked at for two positions in Boulder. "They are talking like it will be either center or guard. I like center because you study a lot more film because you have to call out the defensive alignments. Guard is a lot of fun, too. Really it doesn't matter which spot I play at."

Incredibly, the Buffs got his commitment despite Behrens' high school coach being former CSU Ram Scooter Molander. Molander told BSN's Mark Collins, "Well, I think it's a real good situation. As much as we wanted to compete with Colorado (when Molander played for the Rams), Colorado plays at a higher level. Anybody being objective about it will say that. And then Mark Nolan, our former defensive coordinator, is now on their staff (as a recruiting assistant at Colorado). It's a great fit for Blake." Molander went on to note that Behrens' mom grew up in Boulder. Love that story, 'Hey mom, I wanna go to school in your hometown, okay with you?" Can't believe that was a tough sell.

Behrens high school team ran a pro-set offense and threw it a ton for a high school team so he's not going to have to make the same adjustment to pass blocking that some others out of high school will. That might help him in the race to see who gets early playing time among all the incoming freshmen offensive linemen this year.

Behrens was offered by Oregon State, Boise State, Utah, and Colorado State before choosing CU.

Neal destroyed the competition in high school. Just like everyone else on the Duck recruiting class. The difference? He's been doing it for awhile and might be the biggest back Oregon's recruited to play that spot, in years. he's six-two and 210lbs already. That's linebacker size normally. I'm going to officially dub him, Mr. Goal Line 2,. (Stewart's the first.)

He's got good hands and can catch it out of the backfield and is the 31st rated back nationally and the 56th player overall in California according to Rivals. Why wasn't he hyped more? He missed all of the summer camps and combines last year when all the early evaluations and the hype begins for most players. Instead, Neal just went out and created his own. But by the time other schools found him, he was basically sure he wanted to come to Oregon.

His junior year, junior year, he had a nine yard average, ran for over 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns. And caught another 8 balls for a nine yard average. That, after as a sophomore he ran up 1,038 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Neal turned down Boston College, Oregon State, Washington to choose Oregon.