Jake Breeland remembers his surprise as a junior when he learned a college football coach was at Trabuco Hills High to visit him.
An avid college football fan growing up, Breeland’s mind raced with possibilities but barely paused on his childhood favorite USC, or UCLA or another school from the Pac-12 Conference.
“Maybe some Division II school,” he thought.
Breeland soon learned his guess wasn’t close.
Scott Orloff, then his coach at Trabuco Hills, told him the name of the visitor, but Breeland repeated it just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
“Wait, did you say Oregon?” he asked. “I was shocked out of my mind.”
For Oregon’s football program, it was business as usual on the recruiting trail. The Ducks have a history in Orange County and beyond of not only surprising some with their selections but for developing the players into strong contributors.
With National Signing Day set to arrive Wednesday, area high school coaches and recruiting experts say Oregon’s “selective recruiting” strategy can be seen – and in some ways, not seen – in the Register’s annual FAB 15 teams, a ranking of the top recruits in the western U.S.
Despite an appearance in the national championship game earlier this month, Oregon holds commitments from only two of the 30 selections. One of them is Servite quarterback Travis Waller.
What Oregon’s recruiting class does have, experts believe, are players, such as Breeland, who were selected for how they are projected to do in the Ducks’ system, not for their star-ranking from recruiting websites and experts.
“They go for guys who fit their system best,” said Greg Biggins, a national recruiting analyst for Fox and Scout.com. “The guy who they take might not be a better overall prospect, but he’s better for their system.”
PERFECT FITS
Oregon refers to its recruiting targets as “our kind of guys,” said Andrew Greif, who covers the Ducks for the Oregonian.
There are several components to the formula, such as character and attitude, but when it comes to football specifics, fitting into the Ducks’ no-huddle spread attack is more important than recruiting rankings.
“They’ve been very selective,” Greif said of Oregon’s recruiting strategy. “They pretty much openly scoff at recruiting rankings. … They’re just really confident in their (own) evaluation of players.”
Perhaps no player in Oregon’s 2015 recruiting class typifies the strategy more than Breeland.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior is considered a three-star recruit (five being the highest) by recruiting authorities Rivals and Scout. He starred at wide receiver for Trabuco Hills, but the Ducks see him as a tight end, his secondary position in high school.
Orloff recalls mentioning Breeland’s potential as a hybrid tight end to Oregon assistant coach Tom Osborne, whom Orloff has known since coaching at Santa Ana Valley in the 1990s.
“This is a guy you got to watch,” he told Osborne before Breeland’s junior season.
Breeland flashed his potential as a junior, collecting 36 receptions for 748 yards. Shortly after the season, Osborne – the Ducks’ special teams coordinator and tight ends coach – walked onto Mustang Drive to talk to Breeland.
In Oregon’s offense, tight ends are used like receivers at times.
“I’m obviously not fast enough to be on the outside, but they have a hybrid tight end (who) they put outside and inside, and on the line and in the backfield,” Breeland said. “(They’re) the school that would use me the most. … That’s what I liked.”
The Ducks saw a fit that apparently no one else did. In April, they were the first school to offer Breeland a scholarship, and he committed shortly after an unofficial trip to Eugene with his father, Garrett.
Breeland said after he committed, some schools, such as USC – where his father played football – showed interest but none offered him a scholarship.
“He’s a perfect fit (for Oregon),” Biggins said. “He’s going to be really good in that system.”
Waller also appears to fit the Oregon model. The 6-3, 195-pound senior is a dual-threat quarterback with the speed to handle the blink-of-an-eye pace of the Ducks’ offense, which features plenty of read option.
Waller said Oregon’s style of play was a big reason he committed.
“Perfect for Oregon,” Biggins said of Waller. “He reminds a lot of people of Dennis Dixon in terms of his frame and his athleticism. I think he can get a lot better as a passer, but I think athletically, he really fits well.”
Oregon, of course, found a quarterback who was an ideal fit for their system in Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. Coming out of St. Louis High in Hawaii, he was considered a two- or three-star recruit in the class of 2011, but the Ducks signed him.
“He was told (by others) that he would never be able to play quarterback,” Waller said of Mariota. “Now you look at him and it’s, ‘Wow. How was this guy not ranked?’”
DEVELOPING TALENT
Oregon hasn’t signed a lot of players from Orange County in recent years, but the Ducks have a history of finding under-the-radar talent in the area.
Los Alamitos wide receiver Keenan Howry wasn’t offered by USC and UCLA, but he found success as a 5-foot-9 playmaker at Oregon. Kennedy’s Garrett Sabol and Eddie Pleasant also were overlooked recruits who became standouts in Eugene.
“They find (players), put them in that system and make you work,” said Howry, who played at Oregon from 1999-2002 and now coaches at Carlsbad High.
“Most of these (Oregon) coaches have been there since the late 1980s, so they know what it means to take somebody who isn’t highly recruited and maybe doesn’t fit the prototypical (profile) … and mold them over time.”
Biggins agreed.
“This is a part of recruiting that people miss,” he said. “(Oregon does) a better job of developing talent than probably anyone else, out West, at least.”
The development at Oregon seems to start with support. Breeland and Waller spoke highly of Oregon’s athletic facilities as well as its training staff.
Both also said Oregon measured the circumference of their elbows and knees while on recruiting trips. The data was used to project their growth, the players said.
Oregon players also are tracked by GPS monitors during practices, Greif said.
“Oregon has definitely been one of the more cutting-edge schools in terms of sports science and sports medicine,” Howry said.
Breeland mentioned the school’s academic support for athletes as another selling point for him.
So while Oregon’s multiple Nike uniforms garner considerable attention, the Ducks made a deeper connection for Breeland and Waller. How the program viewed them as players and the task ahead were the most exciting parts.
“They really look at who has the potential and who really wants to work,” Waller said.
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
