Tyner and Twins Top Talented List

As USC took it's victory lap for landing a bunch 5-star recruits, Oregon stuck it's foot out and face planted Tommy Trojan.

Rivals' Winners and Losers List explained it this way.

Winner: OREGON
The departure of Chip Kelly to the NFL sent the Oregon class into a shake-up, but when the faxes came in there was barely any damage done, outside of losing Dontre Wilson. The ability to protect five-star Thomas Tyner and four-star twins Tyree Robinson and Tyrell Robinson was a major victory for the remaining staff. That alone could have been considered a victory, but that was not all. Oregon flipped Rivals250 offensive lineman Cameron Hunt from California and followed by absolutely stealing Rivals250 defensive end Torrodney Prevot from USC. All told, the period after Kelly left may have been more active and productive than the time from the end of the regular season until the announcement was made.


Loser: USC The caveat with every negative to the USC class failure is the top-end success. USC signed more five-star players than any other program, landing five elite-level players. The problem is that it also saw a bevy of them de-commit. The Trojans lost five-star players Max Redfield, Jalen Ramsey and Eddie Vanderdoes, as well as four-star prospects Kylie Fitts, Torrodney Prevot and Jason Hatcher. They could not backfill with five-star Matthew Thomas and then failed in the attempt to land four-star defensive backs Priest Willis and Tahaan Goodman from UCLA as a package. After what looked like a class that many would call one of the best of all-time, it trickled down to a 12-man crew that wound up outside the top 10 nationally and limped to the finish with just four-star Quinton Powell coming aboard. Depth was an issue for USC this past season and, with a limited class like this, it could be again.  

Of all of Oregon's recruits, the primary focus was on only three: Thomas Tyner and and the twins, Tyree and Tyrell. Losing any of them from Chip Kelly's departure would have been disappointing.  

Tyner, you'll recall, is the Aloha High running back who ran for 644 yards and 10 TD's in just one game (No, really!). By the end of the season he had racked up about . . . oh I don't know . . . 87 touchdowns and 34,000 yards (No, not really, but practically might as well have.).  

Oregon's one casualty to Kelly's departure, RB Dontre Wilson out of Texas, is a loss to be sure in terms of talent. He chose to go to Ohio State after he said he felt Kelly's decision to go to the NFL was "wrong".  Ya OK, kid. Welcome to the world of "life isn't fair". Tyner had a different take on it when he said in an interview he was signing to be with Oregon, not Chip Kelly. What's more, Wilson might have seen an even bigger problem -- that of watching classmate Tyner get most of the carries.

I'll bet Dontre Wilson watched this on YouTube and said, "Ya . . . I'll get more love at Ohio State."


The Robinson twins are both four star recruits. Taken together, that's EIGHT STARS!!! They both did well on defense for their high school in San Diego, but at least one could also play receiver. Expect also to see them on the basketball court. And not just on it, but actually playing -- uniforms and everything.  

Speaking of receiver, the Union-Tribune reports the twins are bringing with them a friend, also from San Diego, four-star recruit Darren Carrington Jr. This guy has a tremendous vertical leap and sticky hands. Video of the three of them talking about "the O" here.

Darren Carrington (#7)


One part of this class that would make Vince Lombardi smile is the signing of FIVE offensive linemen. Helfrich isn't forgetting what makes good ball carriers great.

The one curious signee is that of a three star quarterback from Texas, Damion Hobbs. He looks great, but I hope he'll be happy as he likely redshirts, then sits behind current sophomore Marcus Mariota and two redshirt freshman including the highly talented Jake Rodriguez.

The QB position is logjammed with talent. Chris Harper saw that and went to Kansas State. Darron Thomas felt the pressure and left school early. And shortly after the Fiesta Bowl win, Bryan Bennett saw his play time at QB was limited at best and chose to leave instead of switching to another position.

I'm really surprised they even looked for a QB in this class. But Helfrich and Offensive coordinator Scott Frost liked Hobbs, and Hobbs wanted to come despite having offers from other great schools. So . . . all right . . . . good luck.

From the Oregonian, here is the main story, and here is a complete listing of Oregon's signees along with links to each of their profiles.

--KB