Inside The War Room For Willie Taggart's First UO Signing Day
02/01/17 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
First-year UO football coach Willie Taggart brought a new energy to national signing day for the Ducks on Wednesday.
There was a new energy for signing day in the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex's War Room, and it emanated straight from the top.
New UO football coach Willie Taggart sat at the head of a long table in the staff meeting room of the program's operations building Wednesday morning, when new recruits could begin signing letters of intent. For the next five hours, he bounced in and out of the room, monitoring which letters had arrived and which recruits needed to be contacted to ensure their commitments to the Ducks.
Taggart, a Florida native, expected to sign a number of players from his home state. They could begin doing so at 7 a.m. local time – 4 a.m. in Eugene. Thus, Taggart found himself asking aloud, at exactly 4:01 a.m., "Is that fax machine on? Where's compliance?"
Three minutes later, the first letter of the day rolled in, from receiver Daewood Davis. Thus kicked off a signing day that ended some 10 hours later with a commitment from defensive back Deommodore Lenoir, giving the Ducks a class ranked as high as No. 16 nationally, by Scout.com, less than two months after Taggart was hired to take over the program.
Oregon signed seven Floridians on Wednesday, and within a few minutes of 4 a.m. PT, most of their letters were received. There was a lull in the War Room, and several of Taggart's assistants turned their attention to their phones. For the Ducks' energetic new head coach, this would not do.
"We need some music in here or something!" Taggart said. "Can we get some music?" Shortly, hip-hop artist Kodak Black was playing over the speakers, until Taggart balked at some questionable language. Later in the morning, The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa" popped up via the streaming service providing the soundtrack; several members of the young staff bobbed their heads, and a couple even rapped along to the lyrics.
Though Davis' letter was the first cleared through compliance, Taggart received one from another Florida athlete, Bruce Judson, one minute earlier, at 4:03 a.m. It was appropriate that two Floridians were racing to be first to sign with Oregon, in a class defined by its bi-coastal representation, and for its emphasis on quickness at the skill positions.
"Speed, speed and more speed," Taggart said at 4:49 a.m., when the Ducks received a letter from Demetri Burch, like Judson listed as an "athlete" who could potentially play on either side of the ball in college – or even both, Taggart said at a press conference to introduce the class late in the morning.
"There's no exhaling," Taggart said at the press conference, which began seven hours after Davis' letter was received. "But it feels good. I feel like everything we had set out to accomplish, we were able to do. We got the guys we wanted."
The Ducks actually already had a few of the guys they wanted prior to Wednesday. Cornerback Thomas Graham Jr., nose tackle Jordon Scott and placekicker Adam Stack enrolled at the university for the start of winter term in January. They'll be joined in late March by three spring enrollees: quarterback Braxton Burmeister, receiver Darrian McNeal and defensive lineman Rutger Reitmaier.
The first hour of Wednesday's signing period was dominated by speed at the skill positions. That changed when Reitmaier, who figures to play end in new coordinator Jim Leavitt's 3-4 front, submitted his letter of intent from Nashville, Tenn. "The big boys!" new defensive line coach Joe Salave'a said. "A sweet tea drinker!"
"That's a great get, man," run-game coordinator and offensive line coach Mario Cristobal said to Salave'a. "That's a great job."
After Reitmaier's letter arrived, there was another lull until players from the West Coast could submit their letters, at 7 a.m. In years past, that would have been when the staff left the War Room to oversee the first offseason conditioning workout of the year with the current roster. But Taggart's staff didn't schedule a workout for signing day.
Instead, shortly before 6 a.m., Cristobal and Leavitt sat across from each other at the table and – while awaiting more letters from 2017 recruits – turned their attention to the 2018 class. For a staff looking to get the Oregon program back into the national elite, the recruiting process never ends.
"I always say, recruiting is like brushing your teeth and combing your hair," Taggart would say later at his press conference. "As soon as you stop, you start to look bad."
Just after 6:15 a.m., Nike co-founder and UO donor Phil Knight arrived at the War Room, to celebrate signing day in person as he has going back more than a decade. Knight sat at the other end of the table from Taggart, and assumed the honor of reading off names of new Ducks as their letters popped out of a printer.
Knight's first observation was true to his track roots. "I tell you, I like Daewood Davis' speed," he said of a receiver said to run the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds. At a luncheon later with the Oregon Club of Eugene/Springfield, Taggart said the Ducks "wanted someone that takes the top off the defense," and called Davis "one of those guys who can do that."
Davis was one of several recruits who committed to Taggart and his staff after their hiring. But they also managed to keep in the fold much of the class as constituted at the time of the coaching change. At 7:07 a.m. Wednesday, Salave'a was on FaceTime with one such player, Reitmaier, congratulating him on signing, when another long-time UO commit, offensive lineman Alex Forsyth of West Linn, became the first West Coast recruit to submit his letter.
Later, the Ducks extended an offer to another in-state offensive lineman, Cody Shear of Eugene's Sheldon High, alma mater of UO quarterback Justin Herbert. Shear jumped at the offer and signed with the Ducks. "It helps when kids tell you, 'Oregon's my dream school,'" Taggart said at his press conference. "That makes it a lot easier."
Wednesday's offensive line class included yet another recruit, George Moore, who was the No. 1 junior college player in the country at his position. When his letter arrived, Salave'a credited it to "the Mario effect" – the impact of Taggart's hiring of Cristobal, who has been ranked the top recruiter in the country in years past.
At 7:17 a.m. on Wednesday, Cristobal was on the phone with Forsyth, congratulating him on signing. Forsyth spoke with Cristobal while on the way to a workout. "I love it," Cristobal told Forsyth. "That's what a lineman does: get your papers in, then go lift weights."
Signing players like Forsyth and Shear fulfilled Taggart's intention, stated later Wednesday at his press conference, to prioritize in-state recruits. California and the Northwest could remain priorities as well, he said, but the staff would work its ties to Florida in future classes, as well as other regions of the country.
And as the attention shown to the 2018 class Wednesday morning illustrated, Taggart's staff doesn't intend to take a break on the recruiting trail after securing the 2017 class. "There's a lot of guys that want to be here," Taggart said. "But they're not just going to come; you've got to go out and get 'em."
