Going National: Plains States/Mountains Region

Interactive Map by iMapBuilder Since the arrival of Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator in 2007, Duck fans have seen not only a uniquely dominant offense, but they have seen the football program rise to unprecedented heights culminating in the 2012 Rose Bowl win. Along the way, a couple of special players from parts not normally represented on the Duck roster transformed Oregon football into a national brand. Last week, Duck Sports Authority began this series on national recruiting. So far we have taken a look at the Eastern region, Midwestern Region and Southeastern region. Today we turn our attention to what we have labeled as the Plains/Mountains region. When dividing up regions it can be difficult to draw lines, but we included the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming south to Kansas and west to Nevada. We felt that this was representative of a region not heavily recruited by the Ducks So far throughout this series we have been able to show graphically, that the Ducks roster now has 25% fewer players from the dominant West Coast Region. Those players are coming from somewhere. Today we continue to dig deeper into regions not normally infiltrated by Oregon. The plains and mountain regions have not been a hotbed of football recruiting with some exceptions. Utah always seems to produce a few top tier line players each year. Duck fans are familiar with Utah having had great players like Haloti Ngata leave Utah for the Ducks. Nonetheless, the region does not produce a large pool of Pac-12 talent and the offer list and roster bear that out. Let us take a look now, at how Oregon's presence in the Plains and Mountain regions has changed during Chip Kelly's tenure. We begin by looking at the scholarship players from the top three states in the region (Nevada, Utah and Colorado) that were on the Oregon roster in 2007 and again in 2012. Click here to read entire story: