Oregon

Oregon lands five-star DE Wesley for 2026 class

Published

1 week ago

May 11, 2025

Oregon lands five-star DE Wesley for 2026 class

Eli LedermanMay 10, 2025, 10:09 PM ET
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Five-star defensive end Richard Wesley, the No. 18 overall prospect in the 2026 ESPN 300, announced his commitment to Oregon on Saturday night.

The 6-foot-5, 245-pound pass rusher from Chatsworth, California, is ESPN’s third-ranked defensive end in the 2026 class. Wesley, who visited the Ducks last month, lands with Oregon as the program’s second five-star pledge in the cycle over Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and USC following trips to see each program earlier this spring.

A former top recruit in the 2027 cycle, Wesley reclassified into the class of 2026 in March and immediately emerged as one of the top defensive prospects in the latest cycle. He first burst onto the recruiting scene after tallying 55 tackles and 10 sacks in his freshman season at Sierra Canyon in 2023. As a sophomore last fall, Wesley totaled 44 tackles with nine sacks and four forced fumbles.

Wesley joins the Ducks as the program’s fifth ESPN 300 pledge in the 2026 class alongside fellow five-star Kendre’ Harrison, ESPN’s No. 1 tight end prospect in the cycle. Wesley now stands as the highest-ranked member of Oregon’s incoming defensive class, which also includes top-300 defensive tackle Tony Cumberland and Viliami Moala and three-star prospects Xavier Lherisse, Dutch Horisk and Tristan Phillips.

Wesley’s pledge follows a rash of exits from the Ducks’ 2026 class in recent months, headlined by the decommitments of ESPN 300 prospects Kodi Greene, Tomuhini Topui, Bott Multitalo and Jonas Williams.

Wesley entertained interest from a series of top programs upon his reclassification earlier this year. He told ESPN last month that no program was pushing harder in his recruitment than Oregon with coach Dan Lanning and defensive line coach Tony Tuioti heavily in Wesley’s process. Wesley’s commitment comes just weeks after his most recent visit with the Ducks for the program’s April 27 spring game.

“I’d never gotten up there for a game environment,” he told ESPN following the visit. “It was great to see what the coaching staff was always talking about. It was proof to me that they were serious about everything they were talking about.”

Wesley’s pledge marks the fourth commitment among ESPN’s top 10 defensive ends in the 2026 class. No. 2 overall prospect Zion Elee remains committed to Maryland months after his Dec. 2024 pledge to the in-state Terrapins. Wesley follows Rodney Dunham (Notre Dame) and Jordan Carter (Texas A&M) among the other elite defensive end commits in the cycle.

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Oregon

Three predictions: Alabama, USC, Oregon

Published

15 hours ago

May 20, 2025

Press Room

Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney has three predictions on Xavier Griffin’s future destination, USC’s recruiting and Oregon’s quarterback recruiting after some misses.
MORE GORNEY: Recruiting Rumor Mill

1. XAVIER GRIFFIN WILL CHOOSE ALABAMA

Griffin and USC parted ways after he was informed to either stay committed to the Trojans and stop taking visits or reopen things if he wanted to stay on the road.

The four-star linebacker from Gainesville, Ga., opted for the latter and now he’s back on the market with Ohio State, Alabama, Texas and Florida State as the frontrunners.

Texas and Ohio State have been coming on strong but there are numerous reasons why my prediction is that Griffin ends up in Tuscaloosa.

He’s an Alabama legacy. He met with the Alabama coaches twice recently – and some of that prompted his de-commitment from USC. It’s a manageable four hours away.

There is one caveat: If Georgia gets much more seriously involved then the Bulldogs could have some significant pull here. There’s a chance the four-star linebacker makes it to Athens for the Scavenger Hunt this weekend but there is a lot of family stuff going on as well so his absence from that event could be telling as well.

2. USC RECRUITING WILL BE JUST FINE

Over the last couple weeks, USC had de-commitments from four-star receiver Kohen Brown and four-star linebacker Xavier Griffin.

It looked like the start of a repeat from the 2025 class when the Trojans landed all these out-of-region stars only to see numerous five-stars and four-star prospects back off their pledge later in recruiting.

This is not the same case.

The word coming down is that Griffin and Brown wanted to take other visits and USC is just not going to play that game right now. Maybe it’s a reaction to last year’s collapse especially from players in the Southeast or maybe the Trojans have a different recruiting philosophy under new general manager Chad Bowden, but this does not look like the same circumstances.

Even with the losses of Griffin and Brown, two very talented prospects, USC still has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and has at least 10 more commitments than any other team in the country.

Only 10 pledges are from out-of-state. That’s a much different mix of recruits from last recruiting cycle so the Trojans should be just fine moving forward, even if there are some inevitable departures to come.

3. OREGON WILL BENEFIT FROM RECENT QB LOSSES

Oregon lost four-star quarterback Jonas Williams to USC. The Ducks missed on five-star quarterback Jared Curtis, who picked Georgia over Oregon in recent days.

The Big Ten powerhouse might still end up winning in the end, especially since this opens a nice pathway to focus on landing five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons.

Over the last few days, Oregon offered four-star quarterback Matt Ponatoski from Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller but let’s not forget Lyons is basically a 2027 prospect since he’s taking a one-year Mormon mission.

So offering Ponatoski helps both sides – Oregon gets a quarterback but he’s not someone that would necessarily scare off Lyons once he gets to Eugene.

Recently, Oregon, Michigan and BYU have emerged as the leaders for the five-star quarterback. USC cannot be counted out while Ole Miss, Ohio State and others are involved.

The Ducks have had some painful recruiting losses recently – Curtis, Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Jackson Cantwell. But Lyons would be a huge addition and with Williams and Curtis going elsewhere, Oregon might actually win out in the end.

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Oregon

Oregon State baseball’s hottest hitter named semifinalist for prestigious national award

Published

1 day ago

May 19, 2025

Press Room

Oregon State baseball’s hottest hitter named semifinalist for prestigious national award

Wilson Weber’s torrid finish to the Oregon State baseball regular season has thrust him into contention for his position’s most prestigious individual award.

Weber on Monday was named a semifinalist for the Buster Posey Award, given annually to college baseball’s top catcher, joining 12 other highly regarded backstops.

The senior from Gresham, who has emerged as one of the Beavers’ most respected and vocal leaders, was a force down the stretch of the regular season, hitting .381 (16 for 42) with six homers, three doubles, 22 RBIs and 11 runs scored in May.

The late-season tear solidified his position in the middle of the OSU lineup and boosted his statistics to career-high levels. He’s batting .332 with 10 homers, 11 doubles, 49 RBIs and 38 runs scored this season.

And amid all the production, Weber has been a rock behind the plate, playing in 52 of the Beavers’ 54 games this season, including 49 starts. He’s committed just two errors, produced a fielding percentage of .996, and thrown out 15 would-be base stealers, anchoring a defense that ranks sixth in college baseball with a .982 fielding percentage.

The group of semifinalists includes Cal Poly junior Jack Collins, Texas junior Rylan Galvan, Arizona junior Adonys Guzman, Florida junior Luke Heyman, Georgia Tech sophomore Vahn Lackey and North Carolina sophomore Luke Stevenson. Wilson is the only senior in the group.

He is trying to become the second Oregon State player to win the award, alongside Adley Rutschman (2019), who went on to become the No. 1 overall pick of the MLB draft and a Big League All-Star.

The award, which is determined by a vote of Division I head coaches and communications contacts, will be whittled down to three finalists on June 5, and that trio will be invited to Wichita, Kansas, for a ceremony announcing the winner June 26.

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Patmon’s walk-off 3-run HR helps Oregon beat Stanford 10-7, win Eugene Regional

Published

2 days ago

May 19, 2025

Press Room

Patmon’s walk-off 3-run HR helps Oregon beat Stanford 10-7, win Eugene Regional

Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Dezianna Patmon hit a walk-off three-run home run, Emma Cox and Katie Flannery also hit homers and Oregon beat Stanford 10-7 on Sunday night to win the Eugene Regional.

No. 16 seed Oregon (50-8) will play host to Liberty, which beat top-seeded and No. 1 Texas A&M in the Bryan-College Station Regional, in the super regionals next weekend.

Paige Sinicki hit a one-out single in the seventh, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error and Emma Cox was intentionally walked before Patmon hit the next pitch over the wall left field to give the Ducks their first lead.

Patmon hit a lead-off triple in the sixth and scored on a two-out single by Kai Luschar to make it 7-7.

Joie Economides hit a grand slam in the first inning and added a three-run shot in the third for Stanford (42-12).

Elise Sokolsky (18-4) came on with two out and runners on the corners and got Economides to groundout to end the game.

Rylie McCoy and Kedre Luschar blasted three-run home runs as the Ducks routed the Cardinals 15-5 to force the second game. Kai Luschar went 3 for 3 and scored three runs, Kedre Luschar had four RBIs and Paige Sinicki had three RBIs. Lyndsey Grein (28-2) went three innings for the win, giving up three earned runs. Elise Sokolsky threw three innings of one-hit ball for her fifth save.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

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