4-star offensive tackle Josh Conerly commits to Oregon over USC

All signs appeared to be pointing Josh Conerly in the direction of USC. But in his biggest recruiting win to date, new Oregon head coach Dan Lanning convinced the four-star Seattle (Wash.) Rainier Beach offensive tackle to stick a little closer to home and commit to the Ducks.

Conerly did exactly that on Friday night, giving Oregon an anchor on the offensive line in the 2022 recruiting class. The 6-foot-5, 283-pounder is the No. 40 overall prospect in the senior class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He also ranks as the nation’s No. 5 offensive tackle and the No. 1 player in Washington.

After a long and winding recruitment that went past the Early Signing Period and all the way into this week, Conerly chose the school that initially didn’t even make his final five schools list. But the Ducks got into his final group a few months ago. And they ultimately got his final visit — an unofficial last weekend — a week after he officially visited USC. In addition to the Trojans and Ducks, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Washington were among the schools in contention after Conerly cut his list down this winter.

He took official visits to Oklahoma and Miami in January, tripped to Oregon March 11 and finished with an official visit to USC two weekends ago. But the tireless efforts of assistants Viane Talamaivao and Adrian Klemm paid off, getting Conerly up to Eugene one final time last weekend. The Trojans and Ducks had been considered the main contenders for some time, with USC as the prediction across the recruiting industry.

Josh Conerly adds to rebuilt Oregon recruiting class

He joins an Oregon recruiting class that came into the night ranked No. 17 nationally in the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings. It’s a group that had to be largely rebuilt from the ground up after former head coach Mario Cristobal left for Miami. Over the course of the next month after Cristobal left, Oregon lost commitments from more than a dozen prospects.

Lanning and Co. re-recruited a handful of them including four-stars Jahlil Florence and Dave Iuli. The Ducks also flipped four-star receiver Justius Lowe from away from Utah and four-star running back Jordan James away from Georgia. Snatching away a top-40 prospect from a conference rival at the 11th hour might just top it all, though.