Tennessee Reporter Says Oregon's Strategy is "Just Go Buy Us a Class"; Dan Lanning Proving Otherwise

Oregon football's NIL backing has taken another shot from the SEC, this time from a Tennessee reporter unhappy about Dan Lanning and company being good at recruiting.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning speaks during Oregon football’s media day Monday, July 29, 2024 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Have you heard that the Oregon Ducks have a very public benefactor in Phil Knight of Nike? Apparently, that's the only way Oregon can compete in anything.

That's according to detractors of Oregon's recruiting efforts, the latest coming out of Tennessee. On3's Brent Hubbs decided to rant about the Ducks during a radio appearance on 104-5 The Zone in Nashville.

"Here's the other thing too—we talk about NIL a lot, right? NIL, NIL, NIL. At some point, when the money's pretty even, it comes down to where you're most comfortable," Hubbs said. "So you got to go recruit them. I think Oregon is learning this, right? Oregon just kind of had the thought process of, "We'll just go buy us a class," and they've lost three or four commits in the last two weeks because they don't really want to work and live in Eugene."

An attack on the location out of the way, Hubbs decided to go after the coaching staff.

"And I don't think the coaches have the relationships with those players that other schools have," Hubbs said. "I think they've just said, "Well, we'll NIL it." You can't just NIL it because everybody's got NIL funds now, okay? I mean, at the Power Five level, everybody's got a plan for NIL. So at some point, it comes back to old-school recruiting and your relationships, and you've got to work at it."

First, Oregon is ahead of Tennessee the latest rankings for the 2025 class from 247Sports. The Ducks have 15 commits and are a spot ahead of the Vols, with their 21 commits. Must be better quality cash in Eugene than Knoxville.

So Oregon is buying a class for football success. If the question is whether or not the Ducks are paying players, then that's absolutely a yes. So is everybody else, especially Tennessee.

Remember the pre-NIL days? The Vols were happy to send assistant coaches to McDonald's and deliver those bags to recruits, except instead of McDoubles the bags contained cash. Talk about buying a class.

Source: Tennessee #Vols got sloppy with recruiting. They were handing recruits cash in McDonald's bags when they visited campus.

Also a name to look out for to fill the Head Coaching vacancy: Jason Witten pic.twitter.com/HKDd02rldz

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 19, 2021

Now, if the question is whether or not Oregon is trying to go full 2022 Texas A&M and actually buy up recruits, who then also hit the transfer portal quickly after the season, then no. There's been no evidence that anything like that is happening.

Back to the shot at the coaching staff and their relationships. That's one of the reasons recruits are flocking to Eugene. Dan Lanning and his staff have built the relationships with recruits that makes them want to be Ducks.

Here is just one recent commit in his own words.

"The most important relationship is the relationship with coach Stein," 2026 four-star QB Jonas Williams said. "Our relationship is really good. I’ve gotten to know him a lot and his family, and I fully trust spending the next four years of my life with him."

Lanning has even made it a point to talk about the relationships being built during recruiting and not burning bridges after signing day.

"If you do a great job of building relationships with guys on your team and guys in recruiting, sometimes they’re going to make different decisions," Lanning said on The College Football Recruiting Show. "They’re going to end up different places. But if you leave that relationship the right way, there’s now an opportunity in college football that it can be reconnected down the road."

Jul 25, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning speaks to the media during the Big 10 football media day at Lucas Oil Stadium. / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

Finally, Lanning, in his own words, on relationships and NIL during a Pate State sit down at Big Ten Media Days.

"Recruiting, it's not one thing," Lanning said. "It's the evaluation, it's the 321 different schools that we hit this offseason in spring recruiting. It's the 23 satellite camps. It's the phone conversations, the text message threads. It's the relationship building. All of that is built to have an opportunity sit at the table, to have a seat at the table at the end to be in that discussion.

"Then, is NIL a part of it? Absolutely. Find a top-10 program that it's not a part of their program right now. You better be willing to do it and figuring out ways to do it. It's a part of our process but not the only part of our process."

Relationships, not fast food deliveries. Volunteer fans (and reporters, I suppose) can toss those accusations in the river with the goalposts they want to keep moving for how to have success in recruiting.

Note: as a born Nebraskan, let's all also enjoy this bit of Tennessee football history.