Ducks Digest

Elijah Brown Talks Oregon, Latest in Recruitment

Running the offense for the No. 1 high school team in the country, Brown is a top-5 prospect in California for 2024.

Max Torres

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Kenny Dillingham and the Oregon coaching staff are hard at work evaluating and recruiting the next great signal caller for the Ducks. Dante Moore is in the fold for 2023, but Oregon has tabbed Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei quarterback Elijah Brown a top priority in the 2024 class.

Ducks Digest was recently in Santa Ana to check in on one of the top passers in the junior class.

Brown continues to add to schools to an impressive offer sheet, but what most people are talking about this fall has been his body of work on the field. 

He's about three quarters of the way through his third season at Mater Dei as the team prepares for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Yet, he's never lost a game. 

READ MORE: Can Oregon flip Louisville commit Jamari Johnson?

That's right. He's undefeated in high school, earning wins over powerhouse schools like St. John Bosco (Bellflower, CA), Duncanville (TX) and Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, NV) to name a few. 

How has he done it?

"Really just trusting in the teammates, trusting in in the coaching we have here at Mater Dei," Brown said of his success. "We have amazing coaches who want to take a lot of time to prepare us for for the game at hand and just a lot of preparation that goes on with everything."

Brown's recruitment is one that's picked up steam of late, with offers from Wisconsin and Penn State coming in just the last week. He was also in Eugene to check out Oregon when the Ducks faced UCLA.

"It was a great game to witness," he said, reflecting on his time with the Ducks program. "Oregon was moving the ball. Each week they've gotten better and better. That's good to see."

Aside from the on-field product being more marketable than ever for offensive talent, the quarterback got to spend some one-on-one time with two big names on the coaching staff.

"After the game I got to talk with Coach Dillingham. Got to talk about football with him and just talk with him as a person. Coach Dan Lanning, I got to speak with him for a little and that was pretty cool as well."

Dillingham has taken college football by storm in 2022--transforming the Oregon offense from a dry and predictable ground-and-pound unit to one of the most explosive and entertaining offenses you'll find anywhere in the country.

"He's actually a great person just to talk to," Brown said of his time with the Oregon offensive coordinator. "Every time I talk to him he asks about what's going on in my life, just away from the kind of football side of things just me as a person. He's a great person. Great offensive mind."

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The Ducks are no strangers to Mater Dei. They signed three players from the Southern California powerhouse in 2019 including Sean Dollars, Keyon Ware-Hudson and Mase Funa. 

"Those connections are strong there," Brown said of his relationships with current players. "Mase, every time I go out there he makes it a point to say what's up to me and just make me feel welcomed and that's pretty cool."

Now that he's up to 14 reported scholarship offers, what makes Oregon a contender in his recruitment?

"I just like the school in general. I like the facility and the coaching staff. I feel like I'm kind of a homebody type of person so I like to stay inside and that's usually what you do in Oregon. So it's like, strictly like football and staying indoors, just chilling out. I feel like I could go do something like that."

Brown's most recent visit took him across the country to Happy Valley, where he watched Penn State take on Ohio State in one of the most highly-anticipated games the Big Ten has to offer.

"The atmosphere was amazing. The crowd was insane," he said of his visit. "It was actually insanely packed and their student section is actually crazy as well--to see how they're all in sync with all the things that they do. It's really cool to see."

One other school that's gained a lot of national attention this season isn't too far from home. Now at USC, Lincoln Riley has made a name for himself as a quarterback guru and won't make it easy for one of Los Angeles' finest to leave home to play his college ball.

"They're doing amazing right now," Brown said of the Trojans. "I love the coaching staff. Coach (Luke) Huard, Coach Lincoln (Riley). They're doing amazing. Their offense is actually doing amazing too. I like the way they run their offense--fast tempo."

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Max Torres
MAX TORRES

Max Torres is the publisher and lead editor of Ducks Digest. He's covered the Oregon football and recruiting beats for four years. He's based out of Long Beach, CA and travels around Southern California and the country covering top high school football prospects.

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