Oregon Predicted to Land 4-Star Offensive Lineman

A'lique Terry and the Oregon coaching staff have laid a great foundation with some top offensive line recruits.

Is another commitment on the way for Oregon football?

Maybe not in the immediate future, but it's looking more likely.

On Wednesday, Oregon received a 247Sports crystal ball prediction to land 2024 Aiea (Hi.) High interior offensive lineman Preston Taumua. The prediction came from Mountain Region recruiting analyst Blair Angulo, who is 479/513 (93.37%) all-time with his predictions.

Taumua is rated a four-star (0.9195) recruit according to the 247Sports Composite. The same system ranks him the No. 222 player nationally, the No. 13 interior offensive lineman and the No. 1 player in Hawaii for the 2024 cycle. 

This is a significant development seeing that the 6-foot-4, 315-pound lineman just placed the Ducks in his top five schools along with Alabama, Arizona, Auburn and Nebraska. 

The Ducks have two offensive linemen verbally committed in the 2024 cycle in Fox Crader from Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Washington and Trent Ferguson from Salem High School in West Salem, Oregon. Both recruits were on campus in Eugene this past weekend for unofficial visits.

Torres' Take

While I don't have a ton of intel on Taumua specifically, let me tell you why this pick makes a lot of sense. 

For starters, new offensive line coach A'lique Terry coached at the University of Hawaii just a couple of years ago. I have no doubt he developed some pretty tight connections and relationships while he was there that helped Taumua land on his radar.

In addition to Terry, Oregon defensive line Coach Tony Tuioti spent five years coaching at Hawaii (2008-2013) and he played his college ball for the Rainbow Warriors. All that to say, the Ducks have plenty of connections to the Aloha State. Those connections even trickle down to the roster after signing a pair of offensive linemen from Hawaii in Kavika Rogers (Kapa'a '22) and Iapani Laloulu (Farrington '23).

Lastly, the Ducks have been doing a great job recruiting the tackle spots with names like Brandon Baker and JacQawn McRoy, but there hasn't been as much buzz about the interior aside from names like Devin Brooks (OR) and Eddy Pierre-Louis (FL).

I'm told Taumua's best position at the college level may be center, which would of course check a major box for the Ducks. He's got great feet, the physical frame to take on massive nose guards and he can get out in space to block in the screen game. I'm also told that an official visit to Oregon is locked in, but I'm working on getting the date.

In short, the Ducks should be a major contender here and I can certainly see why this pick was made.

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