Molden lands early Oregon offer

Elijah Molden knows the Oregon football program well. The 2017 prospect camped there, his father, Alex, played for the Ducks and there's no question the Pac-12 power is a favorite early in his recruitment.

Oregon offered the West Linn, Ore., cornerback early on and definitely is a frontrunner as Molden gets ready for his sophomore season.

"It was last year after my first high school game they sent me my first letter," Molden said. "Throughout my whole freshman year they sent me about four or five letters and asked me a bunch of questions and remained interested.

"They had me go down early with one of my teammates to kind of work out for them, run some routes and all that stuff. They were impressed with me and they said they were interested.

"They said I was still young and then I went to their individual camp and throughout the week I impressed them and they said, 'We know you're young but we're going to give you an unofficial offer,' and they really complimented me. Now they're saying to try to come down to a game so I'm really looking forward to that."

Florida State, USC and some other programs have also shown early interest in Molden, who said he wants to wait on making any commitment because it's so early and he wants to see if other teams offer soon.

The Oregon offer is definitely important for numerous reasons but Molden said the USC coaching staff also told him to keep the Trojans in mind and not rush into anything too early.

"It's huge," Molden said of Oregon's offer. "They don't recruit early that often so it means a lot to me. I know I have something to prove and I believe I can perform this year and hopefully get more schools. I'm a big fan of Oregon but I want to see what else is out there, too. I'm going to wait it out a little bit. I want to take some other visits eventually.

"One of the USC coaches contacted my position coach and asked me if I'd be interested in them. My dad played with a brother of someone who's on the coaching staff and they said don't commit to anything too early because they're going to start to get more interested."