Oregon lands four-star commitment from Mississippi RB Dante Dowdell

First-year head coach Dan Lanning pulled a major win out of SEC country on Friday afternoon with a commitment from Picayune (Miss.) four-star running back Dante Dowdell.

Dowdell becomes the fourth commit in the Oregon class, as he sees an early opportunity to make an impact for a program he wants to help push to the top.

"I think it's the best place to be a true freshman and be the face of the school, meet some new people and help lead Oregon to their first national championship," Dowdell said. "They have a real good running backs coach, they got some good people over there that have done some good things."

Running backs coach Carlos Locklyn was able to sell Dowdell on his track record of putting backs in the league, and it stood out to the four-star along with where Dan Lanning came from at Georgia.

"I just see it in [Lanning], and the running backs coach has coached Antonio Gibson and Cam Akers," he said. "He's coached some good backs and put them in the league, and Dan Lanning won a national championship, they beat Bama."

Oregon's storied backfield has seen some big names come through, but Dowdell wants to honor those names by bringing a Heisman trophy to the position room.

"I'm glad to be one of them, but I want to be the first one to win a Heisman and a national championship," Dowdell said.

Picking Oregon over in-state power Ole Miss was not easy for Dowdell who grew close with Lane Kiffin, but it ultimately came down to Dowdell wanting to forge his own path someplace else.

"It's a nice place, I think the people really like me out there," he said of Oregon. "Everybody was so focused on Ole Miss, staying in the Sip, this and that. I like Coach Lane, but I want to make my own legacy somewhere and I feel like Oregon is the place to do that."

At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Dowdell is ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals.