Oregon picks up quarterback
Just as Jake Rodrigues started to become a name on the national stage after performing so well at the Stanford Elite 11 regional workout, the Rocklin (Calif.) Whitney quarterback decided Friday to end his recruitment by committing to Oregon.
"I did commit about an hour ago," Rodrigues said around 5 p.m. local time.
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Rodrigues, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound prospect, was arguably one of the top two quarterbacks along with Cal commit Zach Kline at the recent Elite 11 event at Stanford and dazzled everybody including former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, who worked as a camp counselor.
It's a huge pickup for the Ducks since Rodrigues also had offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, San Diego State, UCLA, Utah and Washington. Florida and Tennessee had been showing the most interest and others were involved as well.
Rodrigues can make all the throws, has an incredibly strong arm with good delivery, spins the ball well and was extraordinarily accurate not only at the Elite 11 but two days later at the Stanford NIKE Camp as well.
"He's a beast," Dilfer said. "There is something inside of him. … He's a leader out there. He's the alpha male who goes out and leads all the other alpha males."
It was known that Rodrigues wanted to have his decision made sometime this summer because he's going to be an early enrollee and wanted to have things finalized heading into his senior season.
Recruiting had gotten much busier in recent weeks, especially after his performances at Stanford a few weeks ago, and Rodrigues definitely enjoyed the process but didn't want to drag things out.
Throughout the last few weeks, Rodrigues gave no hint on where he was leaning, said he was still open to all programs and not ready to trim his list yet.
He committed maybe a little earlier than some suspected but Oregon provided everything he was looking for and he decided to commit before things got even busier.