Dan Lanning explains how Oregon managed to flip Ohio State commit Jeremiah McClellan
Dan Lanning and the Ducks flipped a pair of 4-stars on signing day earlier this week — Jeremiah McClellan from Ohio State and Ryan Pellum from USC — to help fuel the program’s historic signing class.
The wins over USC have been frequent. Oregon has made a habit of beating the Trojans when they go up against one another on the recruiting trail. Flipping a months-long Ohio State pledge is a new kind of recruiting win, and it’s a strong way to move into the Big Ten.
“I remember the day that he committed somewhere else and just be able to talk to him saying, ‘Hey coach, I’d love to keep the communication going.’ It never really stopped on our end, all the way into late last night and early this morning,” Lanning said on Wednesday. “I always felt like there was an opportunity if he felt like this was a fit… Our staff did a phenomenal job of continuing to work all the relationships necessary for him to see the same picture and vision that we saw.”
The 6-foot, 190-pound McClellan is a 4-star and a top-50 recruit in the industry-generated 247 Composite. He’s the 13th-ranked wide receiver in the 2024 class and the No. 3 prospect from the state of Missouri.
“Turn on the film,” Lanning said of McClellan and Pellum. “These guys are dynamic with the ball in their hands. They’re the kind of guys that can catch it 1 yard from the line of scrimmage and turn it into an 80-yard play. They’re explosive. They have unique skill sets.
“We’re looking for guys that people have to think about on defense. ‘How do we stop that guy?’ When you do that, that sets up everything else in your offense, within the run game and passing game. We’ve got some guys on our team right now that can distribute the ball to those guys. So I think wideouts are always anxious to know who’s going to be throwing in their direction, and we have some great pieces for that in the future as well.”