‘Twas the night before the night before the night before the night before night before Christmas, and not much was stirring with the Oregon football recruiting class. The work had already been done, and even Dan Lanning thought the results were in. When Duck fans fell asleep Tuesday night, they were happy if pensive, satisfied but not overwhelmed.

To that point, the results were good — very good, even — but perhaps not great. Certainly not on the level of the league Lanning left behind, the SEC, and miles away from the league within the league, the upper echelons of the SEC, Georgia, where Lanning served as defensive coordinator from 2019-21, Alabama and LSU. We’re talking rarified air there.

By the end of Wednesday, the Ducks were kissing the sky.

Lanning and the Oregon coaching staff had the best early signing day of any Pac-12 school, making USC’s haul look puny in comparison and stealing the thunder from Deion Sanders’ big day in Boulder, landing whale after whale.

That Lanning was taken by surprise speaks to the erratic nature of whale hunting. Who’s harpoon is the biggest? The defending national champion Bulldogs and Kirby Smart, who beat Lanning in his first game with the Ducks, 49-3, to open the year? Alabama and Nick Saban, hungry to get back in the title picture? USC and Lincoln Riley, Oregon’s biggest west coast competition?

The Ducks lost one 5-star earlier in the week, when star quarterback Dante Moore flipped to UCLA.

They gained 2 more on Wednesday, though, getting commitments from defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei and safety Peyton Bowen, who flipped from Notre Dame. And that was only some of the Ducks’ haul.

“I would say that we were really clued in to be in a great position on a lot of these as they finished and had a lot of confidence, really securing a lot of that confidence last night as we’re able to roll into the day,” Lanning said. “But yeah, there’s certainly some moments where you get up there and you feel like you’re right there in the fight and you don’t know. So it’s been a pleasant surprise we’ve gotten.”

In the end, the Ducks finished the day with a top-10 class, and one that is built in Lanning’s image — defensive-oriented, hard-nosed and ready to bring physical football up to Autzen.

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We got a sense of Lanning’s identity last signing day.

Named head coach just 4 days prior, Lanning quickly went to work on the nation’s No. 16 overall class, best in the Pac-12 at the high school level.

“Ultimately, the biggest thing is time,” Lanning said of the difference between last year’s early signing day and Wednesday. “We have time to be really thorough, and go back and evaluate. There’s some guys that trusted us last year that stayed on board. I think I got hired and signing day was less than a week later. It didn’t necessarily provide a lot of opportunity for — there was a little bit of a trust factor that go in there — but not the opportunity to develop relationships like we like to develop. This year what did we have? We had the opportunity to do that to develop strong relationships going down the stretch with guys that we think can impact us in a positive light.”

The Ducks signed 12 defensive recruits out of a class of 17, and the 5 offensive players included two offensive linemen.

Perhaps more important, after a 9-3 season in which several of them got a chance to beef up and learn, none have gone.

“When there’s a sales pitch that doesn’t fit, what you realize is you’re gonna lose people in your program,” Lanning said. “And one thing that I’m proud of right now is if you look at our freshmen, we don’t have a single freshman in the transfer portal right now. What’s that mean? It means what we said last year is reality. The people we’re able to bring on board, we’re excited about the direction we’re headed. And that’s the same thing we’re looking for as we add pieces moving forward.”

If Oregon is able to develop top talent over 4 or 5 years, the Pac-12 is in big trouble, even if the league did benefit this year from the Ducks’ trickle-down effect.

UCLA swiped Dante Moore right out from under Oregon, which then went and replaced him with with former Baylor commit Austin Novosad. The Ducks lost stud Seattle cornerback Caleb Presley to Washington, then stole 4-star Daylen Austin from LSU. Oregon said goodbye to former 5-star linebacker Justin Flowe, who said hello to Arizona. So the Ducks grabbed former Iowa linebacker Jestin Jacobs.

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Before Wednesday, Oregon was having a grand old time west of the Rockies and even dipping down to Texas. By the end of the day, the Ducks earned commitments from 5- and 4-stars from California, Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii.

For those who begrudge Oregon of its success because its benefactor just so happens to be Phil Knight, Wednesday was a brutal day. The Ducks didn’t just clean up on a national scale, they did it by poaching from the top programs in the country. In college football, the rich tend to get richer. But few places have the resources that Oregon boasts, including the national brand.

“Anybody that really knows college football right now knows there’s a lot more to recruiting than NIL,” Lanning said. “Nobody picks the plays just because of those factors. Certainly, some of those factors matter, and you want to be in a place where you can build a brand. I don’t think there’s anywhere in the nation that’s better than Oregon when it comes to that in being able to build a brand for yourself as a player.”