Oregon added a five-star prospect to its recruiting class over the weekend, when safety Trey McNutt announced his commitment to the Ducks over Florida, Ohio State, Texas A&M and USC. McNutt is ranked the No. 1 safety in the 2025 class by 247Sports and is considered the No. 23 player in the class.
His commitment propelled Oregon’s 2025 class from No. 11 to No. 6 in the 247Sports team rankings and gave the Ducks their highest-ranked defensive back commitment in program history. An Ohio native, McNutt’s commitment to the Ducks is further evidence of the program’s national recruiting profile under third-year coach Dan Lanning.
The 6-foot, 180-pound safety joins receiver Dakorien Moore of Duncanville, Texas, as the second five-star commit in Oregon’s class, which now has 15 commitments. Oregon finished with the nation’s No. 4 class in the 2024 cycle after landing the No. 9 class in 2023.
McNutt was a standout as a junior at Shaker Heights in Cleveland, where he played on both ends of the field. He racked up 61 tackles with 12 pass deflections on defense last season while adding 611 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on offense. Here’s more on his game from 247Sports national recruiting analyst Allen Trieu:
Track athlete who brings that speed to the football field. Good high school receiver who shows twitch and ball skills that will translate to defense, but not out of the question a school could give him offensive looks. Played safety and corner. Will come down from the safety position and support the run. Good tackler who will hit and run through contact, not just a drag down tackler, and takes good angles. Can be a free safety in college, nickel, or move around for a defense. Has enough size and length, but is not elite in physical size measurements. A playmaker with toughness and those abilities will translate anywhere a school wants to use him. Physically well-prepared and should be ready to play early in his career provided he gets up to speed on the coverages and roles his school needs him to play. Projects as a high-impact college player and potential early draft pick.
McNutt has multiple sub-11-second 100-meter dash times in track and field and also competed in the 2,000 meters. In addition to Ohio’s McNutt, the Ducks also have commitments from promising prospects Texas, Maryland, Florida, California, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona and Washington in the 2025 class.
Lanning’s success in acquiring talent has made Oregon and its NIL backer of Nike co-founder Phil Knight a source of envy for other coaches.
“I wish I could get some of that crappy money that [Knight is] “Sharing with Georgia coach Dan Lanning” Kirby Smart joked at SEC Media Days. “But that’s another story.”
Lanning, who was Georgia’s defensive coordinator under Smart from 2019-21, had already developed a solid reputation as a recruiter before arriving at Oregon. Pairing those skills with Oregon’s investment in attracting top talent has made the Ducks a national title contender as the program enters its first season in the Big Ten.
“Recruiting is not a one-size-fits-all thing,” Lanning said during a meeting with Pate State at Big Ten Media Days. “It’s the evaluation, it’s the 321 different schools we visited in the offseason during spring recruiting. It’s the 23 satellite camps. It’s the phone conversations, the text message threads. It’s the relationship building. It’s all designed to have an opportunity to sit at the table, have a seat at the table at the end to be a part of that discussion. So is NIL one of them? Absolutely. Find a top-10 program that’s not in their program right now. You better be willing to do that and find ways to do that. It’s part of our process, but it’s not the only part of our process.”
