Most Duck fans were asleep when Oregon commits faxed their National Letters of Intent from the East Coast. For Oregon, seven of eight from the eastern time zone came from Florida.
It makes sense. New head coach Willie Taggart and much of his staff coached in the state for a number of years. Even if Taggart and his staff were recruiting for other schools, the relationships they built allowed them mine the state for prospects.
Oregon’s first four officially announced signees were from the state of Florida, along with one of the three early-enrollees. In total, the Ducks stand to add add seven players from Florida.
“We’re going to try and get the best players around the country, whether it’s Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, New York, North Dakota — wherever they’re at,” Taggart said on Wednesday. “We have relationships there [in Florida] so we’re going to always go there. That’s just the right thing to do. A lot of those commits we had, we already had the relationships with those young men.
“But I think it will be very wise for us to continue to recruit where we have relationships and know folks. … We’re going to always recruit the State of Florida. There’s a lot of kids down there that really, really like Oregon. They just were never offered by them before.”

Another signee from Florida, @DarrianMcNeal1, is a Duck! #GoDucks #DoSomething #NSD17 pic.twitter.com/54mmt7oPwD
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) February 1, 2017

Feel good too see some more Florida boys out here🦆💪🏾 #Floregon #Dosomething

— Jordon Scott (@Fat_Mac34) January 21, 2017

The #Floregon Ducks are tolling in first for @oregonfootball on #NSD17
— Andy McNamara (@McNamaraUO) February 1, 2017

Tony Brooks-James, Charles Nelson and Steven Maines were the only players from Florida on last years roster.

Willie Taggart’s crew has brought in 7 kids from Florida on short notice. All 7 had Power Five offers. 5 were directly flipped. #Floregon
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) February 1, 2017

List of signees from Florida:
Jordon Scott, three star (according to 247sports.com), DT, Largo, Florida.
Bruce Judson, three star, ATH, Cocoa, Flordia.
Darrian Felix, three star, RB, Fort Meyers, Florida.
Daewood Davis, three star, WR, Hollywood, Florida.
Demetri Burch, three star, ATH, Apopka, Florida.
Billy Gibson, three star, S, Hialeah, Florida.
Darrian McNeal, three star, WR, Seffner, Florida.

https://t.co/lyswpQRWAT
Interactive map shows the locations of Duck signees so far. pic.twitter.com/XNKQ69ipnT
— Jack Butler (@Butler917) February 1, 2017

Follow Jack Butler on Twitter @Butler917