If you follow almost any member of Oregon’s new coaching staff on Twitter, their tweets probably light up your timeline when a new recruit commits or a player makes a highlight play in practice. Don’t forget Willie Taggart’s ringing recruit phone, Marcus Arroyo’s seemingly infinite amount of hashtags or Jim Leavitt’s Pepsi obsession.
In terms of activity on social media, this new staff is a 180-degree turn from the previous administration. They can read the writing on the wall when it comes to where football is heading, and they are using social media as a tool that has the potential to change the face of Oregon football.
“I think that’s kind of the world we live in today,” said Arroyo, Oregon’s new co-offensive coordinator, and the most active social media member on the staff. “I think it helps promote the value of this place, the value of our program, our players, our staff.”
That’s the overall message that Oregon’s staff wants to convey. They possess state-of-the-art facilities and a beautiful campus. Why wouldn’t you advertise that?
Pair that with Taggart being the first outside hire at head coach since 1977, who also brings in an entirely new staff, getting your brand and faces out to the public seems like a smart move.
Other than attempting to publicize who they are, Oregon’s staff puts social media, specifically Twitter, to use in recruiting.
Taggart and his staff put a new emphasis on recruiting since the moment they donned the green and yellow. They’ve used every tool in their arsenal — including social media — and so far, it’s paid off.
In just nine months, Oregon pulled together a respectable 2017 recruiting class with multiple members who could see hefty playing time this season. But what’s even more impressive is what the staff has done with the 2018 recruiting class, which has the potential to be the best in program history.
Scout.com currently lists Oregon’s 2018 class as the best class in the country, while 247sports.com holds Oregon in the top five. Even with a program as good as Oregon’s has been over the past decade, the Ducks have never pulled in a recruiting class ranked in the top-10 nationally.
The new staff wants to dispel the notion that Oregon can’t draw big-time recruiting classes.
“Again, anytime we can spread the word and spread the word about what we’re about and get people to know who we are, especially as a new staff and a place that apparently ‘couldn’t get people to it,’ we gotta be able to do it,” Arroyo said.
While Arroyo is arguably the most active on Twitter, it’s safeties coach Keith Heyward who probably utilizes it the best. Ranked as a top-10 national recruiter by 247sports.com, Heyward has already secured five commitments, four of which are four-star recruits. His resume also includes nabbing second-round NFL pick Juju Smith-Schuster during his time at USC.
“I recruit the same way I’ve always done it,” Heyward said. “I just think it’s about building a good relationship because in the end, the kids are going to choose to go with who they feel comfortable with.”
Heyward said that the emergence of social media as a major platform for recruits has made reaching out to them and beginning a dialogue easier. It’s the main way he communicates with recruits.
“You could a lot of different things through social media, whether it’s messaging them, whether it’s edits, just hitting them up to have them call you,” Heyward said. “So it’s all different kind of things.”
Oregon’s new staff has certainly made a point of ushering in a new era of Duck football one tweet at a time.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris