Even within a new conference, UCLA game week still brings up a lot of similar sentiments, especially those regarding the Ducks’ dominance over the Bruins in recent years. 

Oregon has owned UCLA over the last four matchups, but that isn’t where this discrepancy ends. 

A term that one can hear around Eugene, especially around campus, is the phrase “UC-Oregon” — an obvious reference to the startling reality that much of Oregon’s student body comes from the state of California. 

California is the second-most popular state of origin among UO students — behind Oregon — with 5,916 enrollees as of Fall 2023. According to Britannica, Oregon currently ranks as the 27th largest state based on population, which means that filling out a large state school requires the help of the nation’s most populous state. 

That phenomenon doesn’t limit itself to just the average student, however, as Oregon’s athletic programs share a similar base of population.

This is especially true on the football team, where 33 out of the 85 players on the roster hail from the Golden State. 

Even going further into the future, 10 out of the 27 high school commits from the recent 2024 class are from California, as well as four out of the 15 currently committed for 2025 and two out of the five committed for 2026. 

In fact, Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning took the most recent bye weekend as an opportunity to travel down to UCLA’s backyard and try to land some of 2026 and 2027’s finest prospects. 

Lanning was spotted at Southern California’s Bonita High School in La Verne, CA and Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, CA over this past weekend. 

The Ducks’ head coach doesn’t see this as a drawback, but a part of his daily challenge of running one of the country’s most successful programs since he took over in 2022. 

“One of the harder things here in the Pacific Northwest is I can’t go out and throw a football and hit players that would play for us, we have to have players that are courageous and brave,” Lanning said in an interview with FOX’s Joel Klatt in July. 

Lanning explained the hard truth of the matter: a lot of the country’s best talent comes from hotbeds such as Southern California. SoCal has built the foundations of the school and, at this point, provides needed foundation for the ever important football program. 

As Oregon travels down to its pipeline of incredible talent for a contest against the local program, it’s important to look at the middling UCLA Bruins, who have seen the ugly back-half of this trend. 

UCLA historically controlled that recruiting area, but in recent years, the program has taken a hit in success. While it is hard to attribute that directly to other schools poaching the best talent in the area, it’s definitely not helping the Bruins. 

In the 2024 class, none of 247sports’ top-10 overall recruits from California stayed in the state; seven schools combined to draw in those prospects, with Oregon leading the way by bringing in three out of those 10. 

“There’s some guys that will win from the Pacific Northwest, and in the state that can contribute, but we can’t make an entire team from [Oregon]. So we have to find the guys that are willing to get uncomfortable and maybe step away from their home to come here and be excellent,” Lanning said. 

Lanning’s commitment to going on the road and maintaining this level of excellency has been the driving force in Oregon’s success with him at the helm, while programs like UCLA have struggled during that same stretch. 

According to Lanning, this approach to recruiting makes the locker room a much more exciting place and, of course, makes for a more talented team. 

“That’s part of what makes this place great: when you walk in the locker room, it’s a melting pot of people. You have guys from the Islands all the way to Miami, to the DMV, all across the United States to make this a really special place,” Lanning said.

Eugene is definitely a special place, and this program is too, but it doesn’t become that special place off the back of recruiting out of only one or two pipelines. That special aura also fuels  regression from a program such as UCLA in these circumstances, especially when the nation’s best don’t necessarily feel the need to play in their hometowns anymore. 

Lanning also gave some great color on why elite players would venture so far from home to play football. 

“People come here to sign up for something that’s different, they want to sign up for [something] hard, they want to experience something that isn’t easily attainable … Every one of these guys was the best player on their high school team,” Lanning said. 

Even in UCLA’s backyard with players that grew up supporting the Bruins, Oregon finds a great portion of its success. That only comes with Lanning’s obsession with the best and intense need for competition. 

As the best of the best continue to emerge from Southern California, programs such as Oregon will continue to get better, as the best of the best want to compete — something Lanning promises and credits as one of the driving forces of the strong familial bonds within the team.