Oregon has two wide receivers committed in the 2025 class, but they're looking for more.
One prospect they recently hosted for the Washington State game is Long Beach (Calif.) Poly wideout Caden Butler, who spoke with Ducks Digest about the trip and why he wanted to visit Oregon.
"Just the culture that Coach Lanning's building over there and just the Poly history that's out there. My mentor, Samie Parker, he went there and so I've always thought about following his footsteps and then also D Will (Dylan Williams). D Will's always asking me every week to come up there with him."
Parker is now coaching at North Alabama, and Butler offered more on his connection with the former Duck wide receiver.
"I'm from Kansas City and when I first started playing football he was the first coach I ever met for receiver," he said. "I first started playing in eighth grade so I met him in 7on7 and played for his 7on7 team."
There were a number of things that stood out about the Oregon trip, but one thing was his favorite.
"Definitely the game," Butler said. "The game was super cool. Seeing how much Eugene as a town comes together for the game was crazy. I was walking in the stands and all the fans were happy to have me there. It really meant a lot that you can tell that the town backs all of the football program, and the players and the coaching staff too."
Butler earned an offer from the Ducks following his first trip to Eugene in the summer and one aspect of the program stands out the most.
"Definitely the development. Coach (Junior) Adams does a great job. If you look at (Troy) Franklin, that dude's a beast and just watching him in game too--his releases, the way he goes up and gets the ball too."
In the short amount of time that he's been recruited by the Ducks he's already built some strong connections with the program.
"Coach Lanning, he's always recruited Kansas and some of my coaches back home actually really know him personally," he said. "It's always been a cool relationship with him being from the Midwest and how he recruits the Midwest.
"And then Coach Adams' relationship has been super cool. Just because of how great of a coach he is. He develops players and gets them through college and on to the next level."
He was in Arizona over the weekend has some other trips coming up.
"The schedule's actually kind of packed right now. I'll be back in the Midwest for Iowa State. And then I'm going back up to Oregon for Oregon State (Corvallis) and then Mizzou and Stanford."
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound wide receiver has 10 reported scholarships and isn't in a rush to make a decision.
"In the process I'm really just feeling things out. My injury has definitely slowed the process down I feel like a little bit and made me not want to rush it as much and just see where things go."
Butler tore his ACL but is approaching recovery with a positive attitude and may be progressing fast than anticipated.
"It was a super weird one because it was a contact injury. If you ask the coaches, five minutes after it happened I was up jumping, cutting and so all the trainers and staff were all giving me the side eye like 'how is that possible?'
"I've actually retained a lot of muscle with it. We're looking to be back in early February like right before 7on7, track season and spring ball."
Butler's return to action should only help his recruiting prospects and he's been hearing from a lot schools across the country.
"Mizzou's been in heavy contact. Oregon, Oregon State, Tennessee sent me a lot of mail recently. Stanford, KU, K-State and I've also been in contact with Iowa State."
The Kansas native spoke about some of the things he's looking for in a school.
"Definitely has to be a family atmosphere. Just being around the team so much, I'm more focused on how my relationship is with the coaches and the players too. I want to go into a room where the guys are all good, bonded together and want each other to succeed more than themselves. It also has to be a good educational school, because both my parents are teachers and so grades are a huge thing to me right now."
Caden Butler Highlights
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