Vernon Adams Jr. eluded defenders while the final seconds of the fourth quarter ticked and threw up a prayer. His wide receiver, Dwayne Stanford, came down with it.

With it, the Ducks overcame a number of unforced errors to force overtime, and after an Arrion Springs interception of Sun Devils Mike Bercovici in triple-overtime, Oregon sealed a 61-55 win over Arizona State in triple-overtime.

Vernon Adams Jr. passed for 315 yards and four touchdowns and Royce Freeman added 112 yards on the ground. Darren Carrington recorded another 100-yard receiving performance, and despite what appeared to be a game altering dropped pass, has not been in uniform for a Ducks loss this season.

Key plays:

-Royce Freeman breaks through with 5:21 remaining in the first quarter for a 64-yard touchdown run.

-Mike Bercovici tosses a touchdown pass for the Sun Devils first score of the game to Devin Lucien with 6:36 remaining in the second half.

-ASU’s placekicker Zane Gonzalez missed his first three field goal tries, a 26-yard, 52-yard and 54-yard attempt.

-Vernon Adams throws a 39-yard touchdown pass to Darren Carringon on fourth down and one with 4:00 minutes remaining in the half.

-With 2:33 remaining in the half, Bercovici threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Gary Chambers.

– Gonzalez made two field goals in the second half (28,33).

-Vernon Adams was intercepted by Arizona State freshman Kareem Orr early in the third quarter. Demario Richard took the turnover and finished the ensuing drive off with a 22-yard touchdown run.

-After Bercovici threw a touchdown pass to make the score 31-20, Charles Nelson took the ensuing kickoff 100-yards for a touchdown.

– Oregon took the lead back with on a 62-yard touchdown run to make the score 34-31.

– Arizona State, after a Gonzalez field goal that tied the game at 34, retook the lead on a Bercovici touchdown pass to tight end Kody Kohl. Sun Devils lead 41-34 with 7:49 left in the game.

Stats:

Oregon passing 

Vernon Adams Jr.: 315 passing yards, four touchdowns 

Arizona State passing

Mike Bercovici: 398 passing yards, two touchdowns 

Oregon rushing

Royce Freeman: 15 carries for 112 yards

Arizona State rushing

Demario Richard: 19 carries, 135 yards

Kalen Ballage: 12 carries, 127 yards 

Oregon receiving 

Darren Carrington: five catches, 107 yards and one touchdown

Bralon Addison: six catches, 88 yards and one touchdown 

Arizona State receiving 

Tim White: nine receptions, 97 yards and one touchdown 

Devin Lucien: five receptions, 77 yards, one touchdown 

Oregon total offense

501

Arizona State total offense

741

Andrew Bantly is also an author on this post.

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly.

Before the season, Thursday night’s primetime matchup between Oregon and Arizona State was projected as a possible Pac-12 championship preview. Those aspirations are all but thrown out of the window for both teams, each entering the game with a record of 4-3 (2-2 in Pac-12 play).

Still, the first half was a back-and-forth battle that finished with Oregon leading 17-14.

Arizona State kicker Zane Gonzales missed three field goals in the first half, including a 24-yard miss.

Before the second half begins, check out the key plays from the first half, three things to watch in the second half and stats from both teams.

Three things to watch in the second half:

1) Can the Vernon Adams to Darren Carrington connection keep it up? Last game against Washington, Adams found Carrington for two touchdowns. Tonight, Adams found Carrington for a 46-yard pass down the middle of the field on Oregon’s opening drive. The tandem hooked up three more times in the first half, including a wide open 39-yard touchdown with four minutes left in the second quarter. Those two have proven to be an explosive duo together. Let’s see if it continues in the second half.

2) Has Oregon found the right formula in the secondary? After moving Tyree Robinson from safety to cornerback, and putting Charles Nelson in at safety, the Oregon secondary — including Reggie Daniels at safety and Arrion Springs at corner — held the pass-happy Arizona State offense relatively in check in the first half. The Sun Devils and quarterback Mike Bercovici finished the first half with 196 yards passing and two touchdowns, including a 39-yard touchdown pass to Gary Chambers late in the first half. Which secondary will show up in the second half remains to be seen.

3) Can the Oregon defense hold Arizona State to under 30 points? After the end of the first half, it’s certainly looking that way. In Oregon’s three losses this season, The Ducks have surrendered at least 31 points. Only once this season did Oregon give up more than 30 points in a win. The Ducks gave up 42 points to Eastern Washington in the first game of the season. Keeping Arizona State under that number could equate to Oregon’s fifth victory of the season.

Key plays:

-Royce Freeman breaks through with 5:21 remaining in the first quarter for a 64-yard touchdown run.

-Mike Bercovici tosses a touchdown pass for the Sun Devils first score of the game to Devin Lucien with 6:36 remaining in the second half.

-ASU’s placekicker Zane Gonzalez missed his first three field goal tries, a 26-yard, 52-yard and 54-yard attempt.

-Vernon Adams throws a 39-yard touchdown pass to Darren Carringon on fourth down and one with 4:00 minutes remaining in the half.

-With 2:33 remaining in the half, Bercovici threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Gary Chambers.

Stats:

Oregon passing

Vernon Adams Jr.: 13/20, 178 yards, 1 TD

Arizona State passing

Mike Bercovici: 16/24, 196 yards, 2 TD

Oregon rushing

Royce Freeman: 5 carries, 83 yards, 1 TD

Arizona State rushing

Demario Richard: 9 carries, 69 yards

Kalen Ballage: 8 carries, 55 yards

Oregon receiving

Darren Carrington: 4 receptions, 100 yards, 1 TD

Bralon Addison: 2 receptions, 28 yards

Evan Baylis: 2 receptions, 27 yards

Arizona State receiving

Gary Chambers: 2 receptions, 57 yards, 1 TD

Devin Lucien: 4 receptions, 64 yards, 1 TD

D.J. Foster: 2 receptions, 15 yards

Oregon total offense

252 yards

Arizona State total offense

321 yards

Andrew Bantly is also an author on this post.

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly.

The Autzen Stadium Duck Store moved an assortment of ambiguous No. 8 Oregon football jerseys off its racks after last season. In its place: No. 8 Marcus Mariota baby blue Tennessee Titans jerseys.

Switching jerseys on the racks was an expected, simple change. A 4-3 record heading into the bye week was an unexpected result.

It’s been a struggle for Oregon to find consistency from a position that Mariota owned for the past three seasons. Oregon, with starter Vernon Adams Jr. — who missed three games this season with a broken index finger on his throwing hand — and backups Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie, has averaged 218.9 yards passing per game. Mariota averaged 312.5 yards passing yards per game last season.

In the four games he’s played, Adams is averaging 218.9 passing yards per game, completing 59.4 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and two interceptions.

These struggles should not come as a surprise. In fact, recent history suggests Oregon fans should have seen a season like this coming.

Earlier this month, Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman took a look at the last five Heisman-winning quarterbacks and how their respective teams did the next year without them. Each team finished with an overall record of 8-5. Only one of the teams — the 2009 Oklahoma Sooners, with former Heisman winner Sam Bradford out for the season after a shoulder injury in week one — finished with a winning conference record.

The Sunday after Oregon’s 45-38 double-overtime loss to Washington State, Register-Guard reporter Ryan Thorburn asked Ducks coach Mark Helfrich about Feldman’s finding.

“I’m never going to think of anything other than what we control, what we can control and what’s next,” Helfrich said. “Whether that’s the next person in at a position or whatever. We expect whoever is in there to be great, to play great and to prepare great.  At no point do we ever go, ‘We don’t have A, B or C, so it’s OK,’ that just doesn’t happen.”

Expecting greatness out of every player on the field is a novel idea. But expecting a quarterback to play as well as Mariota did the last three seasons is an ambitious goal.

Now, after a 4-3 start, the expectations for Oregon have hit a reality check. ESPN, in its weekly series “The Eliminator,” removed Oregon from possible playoff consideration just over a week ago. On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated projected Oregon to play against Virginia Tech in the Sun Bowl.

With the Titans jerseys hanging in the Duck Store, there shouldn’t have been expectations for an easy transition into life after Mariota. His career at Oregon isn’t one that could be so easily duplicated, as we’re all witnessing now.

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

– At 3-3, Oregon needed a win to get its season back-on-track. And that’s exactly what they did. Oregon went into Washington and defeated the Huskies 26-20. The Emerald’s Kenny Jacoby wrote Oregon’s win over Washington is “only the beginning” of a season turnaround. Wide receiver Darren Carrington had a big game for the Ducks after a 10-month hiatus.

– Here are photos from the Oregon win courtesy of the Emerald’s photo staff.

– Oregon football wasn’t the only team from Eugene playing in Washington this week. Oregon volleyball was swept by No. 4 Washington in straight sets on Friday, but responded with a win against Washington State on Sunday.

– Oregon women’s soccer fell at home to USC on Friday night, 4-0. Here are photos from the game.

– Oregon cross country had a strong performance at Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.

– Four-star defensive back Jared Mayden reaffirmed his commitment to Oregon on Twitter, saying “the Oregon Family is great and will only get stronger from here.”

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

Sunday afternoon, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich sat down with members of the media and discussed questions that arose after the Ducks 26-20 win on Saturday against Washington. Here’s a transcription of key questions and answers from the press conference.

I know it’s always easier to clean stuff up after a win. So after last night’s win, what are you looking forward to cleaning up during the bye week?

I guess first things first: get healthy physically and mentally. It’s a good time for us — there are a bunch of guys on both sides of the ball, and special teams just makes things, that stuff that adds up during a season. It’s good timing that way. And then a ton of stuff, a ton of corrections. We had a bunch of guys playing in-and-out of different positions. On the offensive line, they did some very good things and competed hard. We have a bunch of things we can correct – a bunch of things we can correct at quarterback, at wide receiver. Our tailbacks, behind Royce [Freeman] all have things they can work on. Defensively we had a bucnh of opportunities to create turnovers and put that thing away. We could’ve finished a couple drives and put that thing away. Still a few coverage things to work out. We’re competing hard and I know our guys will come with a fix-it mindset.

Did you expect Darren Carrington to have that kind of a game in his return? I mean, he was making big plays out there.

He’s certainly capable of it. He’s very dynamic and he’s practiced very hard. He’s a guy that loves practice. he plays hard in practice. He had played on scout team, quite a bit, about half of the time leading up to this game. So he’s a competitor that way and that’s going to help a young secondary get a lot of work against a quality guy. But we had to do some things – we had to make some things happen in the passing game and it got off to a good start that way.

What led you guys to trying Tyree Robinson at cornerback and how do you think he did and do you think he’s going to stay there?

Perfect segue into the players of the week and then I’ll answer your question. Tyree was our defensive player of the week. It went back and forth: Deforest [Buckner] another night of double teams, triple teams, and the other defensive lineman really stepped up and got a decent amount of pass rush without blitzing a ton. And Tyree saved us a bunch in communication, from a communication standpoint, and also physically he did some really good things. Our scout team player of the week was Taylor Stinson. Bralon Addison was our offensive player of the game and scout on that side was Gus Cumberlander. Special teams was the entire punt team. Ian [Wheeler] did a great job kicking it, but protecting it and covering it. We had some very pivotal points there where they did a great job. And special teams scout player of the week was Jake Froehlich, which is how we pronounce it, which is froh-lich in German — cheerful, just like me.

Back to Tyree, which was your original question, yeah, we anticipate him staying there and trying to compete and get the best four guys [in the defensive backfield] in our base defense. He and Charles [Nelson] added a bunch of competitiveness to that situation. Charles wasn’t avaliable for a lot of the game last night, which was unfortunate for him and for us, but Tyree stepped up.

You touched a bit on this last night, but how was the energy different on the field with Vernon back at quarterback?

Well, I don’t know if the energy level was different on the field. I think once play started there were a few plays made that were different. And every time you say something good about something, you’re saying something bad about another — that’s not what I’m doing. [Vernon] is going to watch the tape and see a bunch of times there were plays to be made again, but then he kind of freelanced a few things. But when you look at it, we converted more third downs on our first drive, than USC did [against Washington] all last week. That was kind of the animal that they’re playing against from a defensive standpoint. And after a couple of those happened absolutely I think that is something that permeates your team.

There’s been a lot of talk about the passing game still trying to work itself out, but again, with Carrington and Vernon out there, you guys were making a lot longer throws than you had been all season. How much of a spark were they both for the passing game?

It was big, but also Bralon [Addison], Dwayne Stanford — the other guys that got involved — which [Washington] changed up their coverage, from a percentage standpoint, they did what they do, you know, they tilted on an almost 80-to-90 percent scale difference of what they done from a coverage standpoint, and so that created some of those situations. We have to be able to run the ball. Obviously we want to be balanced, but it was kind of a virtue of how they played us and then executing it.

Ugo [Amadi] mentioned that he thought Vernon played a lot better in the game, although practicing really well. Do you see a spark in Vernon in the game opposed to how he practiced all week or was it kind of consistent with what he saw in practice?

I think that’s been consistent. I always think it’s funny to note: how would Ugo know how he practices? I always think that’s funny – [Ugo] doesn’t watch the offensive practice. But if [Ugo] thinks [Vernon] did, then great. [Vernon’s] practiced well. There are definitely those quarterbacks that live football is their deal. Then there are guys who are great in seven-on-seven and not really great in real football,which you’d much rather have than the former. and so he just needs to continue to trust the scheme a little bit and get his eyes in the right place, his feet in the right place, and then improvise. That’s where a guy like that could be really lethal.

Seems like the performance of Royce flew under the radar last night. How do you think he did with as hard as it was to run as it seemed?

It was as hard to run as it seemed. [Washington] has an excellent front, how they were scheming obviously to stop our best player, and they did a good job of it. We had some opportunities late, we thought, to put the game away, and after watching the film we still think that. Again, we had some guys in there that battled. Evan Voeller did some really good things, a bunch of things he can work improve upon. Doug Brenner — same thing. In a different role, in an increased role in percentage of what they’ve done — Cameron Hunt moving out to tackle — and battled against the No. 1 defense in the conference.

How clean of a game do you think you guys played in all three phases last night?

How clean of a game — that’s one of those things, you know, you’re always chasing. We blew a couple coverages that I know [Washington] is sitting up there, ‘shoot, we should’ve thrown it to that guy,’ and they’re right. But at the same time we had a million opportunities to make that a multiple touchdown type of difference and that’s where we have to grab the situation and finish things. special teams probably the cleanest out of the three — still had a penalty there, a couple of issues, but overall still did a very good job against a very good special teams unit. Offensively and defensively there’s always a million things that got either overblown in a loss, or undersold in a win and that’s where you have to go back and own the film and fix it.

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

It was along the coast of Puget Sound, three summers ago, when Fotu Leiato learned how hard the path to playing college football would be for him. Knee-deep in gardens, hands aching from moving furniture all day, Leiato was doing everything he could to make some extra cash. To generate as much interest in himself as possible, he took the money and spent it on Greyhound bus trips to football camps at Eastern Washington and Montana.

“On the bus trips, I would just think,” Leiato said. “I would think about all the jobs I had to do to get to where I was — all the dirty work.”

Small schools showed interest. His hard work yielded an offer from Division II Central Washington, but major programs balked at the no-fear, free-flying football player from Steilacoom, Washington.

Then, almost instantly, things got easy. The family’s house phone was ringing nonstop. Every day it was another college coach, another major media outlet, wanting to get to know the kid behind the legendary highlight film.

Today, Leiato is at the University of Oregon, sticking out on the team’s kickoff coverage team with his long black hair hanging over his jersey. While he’s adjusting to the speed and discipline of college football, Leiato’s goal is simple: he wants to become more than the player with a hard-hitting video that went viral.

“It’s over,” he said. “That’s in the past. High school was high school, and this is college. I just need to be in the moment now, all the time.”

It got to a point, during Leiato’s senior season at Steilacoom High School, where every game was a spectacle. Fans waited for his next awe-inspiring act, when he’d knock a player from the opposing team clean off his feet. When it happened, one view wasn’t enough to satiate the people in attendance.

“You wish you could pause, rewind and replay his hits over and over again,” Steilacoom assistant coach Kyle Haller said.

It was these moments — when Leiato could invoke one uniform reaction from an entire crowd — that he loved the most.

“I feel it, when it happens — boom — the whole crowd — ooh!” Leiato said, stomping his foot for emphasis. “When you do it, and the whole crowd goes ‘ooh!’ you feel hyped. You think, ‘Man, I just did that.’ ”

The ability to hit as hard as Leiato does is a combination of physical and mental skill. He learned to be fearless, which — combined with his speed — allowed him to run through defenders as if he were trying to run through walls.

“My family taught me to have no fear, to never hesitate,” he said. “If you hesitate — think, ‘Oh, this guy is going to crack me,’ then it might happen, or you might get hurt. So I don’t think.”

But while Leiato — who Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich labeled “a human-highlight reel” — was making big hits seemingly one play after another, Division I colleges weren’t showing interest.

Leiato and the coaches at Steilacoom decided to make a mid-senior season highlight film, showcasing the hits he was putting on opposing players. They created their own internal database with as many college coaches’ email addresses they could find and pushed out the highlight film on social media.

“We wanted to put it together so after one minute of watching it, you wanted to watch the rest,” Haller said. “Not because it was a player running all over the field on another team, but because it was big-time hit after big-time hit.”

On Dec. 8, 2014, Leiato’s highlight film was published on Bleacher Report.

Leiato didn’t know what Bleacher Report, a major sports website, was until he looked it up. After the post was published, the views on his highlight film rose exponentially. As of Oct. 14, the highlight film, which is hosted on Hudl – a database for film of players and teams – had over 750,000 views.

One of the viewers was Oregon special teams coach Tom Osborne. And, like Haller had hoped, the highlight film did its job.

“The hits went on play after play,” Osborne said. “It seemed like it went on for hours.”

Osborne and the Oregon staff came across Leiato’s film before his video went viral. The staff liked the way Leiato played and decided to monitor his performance during his senior season.

Other schools, like Washington State, Michigan State and Oklahoma, started offering scholarships to him after the video went viral. Oregon joined the group shortly after.

At Oregon, the biggest adjustment for Leiato has been learning the nuances of playing defensive back after playing linebacker in high school. It was one speed and one direction for Leiato at Steilacoom. He had free range to blitz — a lot — and run as fast as he could to find the ball, while hitting anyone in his path.

One thing has separated Leiato from other players at Oregon. Senior wide receiver Zac Schuller went up against Leiato a lot during fall camp, and he says he’s never seen a player hit the way Leiato does.

“Definitely not at his size,” Schuller said. “It’s different from hitting a bigger dude because they don’t need to be coming that fast to feel that impact – but for him, definitely not at that size.”

Back at Steilacoom, the legend of Leiato lives on. He’s turned into an inspiration for players at the small Division 2A school — perhaps they too could go from high school straight to Division I college football. One of those players is Fotu’s brother, Anthony “Sesa” Leiato.

Anthony, a junior at Steilacoom, is a mirror image of his brother, with the same long flowing back hair and a hard-hitting highlight tape of his own. Fotu has set a path that Anthony hopes to follow.

“He was the first to go to college from my family so it was big for us,” Anthony said of his brother, Fotu. “It opened my eyes a lot too … Now I hope to follow in those footsteps and [be] the second from my family.”

As for Haller, he jokingly wishes “that the Oregon kicker would stop kicking so many touchbacks” so the people of Steilacoom could watch Leiato shine.

Leiato hopes to have the playbook and his reads down so that he could make it on the field as a defensive back. But while he’s waiting for that to happen, he still has the skill that made a simple highlight film go viral.

“There are not many guys that are going to sprint 50-55 yards down field, going full speed, and take on a guy that is 300 pounds and try to split his sternum in half,” Osborne said. “Those kind of guys have a unique mindset … It’s hard for some guys to cut it loose and Fotu really knows how to do it.”

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.

Last year, at San Francisco International Airport, the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team went viral — performing to Beyonce’s “Flawless” on a moving walkway.

The performance was inspired during a 13-hour flight delay.

Long flights and quick road trips were something the Ducks had to go through last year. Their travel extended from Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Connecticut) to Fairmont State University (Fairmont, West Virginia) and Hawaii Pacific University (Honolulu, Hawaii).

This season, the schedule — which was unveiled last Wednesday — is more travel-friendly, with road trips spread out and no trip to the Hawaiian islands.

“Our kids always make traveling really fun,” head coach Chelsea Shaw said. “They’re a fun group to travel with, but hopefully all our flights are on time this year.”

Shaw sat down with the Emerald to discuss the team’s schedule this year.

Emerald: You had three home meets per year the last two years. This year, you have four. How does it feel to get that extra meet at home?

Shaw: We were really excited. So, the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) puts out a schedule and we’re able to add or kind of change around meets however we need. One thing that was important for me this year was to try and get another home meet because our fans love our sport and our girls love our sport. But sometimes, the home season is over in a few weekends. We tried to spread them out a little better this year where we have one in February, two in March and one in April, which is hopefully going to make this season feel longer for our home fans.

E: On the idea of spreading the schedule out: What kind of advantages does that have to get more fans out there?

CS: I just think that it’s exciting for the fans because they’ll get to follow our season and our progress throughout the whole season. In the past, our meets, like you said, were pretty close together so the fans didn’t really get to see how our team progressed throughout the year, how they got better, and how things evolve and change throughout the year. So I’m excited for them to see how we start and then how we finish. They’ll get to follow us the whole way through.

E: You have Baylor and Hawaii Pacific within the first three weeks: How excited are you to get those two early and try to overcome those losses from last year?

CS: It’s exciting. Both those teams are really good teams so we’re excited to go head-to-head with them again, but our team is ready. This team is pretty incredible — not only talent-wise, but their mindset is right and they’re motivated. It’s refreshing. It’s a good start and it’s a whole different dynamic from last year to this year so we’re excited to go up against the best teams.

E: In regard to traveling, last year you would have road trips where you had three meets in a week and a half. Now it’s a little more spread out. What kind of advantage, from a traveling standpoint, does it have to spread out?

CS: Usually that happens on our spring break trip, which is fun, but it is tiring. It’s exhausting. This year, on our spring break trip, we’re hitting two teams on a Saturday and one on Tuesday. I think it’s great and our kids are ready to rally. We train them no matter what the circumstance is. And they could compete five times in a row if needed. Plus it’s kind of good preparation for the national championship because those meets are kind of back-to-back-to-back and sometimes there are two meets in a day and that happens to be the biggest meet of the whole thing — the finals of the national championship.

E: No Hawaii trip this year, right?

CS: Nope. Not this year, but maybe next.

E: A little somber?

CS: [Laughs] You know, the girls loved the Hawaii trip last year. It was such a fun team bonding experience. We got to go the majority of spring break last year, which was so fun. They got to go snorkeling and paddle boarding and a lot of team meals — just a lot of bonding time because normally our trips are pretty quick because we have to get back before school. It was nice for them to get away and have some down time even though it was a tough meet.

The team’s regular season schedule is listed below:

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt

An uninspiring 41-24 victory for Oregon Saturday night in Colorado was not enough to crack the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Sunday morning.

Oregon was dropped from the AP Top 25 last week – after a 62-20 home loss to Utah – for the first time since 2009. The Ducks received 39 votes – the highest number from teams that weren’t included in the poll last week.

Utah climbed to No. 5 in the poll, including seven first-place votes. It’s the highest the Utes have been ranked since 2009. College Gameday will head to Utah next week, where Utah will host No. 23 California in a matchup of the final two undefeated teams in the Pac-12.

UCLA, which was ranked No. 7 last week, fell to No. 20 after a 38-23 loss to unranked Arizona State.

Stanford (No. 16) and USC (NO. 17) are the other two ranked Pac-12 teams.

Here’s a list of team’s featured in this week’s Top 25:

1. Ohio State
2. TCU
3. Baylor
4. Michigan State
5. Utah
6. Clemson
7. LSU
8. Alabama
9. Texas A&M
10. Oklahoma
11. Florida
12. Florida State
13. Northwestern
14. Ole Miss
15. Notre Dame
16. Stanford
17. USC
18. Michigan
19. Georgia
20. UCLA
21. Oklahoma State
22. Iowa
23. California
24. Toledo
25. Boise State

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt

There are three boxes in Lamont Oliver’s downstairs office at his Merdian, Idaho, home, filled with recruiting letters and scholarship offers. He was a prized running back and pitcher, who was offered the chance to suit up at schools like USC, Penn State and Texas A&M.

Lamont rarely pulls out the boxes, but he remembers showing them to his kids twice. His point: to illustrate that they had the potential to fill boxes of their own when they grew up.

During his senior season of high school in 2013, Khalil Oliver showed his dad his own box of letters and offers. Inside were envelopes with school logos from the Mountain West Conference, the Pac-12 and the SEC – not the list of schools a two-star recruit normally boasts.

But his heart was set on one place and one coach.

“I was going to stay in Idaho and I was going to play for coach [Chris] Petersen at Boise State,” Khalil said. “And then he left.”

During his first visit to the Oliver home — a Monday evening in December 2013 — Petersen told Khalil, who had enough high school credits, to enter college early. They had plans for Khalil at Boise State, and he couldn’t be happier.

Friday morning of that same week, after Khalil had made himself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lamont asked his son if he had checked his phone. He hadn’t, but when he ran upstairs and saw 30 text messages, Khalil was shocked. Petersen was leaving Boise State for a five-year, $18 million deal at the University of Washington.

Khalil never got the chance to be the hometown kid – Meridian is approximately 12 miles from Boise, Idaho. He ended up at Oregon, and in his second season, he’s become a featured part of the rotation at safety for the Ducks’ secondary. In the recruiting world, he was labeled as a two-star player by Yahoo– an also-ran in a 2014 recruiting class filled with stars. But in his redshirt freshman season, he’s starting to stick out.

“It’s nice to make a name for myself, not having to base my playing ability on what I did in high school, but being able to show what I can do in college,” Khalil said.

Lamont used his experience as a high school football coach to calm his son down after plans fell through with Boise State.

“Sports – and we try to teach our players and I try to teach my kids this – are a microcosm of how life works,” Lamont said. “Things happen on the football field: you get sudden changes and turnovers – things you didn’t expect to happen, happen. And it’s all about how you react to it.”

“Khalil got back up and said, ‘let’s figure out what we’re going to do next.’”

Scott Criner doesn’t call Oregon defensive backs coach John Neal very often. Criner, Khalil’s head coach at Rocky Mountain High School, coached collegiately for 27 years. He was on the same defensive staff as Neal at the University of Pacific in the late 80’s. Criner knows what it takes to play for a coach like Neal – a player must be obsessed with detail and the craft of improving. Khalil fit all the criteria.

“I don’t call him very often and tell him I have a guy,” Criner said. “But with Khalil, it was easy for me to call John.”

“That’s almost my greatest evaluation – when I know somebody and they know the kid and I trust that guy,” Neal said. “Everything [Criner] said about [Khalil] was right: he’s extremely smart, tough and 100 percent work all the time … now we just have to help him become a really great player for us.”

Idaho isn’t a state filled with Division I football prospects. In any given year, Criner guesses about five players from the state will play at the highest collegiate level. But, being a college coach for as long as he was, Criner knows which players have the talent to make it.

“If you’re good, they’re going to find you,” Criner said, “and when they do get found, they’re going to play.”

That’s why Criner continuously told Khalil not to look on any recruiting sites. Criner knew Khalil had the ability to play at the next level. Still, the idea that players from Idaho naturally get overlooked in comparison to recruits from bigger states like Texas or California irked Khalil.

“Recruiting sites would rate me as a two-star on a website, but then I’d have a coach – who the ranking basically said I’d never get an offer from – out at my practice watching me. He’s in my house talking to me, asking me if I would come to his school,” Khalil said. “Rankings really don’t even matter. A lot of the times, you don’t even know the person who’s ranking you. They’ve probably never stepped foot in Idaho.”

After Petersen left for Washington, Khalil didn’t hear anything from the new staff at Boise State. Unsure where he stood with the school, Khalil re-opened his recruiting. His box, like his father’s had, continued to fill with letters.

Khalil took official visits at Washington and Oregon, but this time around, he had a new approach.

“I wanted to go to a school, not for a coach, but for myself,” he said.

On his visit at Oregon, Khalil went out of his way to make his own visits with people in the chemistry department –his major. He had learned his first time going through the recruiting process not to go to a place solely for football, but rather, a place that set him up for success, both on and off the field.

Khalil’s father knew firsthand how important college was outside of sports. Even with three boxes filled with recruiting offers, Lamont never played Division I football. A torn ACL in his senior year of high school forced him out of the sport. He went to the University of Wyoming before transferring to play baseball at Midland Lutheran College, a NAIA school.

Lamont made sure that his kids knew that there was more to life than sports. Khalil made that a priority in his college choice.

“You’re never promised another day of playing,” Khalil said, “but school is always going to be there for you.”

Each week, Khalil has seen more playing time. He recorded a single tackle, on special teams, in his first game against Eastern Washington. Last week, in Oregon’s 62-20 loss at home to Utah, Khalil played the majority of the second half. He’s got six total tackles and a tackle for loss coming off the bench this season.

For people who only looked at the two-stars next to his name on recruiting sites, seeing Khalil on the field might come as a surprise. But to his family, and the people of Meridian, his early success is anything but a shock.

“He always had the work ethic and the drive to be successful,” Lamont said. “I expected him to be able to get on the field and play well.”

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt