Tennessee Writer Takes a Shot at Oregon Recruiting, But It Lands Like a Shanked Punt

Last week Da'Saahn Brame, a four-star tight end from Derby Kansas, flipped from Oregon to Tennessee, and Brent Hubbs went on the radio to talk about it, choosing to take a broad and misguided shot at Oregon football, Dan Lanning and the Ducks.

Hubbs is a recruiting writer for On3 Sports Tennessee team site VolQuest. He's a twice-weekly guest on a Nashville Sports Talk station, 104.5 The Zone.

Here's all you need to know about Hubbs: His own bio at On3 reads, "A 1996 graduate of Tennessee, Hubbs has spent his entire life in East Tennessee. He began covering the Vols in 1994 when he started following hall of fame quarterback Peyton Manning." So by his own admission he's a product of provincialism, blind fandom and a limited world view.

Attempting to explain Brame's decision, Hubbs launched into a rant full of generalities that had no business escaping his mouth.

Hubbs said,

"Here's the other thing too—we talk about NIL a lot, right? NIL, NIL, NIL. At some point, when the money's pretty even, it comes down to where you're most comfortable. So you got to go recruit them."

"I think Oregon is learning this, right? Oregon just kind of had the thought process of, "We'll just go buy us a class," and they've lost three or four commits in the last two weeks because they don't really want to work and live in Eugene. And I don't think the coaches have the relationships with those players that other schools have.

"I think they've just said, "Well, we'll NIL it." You can't just NIL it because everybody's got NIL funds now, okay? I mean, at the Power Five level, everybody's got a plan for NIL. So at some point, it comes back to old-school recruiting and your relationships, and you've got to work at it."

Trouble was, barely 24 hours after he launched this diatribe Oregon got commitments from the number one safety in the country, Trey McNutt of Shaker Heights, Ohio, plus 2026 quarterback Jonas Williams.

Even with the setbacks Hubbs alluded to, Brame, receiver Isaiah Mozee, and defensive lineman Josiah Sharma, the 2025 Oregon class ranks 6th in the country, just ahead of Tennessee. Their average recruit rank is 94.38 according to the 247Sports Composite, highest in the country.

What made his comments truly absurd is that Lanning and his staff are superb at relationship building. Here's another On3 reporter, Philip Dukes, speaking to Oregon commit Dorian Brew about his relationship with Lanning, defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi and defensive backs coach Chris Hampton:

When McNutt committed to the Ducks, he told On3's Steve Wiltfong, “Coach Lanning he’s a good coach and he’s different. He’s different than most college head coaches. Really Coach Lanning and I just connected and you can tell he’s going to be a big-time coach in the future."

National writers from Hubb's own organization just contradicted everything he said. Now that's embarrassing, isn't it?

Lanning understands that the preoccupation with Oregon's success on the trail is fueled chiefly by jealousy. In an appearance on the Pat McAfee program during Big Ten Media Days he said, "The reality is, find a top 10 team in college football right now that doesn't have great support. Do we have a lot more than everybody else? I think that'd be an exaggeration or we'd never lose. Everyone else right now is focused on our ice cream cone, and if I'm busy looking at theirs, that means mine's melting."