Ryder Lyons Has Strong Interest in Oregon Early on in Recruitment
There's another strong group of quarterbacks out West in the 2026 class and Folsom (Calif.) passer Ryder Lyons is one of the biggest names on Oregon's board.
After winning a California state title with the Bulldogs as a sophomore, Lyons has landed offers from Michigan, Florida State, Georgia and Ole Miss this offseason. Those are just a few of his 26 reported offers.
Ducks Digest caught up with Lyons at the Elite 11 Los Angeles camp to get the latest in his recruitment.
"I'm just incredibly grateful," he said of his recruitment taking off. "Just gotta be humbled by that---you just gotta keep working. Can't really let that get to your head and none of it really matters. Just winning games on Friday's matters to me."
Coaches from all over the country have made their way out to Northern California to see the gifted passer in person. Oregon head coach Dan Lanning is one of those coaches who made the trip, making it out to see one of Lyons' basketball games.
Recruiting efforts like that has Oregon as a school Lyons is watching closely.
"Oregon's incredible. I love Coach (Will) Stein. I love Coach (Dan) Lanning," the quarterback said. "Both I could really see myself thriving under, playing under."
The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder was in Eugene for a game last season and liked what he saw from both the Ducks and the fanbase.
"When I went out to Oregon it was incredible. I went to the USC game, just the energy in the stadium, it was like crazy."
The staff in Eugene was quick to identify Lyons as a promising prospect and were one of his early offers and they haven't wavered in their approach since.
"I really like Oregon a lot," Lyons said. "They've shown a lot of interest in me, they were like my fifth offer. So that obviously means a lot. They didn't really care they just offered. They were like 'we don't care if other people are gonna offer you now, we just want to set our tone', so that was super cool."
After competing at Under Armour Miami and Elite 11 Los Angeles this month, Lyons has a couple of schools he'd like to see this spring.
"I'm probably gonna go on some visits in April or early June. I'll probably go see USC, Oregon, Michigan, Texas A&M, Georgia, BYU, Notre Dame. I'm just gonna try my best. Those are probably the schools that I like right now a lot."
Despite only being halfway through his high school career, Lyons sees himself trimming his list of suitors to a top group.
"I'll probably wait a couple more months and then I'll probably just focus on eight or six schools and only focus on those," he said. "Not really gonna close my recruitment, just because of how crazy the world works, how the coaching carousel works."
Quarterback continues to be one of the positions most affected by the coaching carousel and transfer portal and Lyons offered his thoughts.
"It's (coaching carousel) definitely affected quarterbacks for sure. I think you just have to go to a school where you want to be at that school, but you also think the coaching job is secure, your OC or your head coach. 'Cause for a quarterback the relationship with the OC and you is the most important thing. So I think that's obviously hard, but you just have to kind of navigate it as best you can."
Ryder Lyons off the field
"My mom is very big on football is just one slice of my life, one slice of the pie. Obviously it's a big slice, but football could be over tomorrow and the more important stuff is my relationship with my heavenly Father, with Jesus. I play three instruments, which a lot of people don't know. I can play guitar, saxophone and piano. This past year I did a performing group. We went to Ecuador for two weeks and I performed and we helped out with an orphanage and stuff like that which was an incredible experience. I like music a lot."
