Over the last month four-star defensive lineman recruit My’Keil Gardner has seen his list of options grow drastically. The 2023 recruit from Liberty High School in Peoria, Arizona has opportunities to play at schools across the country, and the interest in him has not slowed down coming out of his impressive junior season.

Since the middle of last month, Gardner has added offers from 10 programs including USC, Iowa, UCLA, Nebraska, Oregon State, Iowa State, Nevada, Utah State and San Diego State. The latest school to enter the mix is Oregon.

The Ducks offered the 6-foot-2 defensive tackle prospect a few weeks ago and have quickly emerged as a contender in Gardner’s recruitment.

All of the new attention has come as a surprise to the four-star prospect, and now he has some things to sort through with a lot more options on the table.

“It’s been great,” Gardner said. “It’s a blessing, really. There’s nothing more I can ask for right now. At this point I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to visit, so I can have my decision to be an early enrollee. But, it’s been great and I’m glad to see my hard work pay off.”

Though things are beginning to get more hectic, Gardner has tried to enjoy the process of meeting coaches and learning about schools. That has been easier as of late after a busy offseason for many of the schools now in the mix.

“You see the different things that people are trying to build especially with the transfer portal and all these different coaching changes you see where people are at now,” he said. “Everybody’s settling in.”

Gardner is leaning on his high school coaches to help him work through the recruiting process, and he has also been proactive himself to try and earn offers. That is why he reached out to offensive analyst Jordan Somerville with the hopes of getting in contact with the Ducks.

Eventually he did, and Oregon’s coaches made the swing through Arizona to begin building a relationship. That ultimately led to an offer, and now the Ducks have Gardner’s attention.