Oregon lands Spanish Fort (Ala.) OLB Christian Burkhalter

Oregon football recruiting took another step forward on Thursday when Spanish Fort (Ala.) ATH Christian Burkhalter made his pledge. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound outside linebacker prospect selected the Ducks from a list of over two dozen scholarship offers from top programs coast-to-coast.

Long thought to be a Nebraska lean, Burkhalter was intrigued when Oregon became highly interested. On July 6th Oregon made their scholarship offer and immediately let him know he was a priority target.

“Coach Avalos called me and told me they were going to be on me hard,” said Burkhalter. “For three or four weeks I was getting calls from Coach Cristobal every day.

“It was an honor. Coach Cristobal, he has a ton of stuff going on. He doesn’t have time to be talking to all us kids. But he’s still ringing my phone. So I am very grateful for that. I always try to be respectful of his time.”

Oregon is recruiting him as an outside linebacker with the assignments of pass rusher, edge setter and on occasion dropping into pass coverage.

“It is the exact role I wanted to play in college,” said Burkhalter.

With the NCAA-mandated recruiting dead period in effect, prospects like Burkhalter have not had the opportunity to make visits for the last four months, normally prime time for trips.

“If it were not for Covid and all this I would already have been out there,” he said.

In the absence of in-person contact, the Oregon coaching staff has made the most of it in electronic format with numerous Zoom meetings with coaching staff, virtual tours of all aspects of the facilities and campus life and of course, simple phone calls.

“It just feels right,” summarized Burkhalter. “There is no other way to describe it other than a gut feeling. I just know it is what I want to do. It just feels like home. It feels like a place that I really want to be part of.”

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