The Oregon football program has to recruit from coast-to-coast in order to maintain their premier status. That is because D-1 prospects are relatively few in this sparsely populated state, with just a handful of athletes annually that match the Ducks' recruiting requirements.

So Oregon coaches hit the road often, and when they show up in living rooms and high schools, they need to make the most of their in-person opportunities. Like when they recruited Powder Springs (Ga.) McEachern the last couple years in pursuit of all-purpose back Taj Griffin (Class of 2015) and his quarterback/athlete brother Ty Griffin (Transfer - Georgia Tech).

Duck Sports Authority spoke with McEachern Head Coach Kyle Hockman to bring you the inaugural edition of Trail Tales: Stories and impressions of the Duck coaching staff from out on the recruiting trail.

"The Oregon coaching staff is very impressive," began Hockman. "They are very diligent. They communicate very well, very timely in their responses. I really like their style. They are not in a frenzy. You get some recruiters in here and it's like dog-eat-dog; they are ready to chew somebody up. Oregon's guys, and I'm sure it comes from the top whether it be Coach Frost or Coach Campbell or obviously the boss man Coach Helfrich.

"Let me give you an example. He was at the Maxwell award, that award show on Thursday. He flew down to visit Taj on Friday. He flew back to the Heisman ceremony on Saturday. But if you didn't know where he was or was going on either side of that visit, you would think he were a guy in there just trying to say hello. Real down to earth.

"My father is a retired high school coach in the Ohio Coaches' Hall of Fame. He happened to be in my office with a couple of his golfing buddies. They are all retired and golfing in Atlanta. That's what they do. They happened to be in the office when Coach Helfrich showed up. He talked with them and was real personable with them. You would have thought he had nothing else in the world to do the way he treated me and my father.

"We went on a tour of our school and our facilities. Ours are really nice, nothing like Oregon's, but for high school it's close to that relativity.

"But he was just a real good guy, real personable, sharp wit. You could tell he knew what was going on with the world. So these two guys who were with my dad are Alabama nuts. Well, when coach left, they said 'I'm going to have to start watching Oregon a little bit more'. And this is from before the semifinals and all that. He won those guys over and it was not an easy crowd.

"I don't have anything negative to say about any of them. They are all just good people."

Stay tuned for the next installment of Trail Tales next Monday as Duck Sports Authority heads out West to Newbury Park, California for its next interview. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Coaches' Corner and Take Five series for more behind-the-scenes looks at Oregon's recruiters and their targets.