Oregon Football Keeps Hawaiian Pipeline Going On Signing Day With Top Two Island Recruits

The Hawaiian islands are an important part of football recruiting for every team, but the Oregon Ducks, thanks to Heisman winner Marcus Mariota, have more clout on the islands than any other team at this point. It showed when the top two Hawaiian recruits picked the Ducks on National Signing Day.

Actually, defensive end Canton Kaumatule picked Oregon well before Signing Day. The 6-foot-7, 290-pounder committed to Oregon almost as soon as he made his visit on Halloween night, and enrolled early so he could participate in spring practice. While some of his peers officially selected a team on Wednesday, Kaumatule was officially taking part in team-sanctioned workouts.

Oregon also nabbed the second-ranked recruit in the state, another defensive lineman in Rex Manu. Interestingly, Manu was named the state’s defensive player of the year over Kaumatule, and his high school team beat Kaumatule’s for the state title. So while Kaumatule got all the hype and the Under Armour All-American game invite, all Manu did was better him.

It will be interesting to see how these one-time rivals pair up on a college campus, but it seems like neither have a problem with it, otherwise they wouldn’t have chosen the same school.

The Ducks certainly aren’t the only team combing the islands looking for talent, but it’s a powerful recruiting tool to be able to go into a recruit’s home and say “you’ll be following in the footsteps of the first Hawaiian Heisman Trophy winner.” That’s an edge that can’t be taken away. The Ducks will ride that wave as long as they can, and the pipeline doesn’t appear like it’ll end anytime soon.

Alex Drude is a Pac-12 writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Alex_Drude. “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.