Oregon Ducks

Recruiting is the lifeblood of every program in the country, and every conference has its own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to landing top prospects. We've spent a week examining the BCS conferences plus Notre Dame to find each's strength, the biggest obstacle each faces and the overall view of the conference. The final conference we'll look at is the Pac-12.

Biggest obstacle: Defense, defense, defense. While this conference is never short on skill, weapons, quarterbacks and big-play offenses, finding playmakers on the defensive line is a whole lot tougher. It is staggering to see that from the top 40 players we've graded from the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Utah and Nevada since 2006, there are only three defensive linemen. That is well over 3,000 players graded and just three defensive linemen. Unlike Florida, which borders several states that are loaded with prospects, California does not have this luxury surrounding it in numbers and quality. The Pac-12 has the juice and player pool to be good enough to play for the national championship with a few teams, but can they win it without being loaded up front on defense?

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Tight end DeAndre Goolsby (Derby, Kan./Derby) admits he's nowhere near ready to pick his college destination.

"I'm just kind of out there, looking," he says. "There's still a lot to see, so I'll wait that out."

With cautious curiosity, Goolsby visited Ohio State and Florida this week -- two big steps in his plan to narrow a sizable offer list to a handful of top teams before his senior season and make a decision by the end of the fall.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound tight end was in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday.

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What already was an impressive spring for Bobby Okereke (Tustin, Calif./Foothill) jumped up another notch this week, as the 6-foot-1, 213-pound athlete added Oregon and USC to his impressive offer sheet.

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