EUGENE -- Former Oregon Ducks tight end Colt Lyerla wanted to attend USC as a five-star recruit out of Hillsboro High School but signed with Oregon in part because an Oregon booster "promised a house, a car, all these things" for Lyerla and his family, he claims in a new story.



Speaking with SBnation.com in a long profile, Lyerla said he was impressed by his high school visit to Los Angeles, where the Trojans "dazzled the hell out of me," but reluctantly signed a National Letter of Intent with the Ducks because of promises from an unofficial adviser to him and his mother, Tammy, that he said he never ended up receiving.



"That's the best place for you. They're going to take care of you,' Lyerla said in the story. "My mom was really impressionable. When it was me and my mom in high school, it was $600 a month for the both of us. That's how we lived ... anything good financial-wise that would take care of me or take care of her, she was going to go for it.

His commitment is one part of the wide-reaching story, published Wednesday, about Lyerla spanning from his childhood in Hillsboro to his young professional career. Considered one of the most athletically gifted players at his position in the country in college at 6-foot-5 and with rare speed and jumping ability, Lyerla left Oregon's team in October 2013 to pursue a professional career.



A call to Lyerla was not returned Wednesday morning.

In a statement, Oregon's athletic department said it "takes seriously any allegation of a rules violation and the compliance department will thoroughly examine the information to determine its validity as we do in all cases."



Lyerla also says he wanted to transfer in the summer of 2013 but was talked out of it. But after blowing off mandatory workouts that summer, Lyerla said Oregon's coaching staff under first-year coach Mark Helfrich was upset with him.



He says he was left home for a road game against Colorado last October -- what would have been his final game, it turned out -- for being late to a weight lifting session, and that the morning after Oregon's victory against the Buffaloes, was confronted by UO officials about a recent shotgun purchase. The story says Lyerla was told he would be kicked off the team if he didn't return the gun.



"At that point, everything else had just happened — I'd been suspended, the circumstances thing, and the whole thing," he told SBnation. "I'm just sitting there like, 'They're literally looking for reasons to get me off the team, for me to leave,' At that point I was just like, 'These people don't want me here anymore.' I was just like, 'I'll just leave then.'"



But Lyerla also told SBnation.com he's uncomfortable by the view that he quit on the team.



"That really upsets me because it wasn't that I wanted to leave my team," he said.



Three weeks after leaving the team, Lyerla was arrested for cocaine possession in Eugene on Oct. 23. He was not selected in the 2014 NFL draft and joined the Green Bay Packers as a free agent. Lyerla injured ligaments in his right knee on Aug. 2, and was waived and given an injury settlement by the Packers four weeks later.



In the story, Lyerla said his arrest for cocaine "clearly ruined my entire life."



-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreif