Upon his hiring in December, Willie Taggart was reminded time and again about the challenges of recruiting to Eugene, a college town far from the Sun Belt and many of the country's fertile recruiting areas.



And each time, Taggart appeared unmoved by the perceived difficulty of the job ahead.



Five months later, Taggart and Co. are making recruiting look easy, and together with a close to spring practices that the Ducks called encouraging, UO is entering a critical juncture of the offseason with momentum it lacked after the winter.



Seven recruits have verbally committed to UO in the 48 hours since the close of Saturday's spring game, and of the eight total players currently committed in UO's 2018 class, six are rated four stars or better by 247Sports. The recruiting service ranks that class 12th nationally and second in the Pac-12, behind Washington.



"We just think we have something really good going on here," Taggart said Monday on a conference call of Pac-12 football coaches. "There's nothing here at the University of Oregon that these kids can't have. They have everything they need to be successful."



The latest commitment came Monday afternoon from four-star safety Jevon Holland of Oakland, California. He told Scout he knew he wanted to commit two months ago after a visit, but didn't intend to make it public until other recruits began announcing their own pledges over the weekend.





The rapid-fire succession of commitments has been the talk of recruiting -- "The Oregon Ducks have some incredible recruiting momentum right now," Scout's Greg Biggins wrote -- but it didn't necessarily sound as though it's been a surprise to Taggart, who expected dividends after filling his staff with highly regarded recruiters.



"We always felt like if we just worked our tails off every day, which we do on recruiting, and get them here, we've got just as good a shot as anybody else out there," Taggart said.



On Twitter, those recruits have taken to calling UO's 2018 class, "The Movement," but they won't make their move to Eugene until January 2018 at the earliest. With position coaches limited in their contact with UO players until August, when fall camp begins, that leaves it up to the Ducks already on campus not to stall the progress.





From center Jake Hanson to defensive lineman Henry Mondeaux, multiple UO players Saturday said that they won't allow teammates to approach summer as lackadaisically as last year, when participation and energy were low. Following through on that promise will be key in changing what Taggart called Monday "a losing culture."



"There was downward spiral that we need to stop," Taggart said. "This is a big part of where our team holds each other accountable and looks out for each other.



"... In the winter term it wasn't like we wanted it to be and again, I think our guys have gotten better and have a better understanding of what it's going to take."



One of many things the Ducks have come to understand about Taggart is that he's taking the long view when it comes to position battles.



Though he praised Justin Herbert as the most impressive quarterback following a 327-yard, three-touchdown performance in Saturday's spring game, Taggart continued to stop short of publicly giving the sophomore the edge on sophomore Travis Jonsen and freshman Braxton Burmeister, who were a combined 8-of-23 with two interceptions.



Taggart has reiterated UO's starting quarterback must be an excellent leader, not just a capable passer.



"All those guys have done some good things and they also did some things you don't want them to do but they all growing and learning and I couldn't really say if anyone was at the top of the depth chart," Taggart said. "Justin had a really good spring game and I was really impressed not just from him throwing the ball and things, but trying to lead his football team and watching his enthusiasm out there and the way he carried himself. I was really impressed with him."



Based on UO's success in recruiting, Taggart's staff has begun to turn heads recently, too.



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com