Daniel Watcke enters the transfer portal, leaving Oregon

Jerry probably told him he was redshirting him all year

even for track? He ran 1:47 in HS and could make an immediate impact at Oregon

Never underestimate Jerry's ability to find reasons to not race his athletes.

any insight to why? Big fish in a big pond or the writing is on the wall that the coaches are gone?

Just a theory, but he has very good speed (I recall hearing about 47 400 speed), so maybe Jerry’s training wasn’t to his liking.

If he’s a ‘long sprinter’ type then doing long runs and endless mile repeats may have turned him off.

It could also just be a personal reason none of us are aware of.

Speculation:

Oregon doesn't run much indoors and Watcke is itching to race.

Got his first extended taste of Oregon's liquid sunshine, got depressed, wants to move somewhere drier.

Discovered that Eugene is the allergy capital of Planet Earth. The Willamette Valley sucks if you have any sort of pollen intolerance.

I heard he's looking at Washington.

I always hated running in Eugene for exactly this reason.

Washington makes sense he would probably become a world class miler under that coaching. I just hope it doesn’t become a deterrent for other Illinois kids.

My guess would be Wisconsin. Closer to home. Sister Emma runs there now. Grandfather, Dan McClimon was former cross country coach at U of Wisconsin, sadly passing in place crash on a recruiting trip.

Yeah but if he's at Oregon he's under the watchful eye of Phil Knight. He's the favorite of all the free speech bros.

Guessing Illinois. They have one of the best coaches in the world. He gets instate price so doesn't need huge scholarship. Wisconsin didn't go after instate guy Reginier who ran 47/1:47.

I like Wisconsin….they did commit Patrick Hilby who is another 800m stud….maybe wisconsin will become the new Ole Miss of 800m running.

Jerry training is a terrible fit for Watcke, a 47 guy with xc talent as well. This kind of talent should not be doing 12x1k workouts.

Allie Ince is going.

He's definitely fast in the 800m, but his h.s. xc times (14:34 3 mi, 14:58 5k) show he has some strength, too. He doesn't seem like just a long sprinter.

I hate to say it, but he's a natural miler more like Alan Webb. He's a hair slower than Brazier at 400m, but slightly better at cross country.

Clayton Murphy seems like a more apt comparison. I don’t see Watcke ever winning Big Ten XC or running a 27:34 10,000 like Webb did.