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Is that a good thing or a bad thing? 😟

Johnson has been up in the booth sitting next to Mehringer the entire season.

I don't think developing QBs has died. I do think that development of QBs has largely been offloaded to other programs (like lower tier P4 or G6) and the richer programs take them through the transfer portal in year 3+.

Why do people think you can just bring in another play-caller from somewhere outside the program the week before a game, also Locksley or most other coaches would wait until the end of the year to join a staff. I don't think I've heard of anyone joining a staff midseason and starting to call plays right away. It makes no sense to bring someone in right now from out of the blue. Johnson is a stop gap for a season that is already over, it's not like he's going to get the job for next year.

DL knows he has to get this hire right and hopefully he's learned his lesson about performing a proper nationwide search for suitable candidates. I'm betting he's going over that list of guys he's met/watched over the years from the Saban/Norvell/Smart coaching trees but I hope Mullen is helping by hiring an outside firm to assist with the candidate search. I doubt we're going to get any clarity or see any public progress over the next few weeks. It's more important to get the hire right than getting a hire quickly. That being said, he doesn't have unlimited time. He probably has until December to announce a new hire.

I remember many of us here never cared for Stein at all and were even happy to see him leave. Little did we know... Maybe DL is just not that big of a magnet in the program? Scary thought that I hope to be wrong! Facing the biggest adversity of his tenure, now is the perfect time for him to show how good of of HC he really is.

Wow, the gamblers are nuts. I bet more people here will predict NW win this week...

How do you bring in a new person who would have no understanding of either the offense or personnel? There is no time to learn a new playbook. And if Dante isn't coming back, why take a risk on an only temporary position. DL needs time to ensure the next OC is the right one. And please stop with the bring back Chip hype! Yes, we have fond memories of those years, but he left us! I wish him well (maybe not this week) but there are better choices. DL has to go get one

Good insight, Desert Duck. I am like you - just don't get or enjoy this new age of CFB. Raiola getting paid $2M is insame and borderline criminal, judging from his performance so far. What happened to common sense nowadays? By the same token, cudos to AS Jr for sticking around so far. For that he deserves to get a chance to play and show what he can or can't do. If he can't deliever, the fault is more on the coaches for failing to develop him. Like you said, that's simply not their focus any more. Why do the hard work when someone else can buy your players and you can buy anyone's players?

Too bad most of those kids will have little to no education or self discipline ine the matters of money management. Many are doomed to struggle with that when "student athlete" begins to fade in the rear view mirror.

I remember saying I wanted more parity in college football. Well... I'm thinking about taking that back 😆

As disappointing as our coaches are at developing talents and calling plays, at least they have been good at ranking the pieces - clearly Moore > Raiola > Thomas. AS Jr is an unknown but judging from how the coaches tried to keep him off the field, we probably know the answer also. Same thing with coordinators too. Johnson's history looks more diasterous than Meh. So don't expect any turnaround in offensive production. The real question is how are we so unprepared for contingencies and why did we hire coaches that lesser programs fired?

Recruiting may be low on the wish list, if the candidate can put out a burning Tesla... Chip doesn't exactly have Recruiting Chops high on his resume, either. Too bad none of us can read CDL's mind to see what his priority rankings are, eh?

I posted earlier about the “old days,” when at Oregon, we almost always developed our own QBs. Today, no program can afford to wait to grow its own. I can be slow to the party, but with NIL and revenue sharing, the quarterback has become the pinnacle of the true free-agent market. The transfer portal is where many of these players will make more money than many will earn the rest of their lives. The pay curve is steep. At a top program, a backup earns around $1 million, and a highly recruited backup gets closer to $1.5-2 million (reportedly, Dylan gets $2 million). A starter makes $3–4 million, and elite transfers get $5–6.5 million (Dante $5 million). And the crazy thing is, when we look at the massive amount of money involved in CFB, they’re worth it – even worth the risk. It finally occurred to me that a talented backup QB can no longer afford to 'wait his turn.' Every season he sits can cost him millions, and his value drops. I have to remind myself that most of these kids making $1–3 million per year will never take a snap in the NFL. For them, this is payday (and this is true of all other positions... the numbers are just lower). There’s always been a transactional relationship in CFB between the institution and the players and coaches. But it’s now finally occurred to me that it is almost entirely transactional… and on steroids. Both the kids and the coaches have understandably entered the mercenary-portal. As I said, I can be a bit slow to the party. But it finally occurred to me today that the old path in CFB of truly developing QBs died a quiet death.

Indeed. That's what the announcement indicated. It is likely very difficult concentrating on an outside hire while dealing with a burning Tesla in the dumpster...

I think it's a good move for the remainder of the season, but I'd be a little concerned if it turned into a permanent hire. Johnson isn't some inexperienced assistant being thrown into the fire. He's been an offensive coordinator at several programs, including Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan State, and Wyoming. His 2021 Michigan State offense was pretty impressive, averaging nearly 429 yards and 32 points per game on the way to an 11–2 season. Granted, having Kenneth Walker III in the backfield certainly didn't hurt. But there's another side to that résumé. Johnson was relieved of his offensive coordinator duties at Wyoming in the middle of the 2025 season, with his offense averaging just 20 points per game. That's not exactly the kind of recent success that screams he's the answer for a program with Oregon's expectations. That said, I think the interim designation makes sense. He's already in the building, knows the personnel, has experience calling plays, and has an established relationship with Lanning. Given the circumstances, bringing in someone completely unfamiliar with the program would probably create more problems than it solves. My bigger concern is whether changing coordinators actually changes anything offensively. Are we going to see a different philosophy, better adjustments, more creativity, and an offense that plays to its personnel's strengths? Or are we just going to have a different guy calling essentially the same plays? I'd like to see a commitment to establishing the run, better use of play-action, smarter quarterback management, and some actual creativity on third down. We have enough talent that moving the football shouldn't feel like pulling teeth. Ultimately, I give Lanning credit for recognizing something wasn't working and making a change rather than stubbornly riding it out. But I also think Oregon is in a position where it shouldn't have to settle when it comes to hiring an offensive coordinator. We have the resources, recruiting power, and national reputation to attract someone with a proven track record of consistently producing elite offenses. So I'm fine with Johnson taking the reins for now. Give him an opportunity to show what he can do, evaluate the results, and then conduct a serious national search when the season ends. The real question, at least to me, isn't whether Jay Johnson is capable of calling plays. It's whether Lanning recognizes that Oregon might need more than a different play-caller. It might need a different offensive approach altogether. Because changing who's holding the playbook doesn't accomplish much if we're still running the same damn offense.

Isn't JJ just an interim hire?

I hope Dan doesn't make the same mistake of letting his friendships come before the program.

Gat, good luck to your Gators and Nevada Dawg's Dogs in the World's Largest Indoor Cocktail Party game on Halloweenie. And GameDay's in Bloomington for the Hoosiers vs. the Gophers? After his trip to Salt Lake City, I guess Pat McAfee needed to head home for a hug. 😁

The Horseshoe(S)?

At what?

On3's Ari Wasserman's thoughts on Week 8. Not good for the guy standing in the middle of the photo. On315 thoughts after Week 8: Oregon's frustration, Texas' re...A lot happens on college football Saturdays. It’s hard to keep up with everything. So this season, in an attempt to bring everybody up to speed – while

DC - I'd go with Pete Kwiatkowski, now a D-line coach with the AZ Cardinals, who had a top-20 D at Texas and was fired by Sark because someone had to go from a team that didn't make the POs. Locksley? Zero experience recruiting the West Coast and an offense and team at Maryland that disappeared after September. Aranda? A California guy but not a great recruiter by any means.

Imagine a world where UCLA is in first place in the B1G, and Kentucky is in first place in the SEC.🫪... Oh wait, well imagine a world where Indiana actually is a football power.😬... Well okay. But, Texas A&M and Oregon are both top 10. Surely....🥺 Well Notre Dame is surely overrated as usual..😮‍💨. Ahh, all is well in the world. Florida can destroy a top five team, and then get blown out by two mediocre ones, only to sandwich that with a road win over Texas. I have no idea what to expect the rest of the year. The ACC is Miami and Wake Forest. The Big 12 is Utah..... and..... Texas Tech got beaten down by a Cincy squad that gave up nearly fifty the week before. BYU followed up their signature win over Notre Dame, by losing in double overtime to a backup QB at three loss UCF. USC scored seven, and lost to a Wisconsin team that passed for 57 yards . Tennessee lost to a South Carolina squad that looked dead in the water two weeks ago. Iowa lost some kind of pig to a forever middling Minnesota squad. Michigan and Indiana played "Who Wants to Score a Touchdown" for five quarters. Why can't Oregon beat Ohio State? Just throw Akili Smith Jr. out there, who knows. As the kid from 'Angels in the Outfield' said "It could happen". That's the mantra of this season.