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Dan’s off-season coordinator and position coach choices were clearly based on passing the torch to the next guy up within the system. If it doesn’t appear broken, don’t fix it. In-house coaching continuity was a huge reason for Oregon success through the Brooks/Bellotti era, but doesn’t look to have worked as well for Lanning. It’s not easy to fully grasp a young head coach’s strengths and weaknesses, but I have to assume (like with anyone) he will have to learn from when he’s allowed his comfort zone to take precedence over learning to stretch beyond those limits. Recognizing that is what lets you grow. And, I’ve no doubt Dan is fully up to the task.

The pick early in the game. That should have been the start of a route and getting the Ducks back in the playoff conversation. But it did not go that way. It did however, set the tone for the defense to dominate. If only this team had last year's O line and still had Will Stein. (and of course, Dante was still playing) They would or could be number one right now.

Please understand that I mean no offense. 🤪

It took ninety years to break a record set in 1936, the year of the first AP Poll rankings. CFB-HQ On SICollege Football Breaks Longstanding 90-Year Record After...College football’s Associated Press Top 25 broke a 90-year precedent in Week 7 when five of the poll’s top seven teams lost on the same Saturday, something that The Big winner of Week 7 was the B12. Three B12 teams are ranked in the Top-10, five overall, including No. 10 Utah that eked out a three-point win at CU. Morale of the story, as far as Texas Tech and Utah are concerned, you don't get dinged for playing against thin air. And getting a helping hand from the B12 review team also helps the cause. OBD won its game, barely, but lost an important win with OK State, which lost by three points on the road at No. 14 Houston, dropping out of the Top 25 and being ranked 26th. Two-loss ACC, B1G, and B12 teams do not get ranked. Turn those machines back on! What is up with this season and one second left in the game, or added to an already ended game? BYU defeated Notre Dame with one second left on the clock and Notre Dame at the BYU four-yard line. It appears that the Vatican will not file a protest. With a crummy schedule in 2026, the Domers had this coming. Speaking of crummy schedules. It took now No. 1 Miami two overtimes to defeat a beleaguered Mike Norvell and FSU. The Canes' best and only Top-25 win came against No. 17 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons destroyed Cal on Saturday, 41-7. Tosh has removed the Cal OC from play-calling duties; is the DC next? Texas is the first team in AP Poll history to be ranked No.1 and then lose the next two games to unranked opponents. But No. 19 Texas, of course, remains in the Top 25, joined by No. 20 Florida. The Gators yo-yoed back into the Top 25. Yep, nine of the SEC's 16 teams remain ranked, including two-loss LSU, Texas, Florida, and Missouri. Six Big Ten teams are ranked. Michigan State gave Northwestern Fitz, but NW survived 24-21 and moved up one spot from 25 to 24. Coach Whit finally told Underwood to take a seat on the wood and let Tommy drive the Carr. One Carr brother won on Saturday, not you, CJ, with Michigan scoring 21 points in the second half to defeat Penn State 21-18 and keep Matt Campbell P-4 winless. Indiana was this close to winning its 23rd straight game, but last week's hero, WR Nick Marsh, was just out of bounds on the Hoosiers Hail Mary attempt. With its 17-7 win over Wisconsin, UCLA moved into the Top 10 at No. 9, the last Big Ten team to be undefeated. It would be nice if No. 27 Oregon could borrow a few UCLA O-line guys. UCLA changes O-line players like a hockey team. DEFENSE! It wasn't pretty, but the Ducks D has played the last two games at the level that was expected in the preseason. And Dylan Raiola goes from hero to goat (not GOAT) and back to hero with a late TD drive to defeat his former Nebraska playmates. A 5-1 Nebraska should have been ranked coming into Autzen and, as is the Cornhuskers' fate, has dropped its last two very winnable games. This has been a tough season for B1G QBs. Oregon, Iowa, UCLA, Washington, and Illinois have lost their starting QB. Ohio State's Julian Sayin was injured on Saturday and will miss three to four weeks, and Indiana's Josh Hoover had to leave the game against Ohio State before returning to toss the game-winning Hail Mar ... 3 million-a-year Wolverines QB Bryce Underwood has a reserved seat on the pine. A ticked-off Indiana team visits Ann Arbor in Week 8. Week 8: 4-2 Oregon travels to 3-3 Illinois, with the Illini coming off a bye. Illinois QB Kaden Houser is injured and out. Will Dante be able to play? Illinois will start Freshman Michael Clayton II at QB. Clayton is 6'4", 205 pounds. Clayton was a 3-Star recruit from Orlando, Florida, but played his senior season at Miami Edison High School. Clayton went 30-6 in high school and had more than 30 D1 offers. In 2025, he won the Elite 11 Accuracy Challenge. In his high school career, he passed for 6000 plus yards and threw 72 TDs. DEFENSE travels, right? I sure hope so. On3College Football Rankings: AP Poll Top 25 after Week 7 re...The latest AP Poll Top 25 rankings are here following a wild Week 7 of college football. This wasn’t just any ordinary regular season weekend though

Missing: Dante, McClellen, Stewart, Fergusen, 2 offensive tackles from portal, a RB like the one that Tennessee has, and some new plays that everyone on the planet doesn't already know. But we should all take this into consideration: every team they played is at least a good team except for Portland state. And, with the portal, the mediocre teams of the recent past are now competitive. Just ask Texas and Georgia. Given the challenges, I'll take the win yesterday and be happy about it. It was a great game ending drive.

Hire Mariota...

Dan Helfrich needs his Mariota

All three show the same problems game after game no matter the personnel changes.

All Lanning has to do is hire the next Kenny Dillingham and all should be well. 2 out of 3 of his OC hires were home runs. Some people bagged on Will Stein, but I will take last year's offense over this years with mostly the same players.

I agree. I thought Klemm took Mario and Mirabal's players and made them even better.

It was examples of a QB having a miserable game followed by a successful, sometimes very successful, season after that.

In 2022-23 Lanning did have a line of Cristobal recruits for sure ... But in 2022 I would say he offensive line coach at the time, Adrian Klemm who did have an NFL and extensive CFB background, got more out of the offensive line players than Cristobal ever did. Part of that was scheme but I'm sure part of that was position coaching. Lanning has brought in so many offensive line transfers that they have been able to cover up some of the developmental coaching but not this year. I have moved into the offensive line coaching replacement camp now.

Can we all at least agree we have 3 major problems that have to be fixed? OC OL Position Coach QB Position Coach All three of those areas are showing regression on mental toughness and execution in the field. We can't blame players who are regressing, that's always on the coaching staff. It's not like Dan Lanning is incapable of motivating people; they just aren't getting the one on one guidance to improve and succeed.

Joey Harrington gave an example of a NFL game (at Buffalo?) where he couldn’t complete a pass. If you’ve played other sports there are times you can’t make a basket, throw a strike, etc. The question is - should Oregon rely on a QB next year who is so inconsistent from game to game?

There are a million factors the teams control, but the game start time isn't one of them, which is why I bring it up. It made a big enough difference to affect the outcome of a close game in my opinion.

I respectfully disagree. Of course Oregon’s offense would be better off with Dante but if we had a good offensive line or coaching, we would have found a way to win the past 2 games by a more comfortable margin, even if we had to rely on the run game/creative scheme and defense. I am concerned about Dante’s health against Ohio State and Michigan, given this offensive line.

Why? Because we gave them time and flexibility of play calling to score. Risk Reward was not in our favor. Get out of the half alive.

One thing I'd like to see go missing from the playbook is the play that calls for your best receiver to nearly get killed on a meaningless third and way too short route. I'm glad Moore was able to return to the game. To me, that was the worst play of the night.

Coach Lanning hired one of the worst offensive coordinators in all of college football. What did we honestly expect? In Drew Mehringer’s lone season as OC, Rutgers ranked 127 of 128 in offensive points per game. IORC, Rutgers was better before he was named OC and better immediately after he was fired.

Great post. Admittedly, I don’t know much about blocking techniques but it’s been eye opening seeing former offensive lineman point out the technique flaws on video. A'lique Terry should be fired now or immediately after the season. Despite what Coach Lanning says, he has lived on Mario’s recruits and transfers. This year it’s perfectly apparent that he can’t develop (e.g., teach fundamentals).

Thank you for the informative analysis, Dazed. Two observations. The staff apparently agrees with you about Crader; he was moved back to left tackle. I am curious why he was put at right tackle at the beginning of this year, considering how well he played at left tackle last year. If I recall, Iuli was a league honorable mention player last year. I wonder if he ever fully recovered from his injury.

Yes Not so much

I love sitting near x players. I sit just above a former BSU and NFL lineman and BSU basketball player. You can learn a lot if you can get them to talk. I do agree that a Stein led offense would have smoked the Huskers.

As I predicted, Oregon switched to a gap running scheme in this game, moving away from the zone blocking scheme after failing to consistently generate a run game or push with zone blocking all year. To mask those struggles earlier, they had moved to heavy use of 12 personnel and bunch formations to get bigger at the line of scrimmage and add numbers at the point of attack in the zone scheme. I made this prediction because the struggles of the Oregon offensive line were so glaring and puzzling. I felt that by switching to a gap scheme, we would be able to find out where the rubber meets the road—revealing exactly how deficient our offensive line was, and whether out of the eight or so blue-chip offensive linemen on our roster, we could find five who can actually play. In this game, Oregon consistently ran counter plays—accounting for roughly 80% of their run calls. It's clear Dan Lanning decided to revisit elements of the Kenny Dillingham era, when pulling guards and tackles blew defenders off the ball and established Oregon as a dominant run team. Unfortunately, the execution was not there. Discipline BreakdownsThe discipline breakdowns were evident right from the opening drive: First Run of the Game: On a guard-tight end counter, tight end Jamari Johnson (#9) came through and directed his block toward a defensive lineman who was already double-teamed. Instead of picking up the safety crashing down from 10 to 15 yards out, Johnson left him unblocked for a tackle at the line of scrimmage for no gain. A correct read on the safety and that turns into nice play. (In the fourth quarter, the star tight end also missed his assignment again on another guard-tight end counter, which is unacceptable for a top-tier prospective NFL player on a foundational football play.) Second Run of the Game: On another counter play, the pulling guard completely missed the edge defender, running right by him and allowing the edge defender to make the tackle for no gain. Third Run of the Game: On a counter, the guard pulled across, but the edge defender completely stood him up at contact. (I saw multiple plays of pulling guards getting stood up, Addison on one play had his head snapped back as the edge got under his pads) Second Half Opening Drive: Guard Addison (#58) was responsible for down-blocking to set the wall for a counter play. Instead, he back chipped with the center before realizing his mistake; by then, his defender shot through his gap assignment and blew up the play. This is mentally inexcusable; how do you know what you're doing on the 15th counter play of the game and how many reps of this play did you do in practice this week? Second Play of the Opening Half: The Ducks ran what appeared to be the same counter play. This time it was blocked correctly, and quarterback Brock Thomas explicitly pulled the ball from the RB and kept it himself when the play was set up to go. (Thomas also ran a counter QB run that was blocked correctly but he chose not to run to the Gap) Second Possession of the Opening Half: The Ducks came out and ran two zone-blocking plays that went for good yardage. They then turned around and ran a counter play with a swing pass to Jamari out the backside that went for decent yardage, followed by a play-action pass down the sideline for a good chunk play to Dak. It was nice to see us start to mix in the zone with the gap plays. Add in the swing to the backside off the counter look and the deep play action shot was the best play call sequence I saw all game. Scheme Failures and RB Brandon SmithTelegraphed Personnel Formations: Bringing in offensive lineman #80 as a tight end or fullback in heavy sets (like Power I) telegraphs run plays, allowing defenses like Nebraska did to stack eight or nine men in the box at times. Defensive Anticipation & Trench Preparedness: Nebraska was completely unfazed by Oregon's heavy gap game plan. After Oregon leaned heavily into gap runs in the second half against UCLA, Dan Lanning's public comments hinting at structural offensive changes likely gave Nebraska all the film keying they needed to scheme for a run-heavy, gap-centric attack. Play-Caller Experience & Structural Flexibility: Offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer's lack of background in gap concepts showed. Effective gap schemes don't require telegraphing intent with heavy formations; they can be run out of standard 11 personnel with the proper execution. Hard play action pass should be used to target the TE’s over the middle and there should be some boot plays to get the QB out away from the pass rush. Quarterback Freedom to Check at the Line: Running a pure gap scheme requires empowering the quarterback with the pre-snap authority to check out of bad looks. While RPO concepts rely on post-snap reads to count defenders in the box or read a conflict defender, gap blocking doesn't afford that flexibility once the ball is snapped—leaving the offense vulnerable to running straight into a stacked box if the defense presents an unfavorable front. To make a gap-centric attack work, the quarterback must have full freedom at the line of scrimmage to audibilize and check into a more favorable play based on the defense's pre-snap alignment. Bo Nix did this well, but we ran too many runs into stacked boxes in this game. Brandon Smith in Zone Scheme: The Ducks had some of their best run plays with Zone blocking (were the Huskers busy preparing for gap and didn't do the zone homework) and Brandon Smith (#26) ran well in this scheme. It’s obvious to me the coaching staff like Smiths feel for finding creases to run through in the zone scheme and I’m looking for him to get more reps in Zone going forward. Some backs run better having a set gap and others run better in Zone where they have to see a crease then hit it. Smith showed good vision and feel; he put his foot into the ground and made some nice cuts. Credit to the Nebraska DefenseGive credit where credit is due: Nebraska's defense and defensive line are no joke, featuring real dudes up front. Nebraska entered the game averaging only 97 rushing yards allowed per game and held Indiana to just 65 rushing yards (3.0 yards per carry) the previous week. Oregon managed 129 rushing yards on 38 attempts (3.4 yards per carry), with numbers improving in the second half with zone runs mixed in. While 3.4 yards per carry is not where Oregon needs to be, Nebraska boasts a top-tier run defense, and Oregon will only see another defensive of this quality again when they play Ohio State and Michigan. My Assessment of Our OLBeyond errors in assignment discipline, baseline technique at the line remains a major issue. Linemen are missing key blocks, while pulling guards are getting stood up at contact despite having a full head of steam. While our down blocks didn't look terrible, pullers looked slow, are playing with poor pad level, failing to generate power on kickout blocks. Watching this live rather than just reviewing tape afterwards, the hard truth is that running a gap-heavy scheme through a game strips away any hiding places—it reveals immediately who you are as an offensive line and exposes every missed assignment, lack of unit cohesion, and failure in physical dominance. Having eight blue-chip talents on this roster makes it baffling why we cannot field five decent players who play as a cohesive unit without someone breaking down on at least half the snaps, forcing us to question what's being taught in the OL Room and worked on in practice. Oregon's offensive line play has all the elements of a poorly coached unit and it’s obvious for all to see after this game. We can’t pass block, run outside zone or gap well, we aren't physically dominant. We have no strong suits to play to and that means being multiple in scheme and making great play calls to crutch this OL. Going forward, finding the best five requires stabilizing the trenches: Fox Crader (#59) must anchor left tackle as the most promising upside among our tackles despite pass-pro vulnerabilities and at least two missed run blocking assignments. Crader and the left side did show they can run a proper counter play, the left side struggled to do so. Freshman Tommy Tofi (#77) belongs at left guard after showing poise when rotating in for Douglas Utu to end the game. Poncho (#72) holds down the center. David Luli (#74)—who started last year and whose mysterious part-time rotation baffles me—needs to return full-time at right guard. Michael Bennet (#75) must step in at right tackle to provide veteran discipline, assignment soundness, and baseline technique over Wilson and Addison. If Bennet needs help, then we need to provide him with a chipper. If he cannot secure the edge or Luli cannot lock down guard full-time, the staff will be forced to shift Bennett back inside to right guard and scramble for answers on the right side.

Two thoughts on this... I think that was the logic behind the Mehringer promotion. Mehringer was apart of that original Lanning staff and in a lot of ways has been brought along for this job. I think it has backfired but I think that was the logic. Lanning needs to talk to Bellotti because how he worked with Chip feels like the relationship needed here. Keeping in mind that to make Chip's offense work it did require bringing Allioti in to ensure the defense aligned with the same mission. The defense had to adjust to being on the field longer because the offense either scored lightning fast or was 3 and out fast. Which also changed how the defense acted and reacted to the game situation. If the Ducks were up the defense got more aggressive at trying to force take aways... If the offense was down it was about trying to avoid digging a hole and putting the team more behind. Didn't always work but adjustments in game were always needed.