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Love your updates JJ. Fun reading. I'm so tired of media bias and dishonesty. It's clear very few actually watch many games. It's also clear there is no clear definition for SOS. None of this would matter, except you can't make the playoffs without it! And now nothing but a Natty matters. Oh bring back good bowl games with good matchups. Please. If only!

The Week 8-9 AP Poll is out. Oregon is not among the Others Receiving Votes (ORV). Five Big Ten teams are ranked. B1G teams among ORV: 2-loss Iowa No. 26, 2-loss Minnesota No. 31, and 2-loss USC. With a loss at No. 25 Wisconsin, the Trojans drop from 16th to 31st. Absurd! No. 15 Iowa loses a rivalry game on the road to 2-loss Minnesota by three points and drops out of the Top 25. B1G losses count. Six B12 teams are ranked. Texas Tech has a sorry strength-of-schedule (SOS), lost at unranked Cincinnati, and only drops to 13th. If you want to see what a mobile, athletic QB can do, try to watch the play of No. 6 Utah QB Devon Dampier in last night's win in Salt Lake City against No. 18 Houston. Yes, Dampier threw two picks, but he was the first B12 QB since Vince Young in the 2006 Rose Bowl victory against No. 1 USC to pass for 150+ yards and run for 150+ yards. In today's CFB, where better than average O-line play is sorely lacking, having a dual-threat QB helps the cause. Nine SEC teams are ranked. 2-loss Texas and 2-loss Ole Miss are ranked in the top 12. Five 2-loss SEC teams are ranked above 1-loss Northwestern. NW's sole loss came against No. 4 Indiana by two points in Bloomington. Texas lost a neutral-site game to unranked Oklahoma and at home to 2-loss Florida. So what? After some scary games are played on Halloween in Week 9, the Playoff Committee's first Top-25 ranking of the 2026 season will be revealed on Tuesday, November 3rd. Will SOS matter? Will losses in the SEC count? Make no mistake, based on its out-of-conference record, the SEC deserves polling love, but not this kind of unconditional love. Based on this week's AP Poll, Ohio State, Indiana, and UCLA would be in the playoff field. Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Texas would be in. No. 12 Ole Miss would be knocked out by G6 No. 20 Boise State; 1-loss Boise State is also ranked above 1-loss Northwestern. Boise State's loss to Oregon is forgiven; USC's loss to Oregon is not. SSecDD. On3College Football Rankings: AP Poll Top 25 after Week 8 re....

I don't think that's true. There are a lot of really good coaches at Oregon already. OC and O line coaching fixes a lot of the issues.

This was after brick after brick after brick.

Or Sayles Outofbounds Jr

Neither was Inyer Backfield

I guess Threau Shortofsticks was not available?

This is a hit piece. Low hanging fruit. The writer is lazy and ignorant. He has a "if you cant kick a man when he is down, when can you kick him?" Writing style. Trash article that has no substance and was only written to cause more damage. What a hack

After throwing in some search parameters into Google AI they seem to think that Byron Leftwich is available and could clean up the mess as a QB whisperer. He is currently volunteering as a QB coach at Colorado making it possible to actually hire him. I have no idea if he has any clue about calling plays but he was a solid quarterback in his day and should be able to help the young QB become better. Always fun to see what AI has to say about things.

Oh come on. Firing Merhinger was the easy part, now what's DL gonna do?

Possible candidates that I can think of though I'm not close to an expert on this topic. Maryland coach Mike Locksley. He was the Alabama OC on their recent championship team. Maybe a better OC than Head coach? Jonathan Smith. Former OSU/ MSU head coach. Either a former no star or low star recruit that helped turn the lowly Beavers into one of the most dangerous teams in the country in the early 2000's. Great OC and head coaching results ay OSU and OC results in the NFL. Chip Kelly. Would he come back full circle? That's all I got but OC knowledge is not my wheelhouse.

Aranda is a defensive guy

I appreciate the positive attitude but a good hire or two isn't going to fix this mess. This is more a fire-sale-tear-down-re-build.

To keep things consistent Lanning is hiring Runnup DeMiddle as OC. Trust the plan...

My prediction: OBD 10 Northwestern more than that. OBD 0 Ohio St more than that. OBD 0 Michigan more than that.

Helfrich was in the same place in 2016 and he wasn't given another chance to f right the ship. That was in part due to the recruiting not picking up fast enough with sanctions going away. Lanning is in no danger of being fired but he does have to earn our trust back as fans. But here's the thing... Lanning gets to work on retaining his roster now. Work on scouting for a new OC (and other position coaches even if they haven't been fired yet) and prep for the portal. In this day and age the portal and some good hires can bounce a team back into contention real fast. Lanning has shown he can make good hires but he is going to have to make some big hires here and he can't let his ego get in the way of any potential changes to scheme.

The hiring will indeed be a process. What concerns me immediately is, who will be the acting OC against Northwestern?

I have no idea if this guy is a hater or not. But I'm wondering what you think he says is hateful and/or inaccurate? I think he provides a rather accurate assessment of where we are. We can choose to bury our heads in the sand, and see where that takes us. Or, take a stone cold look at reality and begin to make the tough decisions to turn this program back around. As we did today, starting with the firing of our OC.

The fact that DL found Dilly and Stein in consecutive hires proves that he knows how to find great coaching talent. I think this time around his devotion to "loyalty and working your way up" (like he did during his career) overrode what worked at these critical positions. That devotion isn't a bad thing and is very admirable however he can step in and help the DC if they're struggling like he obviously did with Hampton. But he doesn't have that ability to help on the other side of the ball and should've been more cognizant of that. Let's see if he's truly learned his lesson and goes through a thorough interview/hiring process for the new OC.

My ooinion is on record. Nothing will improve while DL is at the helm. I'd love to be wrong, but...

It all works until it hits a critical mass and all falls apart. And this year all that youth and inexperience and ineptitude couldn't be covered up anymore.

Lot of Duck haters out there. I ignore them. How this will work out is not yet known, but it is not the best situation. Let’s see what happens with the upcoming recruiting classes. I actually believe this firing will help since recruits are not stupid and have seen the train wreck under this OC.

In hoops, after someone makes a couple nice shots, they can feel like they are in the zone and test that theory by launching one deep which is called a heat check. Usually this will just clank off the rim and bring them down to reality. I think we just saw that with Lanning having to fire Coach Meh after one of the most inept offensive performances in recent memory. It's hard to blame Lanning's logic because every shot he had fire up (coaching hire) was nothing but money. But all the under qualified hires on offense were like launching it from half court and watching a horrible air ball sail out of bounds. OK, lesson learned. Back to playing with focus and discipline. So what now? Does he look for a top notch Xs and Os guy that maybe isn't the best recruiter and hopes the UO can recruit itself at this point? Does it matter that a top level guy doesn't exactly align with his own offensive vision? Should they go get look for someone sooner rather than later to hold the team together or does that matter? It feels like the easy part has already happened now time for the tricky part to begin.

Done

I agree with you. Good coaches absolutely must hire great coaches. Dan had both Dillingham and then Stein. These guys did some great stuff. With the right coaching staff around him, Lanning is a good coach. Whether or not he has the stuff it takes to become a great coach, definitely remains to be seen.