The Kamikaze Kid

This may be the best topic of the year. As a fan, I really don't care what the narrative is for any given year whether it's "This is THE year!" or "Prepare to be the scrappy underdog this year.". I just want to be prepared for what's coming and embrace it whatever it is. Shocking upsets can do and will happen from time to time and "This is THE year!" can turn to "At least we're still in the top 25." at anytime on the schedule and I don't have a problem with that. This year feels more deceitful than upsets happen. We have two five star QBs being lead and instructed by a guy coaching QBs for the first time who played tight end in college. Unbelievable. Our all world tight end and his 4 star position mates are being coached by a guy who's never even been a position coach before. Ridiculous. They're all being lead by an OC who's OC experience is one year leading bottom dwelling Rutgers offense. Inexcusable. This is the offensive infrastructure that we were told was going to compete for a national title. This isn't even counting how hard the O line was over sold as ready to take over the starting positions. These internal promotions were a gigantic swing and a miss by Lanning and will most likely be corrected post season. Still this season should have been promoted as a learning curve year rather than 'This is it!". We all could have embraced for impact and adjusted our fandom accordingly.

With playoffs expanding I think this would be a great time to convert FCS games to purely exhibitions. No counting scores or stats. Treated them like glorified Spring Games. Let the fans gather and get rowdy feel like footballs back in early fall but also let your starters maybe just play a few series to work off rust then empty the bench and let the 3rd and 4th string eat. It's somewhat silly how the offense is clearly having problems but the seasons stats are inflated by an 84-0 score against Portland St. Teams would still make money filling the house, Fans would still be entertained and excited about the new season. Stats wouldn't be inflated and hiding problems and starters would have more in the tank and less wear and tear come playoff time.

I've been saying this since Ok St. Set up the OL for success with plays they can handle. To me, this is the biggest part of the OC being MIA both pregame planning and in game adjustments. Unfortunately Lanning has turned coaching at Oregon into a training on the job destination instead of a destination job. It is what it is this year but hopefully coaches get upgraded to what they need to be after the season.

OBD 17-16 3 TO 3 Sacks 185 Passing Yards

In some ways I hope it's true. Individual players will come and go but in the long run I think Lanning needs to feel the consequences of inaction when foundational issues come up. The O Line is horribly under performing. The QBs all have issues with staying calm and problem solving on the fly. The offensive plays are far too simplistic and have too many tells and predictabilities. This is all coaching which means it won't change until the coaches change. The skill position guys are all dependent on those three links in the chain being sturdy for their contributions to have any positive effect. So until those glaring problems get addressed all skill position players will have decisions to make. Decisions also will be made by the elite players being coached at the problematic spots of o line and QB as well.

Bravo! While I feel that the Ducks just don't have the internal options at their disposal to pull off a mid season change, I think the research put into this post was outstanding!

JDuck Great post. I agree that Lanning has had some great coaches on his staff. The problem is a lot of them have left for promotions and have been replaced with guys with far more recruiting chops than actual coaching experience before joining the staff.

Yes David I fully agree. In fact I think this step back may be what's needed to take that elusive step forward. Without these awful faceplants, an 11-1 type season with another playoff humiliation is what would have been the future and Lanning probably doesn't change a thing. I Think between NIL, GMs and the portal, recruiter first coaches will lose significance anyway and coaches that can prep 4-5 stars for the NFL will be the priority and UO would be a great place for those types of coaches to locate to.

Great article David. Your weekly articles have become one of the best parts of the forum. Keep it up! In the big picture, I think this will just be the one step back after many steps forward for Lanning if he learns the right lessons which I think he will. I think Lanning's biggest mistake has been an out of balanced priority of recruiting over coaching. I did a little research in another thread and was actually shocked at how little actual coaching history most of the offensive position coaches have vs how much recruiting history they have. For example, here's what the QB room looks like from QB1-QB4: 5 star, 5star. 3 star. 4 star. That's a galaxy of stars been lead by a QB coach that played tight end in college (UO) and has never even been a position coach before and only been an assistant QB coach with Stein in 24-25 before the promotion. What? The three elephants in the room are QB regression, lack of O line development and lackluster play calling. Here are the guys responsible for those jobs. The line is being coached by a guy with only one year at Hawaii as an O line coach before arriving at Oregon. They are all being lead by an OC with only one year at Rutgers as OC under his belt. They are being lead by QBs that are being lead by a guy learning his job in real time. This is the level of experience that is guiding a team with national championship aspirations. Unbelievable. I would expect more experience at a mid level Sun Belt conference team. All of those guys primary responsibilities at their earlier stops was recruiting. Lanning is a smart guy but obviously miscalculated the priorities for long term success. I think he'll right the ship in the off season but this year won't be what we had hoped but if it's the one step back before the championship step forward, it will be worth it.

In the main post above, I didn't mention all the times that the various coaches main duties included some variant of recruiting coordinator. I should have as it would have underscored my main point. Most of the coaches main jobs seemed to be recruiter first, assistant position coach second followed by moving up to position coach while maintaining lead recruiter titles. It's the common theme among them. I found most of this info from the goducks website if you want to check it yourself. Also notice how the most experienced position coaches are at receiver and running back where they are having the least problems.

This question prompted me to do some research on the coaching history of the offensive coaching staff. I posted the results on a different thread. The short conclusion: With very little experience across the board, this is mostly a recruiting staff posing as coaches. Very few have more than a couple years of experience coaching their positions. A couple didn't have any experience at all. I think not bringing in an A list Offensive Coordinator set the Ducks on an inevitable collision course with where they're at now without much ability to course correct until after the season. Talent alone could and should still win most of the remaining games but I don't see the Ducks really moving forward until they bring in some real coaches.

To Summarize a long post: The Offensive Coordinator looks like he has held that position once for a year at Rutgers. The Offensive line coach looks like he held that position once for a year at Hawaii before joining the Ducks. The QB coach hadn't been a QB coach before the Oregon job. The running back coach has had four similar jobs at four different stops prior to joining the Ducks The receiver coach had three years of experience before the Duck job. The tight end coach is a position coach for the first time this year. This is the staff we're expecting to figure things out. Good luck. To me this looks like a collection of under qualified coaches who's main duties at their other stops was recruiting. I think Lanning has put all his eggs in that basket and just doesn't have anyone on staff that is qualified to figure things out. Maybe this is why well coached teams give the Ducks so many problems but a poorly coached team like USC doesn't.

Here's all the info I could gather on the Oregon Offensive Coaches. Some info is missing. I'm not a reporter. I'm just a guy. Offensive Coordinator: Drew Mehringer Age 38 2010-11 Iowa St GA 2012-13 Ohio St GA 2014 James Madison QB Coach 2015 Houston Receiver Coach 2016 Rutgers Offensive Coordinator/ QB Coach 2017-19 Texas Receiver Coach 2020 Florida Atlantic Receiver Coach 2021 New Mexico QB Coach 2022-25 Oregon Tight End Coach 2026 Oregon Offensive Coordinator Offensive Line Coach: A'lique Terry Age 31 2019-20 Oregon GA 2021 Hawaii Offensive Line Coach 2022 Minnesota (NFL) Assistant Offensive Line Coach 2023-26 Oregon Offensive Line Coach Quarterback Coach: Koa Ka'ai Age 33 Oregon Tight End 2012-15 2016-2020? Hawaii High School Tight End Coach 2021? Hawaii Tight End Coach? 2022 Oregon Assistant Running Back Coach 2023 Oregon Assistant Receiver Coach 2024-25 Oregon Assistant QB Coach 2026 Oregon QB Coach Running Back Coach: Ra'shaad Samples Age 32 2016-17 Houston GA 2018 Texas GA 2019 SMU GA 2020 SMU Running Back Coach 2021 TCU Running Back Coach 2022 LA Rams Running Back Coach 2023 ASU Receiver Coach 2024-26 Oregon Running Back Coach Receiver Coach: Ross Douglas Age 31 2018-20 Rutgers GA 2021 New England Defensive Assistant 2022-23 New England Receiver Coach 2024 Syracuse Receiver Coach 2025-26 Oregon Receiver Coach Tight End Coach: Jack Smith Age ? 20??-?? ASU Assistant 2023 Oregon Assistant 2024-25 Oregon GA 2026 Oregon Tight End Coach

Play it. Play the youngsters and see who's worth building around and who's not. At some point this year I want to know if I'm wasting my time rooting for guys like Akili Smith or not.

I think his main option is to realize that he doesn't have options because he has a staff full of young recruiters posing as coaches that have no clue what to do. He could have had a top level OC/QB coach like a Jonathan Smith if he wanted. Instead he promoted a coach who's OC experience was abysmal stints at Rutgers and New Mexico. Boy that sure sounds like a national championship winning decision don't it? Maybe a real OC comes in and brings in some real position coaches and they are in a position to coach themselves out of this mess. Instead he has a room full of early thirties recruiters that know how to relate with 17 year olds like bros. In the era of college GMs, NIL and the portal, how important is a recruiter first coach anyway? The Beavers have about a $10 NIL budget but they are being coached up to max potential and playing like it. Boise St always has great coaches and always play like it. I think this year just is what it is and definetly a step back but if Lanning can truly learn from it, this just may be the kick in the pants he needs to take the next step towards making the Ducks an elite team.

That's a shame. Reminds me of the Dennis Dixon year. Hope they rebound better than we did.

I can't speak for all the moderators but from my perspective, the members on this site have responded amazingly well. Not only did we wittiness a gut wrenching loss, we also saw a spectacular meltdown of historic proportion. Even so, the group kept within the rules and didn't attack players, coaches or each other. Well done team!

Man. This thread aged like old milk lol! I give Dan props for showing restraint one game and then he rolls the dice in the next one the first chance he gets. I think the go for two and 4th and go for it play books need to be ritually burned.

Oopsie!

USC's opponents combined BIG record 1-9 (The one win was OBD against them) OBD's opponents combined BIG record 6-1 (The one loss was USC against them)

I hate to say it but with all the non mathing math, it feels like the coaching staff is just cashing checks and mailing it in. It also feels like the highly paid NIL guys are doing the same. With NIL not being tied to actual performance, this has always been the danger in this scenario. Three out of four of Oregon's next games will be against two dangerous up and coming teams (Nebraska and Northwestern) and an old school road grader (tOSU). Things could get real ugly fast.

Non of it looks even 1 star and that's the question. It's hard to believe ten 4/5 star guys have all been so highly over rated. Even if some are, it's hard to believe you couldn't piece together a decent line out ten 4/5 star guys. It's hard to believe a coach with as much success as Terry couldn't get good results with 3 star guys. It's all hard to believe which is why I pose the question.

Here's the O line depth chart as listed in the forum links. I'm no O line expert so I don't know if some of the names aren't actually in this order or are injured or playing different positions than listed. But with that said based on this info. Where is the problem? Left Tackle Addison (So) 4 Star "Nacho" (Fr) 5 Star Left Guard Utu (So) 5 Star Rogers (Sr) 3 Star Center Laloulu (Sr) 4 Star Brooks (Jr) 4 Star Right Guard Iuli (Sr) 4 Star Bennet (Sr) 3 Star Manning (So) 4 Star Right Tackle Crader (Jr) 4 Star Tofi (Fr) 4 Star Wilson (Sr) 3 Star Stascausky (So) 4 Star Again, where's the problem? Sure there could be a bust here or there. That happens all the time but this roster is chalked full of 4-5 star guys clear across the line in the two deep. With this much talent you should be able to field a competent squad. If it's not the players then it has to be the coaching. Then I'd need it explained to me how the same coach that has put together award finalist lines year after year has suddenly forgotten how to do it. That just doesn't make sense. That would then lead to the plays being called. Are the schemes so bad that a star studded line with an elite coach all of a sudden can't block themselves out of a wet paper bag? What gives? I'm much more confused than angry. Can anyone explain the problem? The math just isn't mathing in my brain.

How in the world can you have a two deep of 4-5 stars and be this bad? How in the world can an O line coach that coached back to back Joe Moore award finalist lines coach this bad? Are the plays so simple they are just that easy to defend? Are they so complicated that the learning curve is too high. Have the players just been over hyped to the extreme? I need an Xs and Os master to explain it to me like I'm seven because I just can't grasp how this is happening. The desperate fuskies were slinging the ball all over the field against Iowa with a back up QB. The Beavers are setting team offensive records with a gutted program with little NIL. And the Ducks can neither run or pass the ball against anybody other than SUC or FCS teams. We're getting early 80's Ducks results with Pete Carrol level talent. This is the most bewildering Duck team I've ever seen.

Great searching Solar. The play calling is just inexplicably bad. Just looking forty miles north, The Beavers have a fraction of the budget in a gutted conference and still look like they have a better head coach, a better OC and a better O line. And I mean by far. By farther than far. They have a freshman receiver that is rewriting their record books that wouldn't even be in the UO three deep for this inept offense. This has been a criminal squandering of resources I could never imagine in years past.