OregonDucks

So do Sark, Kiffen and DeBour. LOL.

You be right but, no offense, I hope you are wrong. This offense has looked disorganized and has underperformed all year. It’s not like they were lighting up the scoreboard before Dante was injured (Portland State excluded). The defense handed them 2 TDs in the Oklahoma State game. While the offensive line has clearly been a major issue, a good offensive coordinator would have realized that weakness early and tried to scheme around it. Joey Harrington said that they used different techniques and plays back in the day because Oregon couldn’t match up physically with better teams. We have finally started to see some adjustments but it took 2 losses and we are halfway through the season. Does anyone think the offense would look this bad under a top OC? Chip Kelly? Lincoln Riley? As some have pointed out, maybe defensive coaches have figured out Oregon’s offense and it has all been too predictable/stale. Perhaps this alone is a reason to make the change.

According to this defense efficiency rating, which I believe adjusts for the quality of opponents, Oregon defense is ranked #6. BCF Toys2026 DFEI Ratings — BCF Toys

While you certainly want to limit turnovers, you don’t want your QBs playing tight / not taking calculated risks, when the situation warrants it.

Coach Lanning has said that playing a game at a different time zone than you are used to can have more of an impact than the travel itself. It probably didn’t help Nebraska on Saturday and I don’t love that the Ducks will have a 9:00 AM PT game on Saturday.

“Passing the torch” rarely works in sport or business. There are more times that it has failed than worked out. Helfrich at Oregon is exhibit A. (and for those of you who will say, he got Oregon to the national championship game…no he didn’t, Marcus Mariota did and we saw what happened when we faced a much more talented roster.)

Bring in the best possible OC, regardless of system, and let him build his own staff. This is the way.

Not according to the experts. There are few rosters in college football as talented and deep as the Oregon Ducks, on paper. Most teams do have better coaching, talent development and execution though.

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?

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.

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).

I would be shocked if the boosters would be willing to sit back and watch another year of this. For as much as they are spending, they are going to want to see accountability and change.

Someone in the national media pointed out that young head coaches used to be able to learn and grow at smaller programs before taking over at a national program. Nick Saban was the head coach at Toledo and Michigan State before LSU and Alabama. Urban Meyer started his head coaching career at Bowling Green and Utah before Florida and Ohio State. Coach Lanning did not have that luxury and whether we like it or not is learning on the job. Coach Bellotti was a very good CEO type head coach, who hired well, but even he occasionally hired the wrong person. Luckily he seemed to realize it and make the change quickly. We’ll have to wait and see what Coach Lanning does.

I haven’t read the article, yet, but it sounds as though Coach Lanning is starting to feel the pressure and break a little based on his press conference responses. He was very defensive about his offensive coaches. I’m by no means calling for his head but the PR team needs to help him out. It would be better to say I have no comment or will have to evaluate that after ____.

UCLA is still waiting for confirmation to the extent of the injury from doctors but they will probably not disclose it until they have to.

And not to mention the beat downs Oregon has endured the past two playoffs by getting out coached by more experienced coaching staffs. You would have thought that this offseason would have been an opportunity to bring in more experienced coaches to correct that problem. Instead we got younger and more inexperienced…

A coach has a good breakdown of the UCLA game in the below video. According to this coach: • The offensive line technique is really bad, including by players who have been at Oregon for 3 years. Are they not being taught fundamentals or are they not listening to the coaches? Either scenario is bad. • Dylan Riola was not making the right reads, was late with the ball, had poor fundamentals (e.g., throwing off his back foot) and felt pressure when there was none. The coach felt, based strictly on the UCLA game, that Brock Thomas should start if DM is not able to go, as he was making quick decisions and getting the ball to his playmakers on the perimeter. • The coach says that as a coach you have to know what your players are capable/not capable of, where your strengths are and have counters ready. Oregon’s weakness this year is our offensive line and specifically running between the tackles. Why are we trying to run up the middle for the 2 point conversion instead of trying to get the ball outside? Our receivers are the strength of the offense, why are we not trying to get them the ball in space, quickly more often? He suggested having a counter to the option, where the QB pulls the ball and gets it to the WR in space quickly (this play was open in the tape but we never tried it). While Oregon’s offensive line play has been terrible it also sounds as though our OC has not adjusted to the team’s strengths and weaknesses, and does not have creative counters ready. We keep trying to run the same failed plays with the same results.

Brock Thomas is a gamer and deserves the opportunity to show what he can do.

Coach Neal said that Oregon’s offensive attack is to spread a defense out horizontally and then throw short passes and run the football. Oklahoma State and UCLA took those short routes away with different defensive schemes and Oregon cannot run the ball with this offensive line. Sounds like defenses have figured this offense out and we do not have the offensive line and/or mobile QB to counter. UCLA was daring Oregon to beat them deep but was able to get pressure on the QB quickly.

It’s a great nickname because the OL might get sued by their QB for incompetence/ malpractice.

If I were entering the NFL draft, there is no way I’d play in it for these coaches.

I guess ESPN’s FPI weighs strength of schedule more than wins and loses? Guess we now know why SEC teams have to maintain those overinflated rankings compared to other conferences…

Well, Oregon very quickly dropped out of the rankings and playoff conversation.

Because he’s not ready unless we are going to run the read-option offense again.