If you go up to the depth chart at the top of the front page, where is says, "Depth Chart" and look at the defense and hover over the projected starters--you will be surprised as I was.

Who Were Starters on Defense Last Year?

CB: Ify Obidegwu R-So, A 12 game starter at Oregon last year!

Safety: Aaron Flowers R-So, A 15 game starter at Oregon last year.

Safety: Koi Perich Jr, A starter and star safety at Minnesota.

CB: Brandon Finney Jr. So, A 15 game starter at Oregon last year.

LB: Jerry Mixon Sr, A 13 game starter at Oregon last year.

Rover/Star: Carl Williams IV + R-Jr, a starter and star at Baylor last year.

DE: Matayo Uiagalelei Sr, A 15 game starter at Oregon last year.

DT: A'Mauri Washington Sr, A 15 game starter at Oregon last year.

DT: Bear Alexander R-Sr, A 12 game starter at Oregon last year.

Edge: Teitum Tuioti Sr. A 15 game starter at Oregon last year.

TEN returning starters at Oregon or former schools? Holy Crap!

The Only Non-Starter Projected on the 2026 Oregon Defense?

LB: Devon Jackson Sr. A starter in two games last year, but has played a TON over the last three years, and been in the system for a redshirt year as well.

My gosh that is a ton of experience returning! My Duck-Buddies...have you ever seen anything like this before at Oregon?

Two Observations:

-That is an unbelievably rare defense...to have all that experience returning.

-That is a defense positioned to be a "Natty" defense.

Agree?

Baylor's Carl Williams Deflects the Pass

14 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Agree?

Gimme an H, gimme an E, gimme a couple of L's (not opposite of W's kind) . . . YES

Thanks for pointing that out, Charles. You just made my day! 💚💛

As well, if one were to put together a rough best-guess second team on defense, it would be 11/11 Blue Chip recruits, all top 275 nationally (247 Composite). Depth.

Rushing (#45), Breyland (#58), Robinson (#262), Wyatt (#202), Nix (#178), Williams (#199), Offord (#17), Scott (#36), Woodyard (#116), McNutt (#73), Benjamin (#123).

One word: Performance.

There is a standard for this much experience-Ohio State. Nobody but OBD scored close to 30 on them in 2024. That defense gave up less than 14 ppg. Contrast that with Penn State last year. Another team with equivalent experience. They lost to OBD, and disintegrated. They gave up well above 23 ppg last year.

Now when you look at OBD on paper, they look superior to just about everyone. Let me give you a concerning stat I heard today. Dante Moore has thrown 19 INTs and had 6 fumbles in 29 games. He had more INTs in 2025 than in his freshman year. What does that have to do with the defense? Look at the Peach Bowl. Over before it started. Not only does this defense need to be BETTER THAN OHIO STATE circa 2024, Dante Moore needs to play better than half the NFL starters this year.

That's when I'll breathe easy. Sorry to rain on the parade, but we have been here before. The players have been given more candy in the candy store the past 3 years. They need to execute. Plain and simple. I see all the hype on OBD, and it concerns me. I need to see obliteration on WWII level. Germany and England bombing the hell out of each other (either one can be our offense, then the other our defense). If we don't blow a crater in the entire state of Idaho game 1, and send the Broncos home wondering if they should even exist, I will be concerned. It is that serious to me.

But don't let me spoil things. This team is loaded. They have the capacity to nuke the entire solar system. I hope that happens. I hope we 86 every nightmare this program has faced as a contender. I hope we shut up every blue blood program fans base across the nation. I want people to hate OBD this year. And teams to fear us. This team can do that.

My concern is Dante Moore fades under pressure. I think this issue is the main reason he returned for this season.

Well, this thread was supposed to be about the defense...

I believe the offense is going to blow-doors off, but that is another thread. But the point is--if the defense really slows down the elite teams we play, (and I think they will) then the bar for the offense to win is not very high in the very tough games on the schedule.

And this receiver core with an experienced QB (who yes, is back to be better) will do better in big games this year. But it all starts with this incredibly talented and experienced defense returning.

And as OD noted above....we have a deep bench of talented depth that I believe will see a ton of playing time. We will get a lead with the first team defense holding them down, and the offense on the march against the less talented opponents. Thus the playing time for the young-guns on both sides of the ball to prepare for the future as well as this year.

But this year....it all starts with this defense...

Nice pick by Iffy!

This defense has all the makings of being another elite one for the ages of college football. We know the standard. It shows up in the stat sheet and on the scoreboard. I am saying this as an elitist. I want to see ungodly stats and scores this year. Not just "we did good" I don't want a team to score more than 24 on us all year.

My standard is high. But this team has the chops to make that happen.

GO DUCKS.

The 2021 Georgia defense put together perhaps the most dominant single-season stretch against contemporary, pro-style spread offenses. Anchored by a historically massive defensive line, this team steamrolled their way to a national championship by suffocating opponents.

• Points Allowed (PPG): 10.2

• Total Yards Allowed (YPG): 268.0

• Rushing Yards Allowed (YPG): 78.9

• Key Achievements: Pitched 3 shutouts and did not allow a single rushing touchdown through the first nine games of the season. They ultimately sent five defenders to the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft

DL coordinated that defense. It's time for his understudy (Chris Hampton) to do the same. I believe he will. This year!

Edited June 28Jun 28 by Chas Man
Spelling Correction

The defense will keep getting the ball back for Dante and friends.

The offense will have many opportunities to blow 'craters' in opposing teams.

The defense will make sure the offense has "much Moore"! 😉

On 6/26/2026 at 5:33 PM, Mike West said:

One word: Performance.

There is a standard for this much experience-Ohio State. Nobody but OBD scored close to 30 on them in 2024. That defense gave up less than 14 ppg. Contrast that with Penn State last year. Another team with equivalent experience. They lost to OBD, and disintegrated. They gave up well above 23 ppg last year.

Now when you look at OBD on paper, they look superior to just about everyone. Let me give you a concerning stat I heard today. Dante Moore has thrown 19 INTs and had 6 fumbles in 29 games. He had more INTs in 2025 than in his freshman year. What does that have to do with the defense? Look at the Peach Bowl. Over before it started. Not only does this defense need to be BETTER THAN OHIO STATE circa 2024, Dante Moore needs to play better than half the NFL starters this year.

That's when I'll breathe easy. Sorry to rain on the parade, but we have been here before. The players have been given more candy in the candy store the past 3 years. They need to execute. Plain and simple. I see all the hype on OBD, and it concerns me. I need to see obliteration on WWII level. Germany and England bombing the hell out of each other (either one can be our offense, then the other our defense). If we don't blow a crater in the entire state of Idaho game 1, and send the Broncos home wondering if they should even exist, I will be concerned. It is that serious to me.

But don't let me spoil things. This team is loaded. They have the capacity to nuke the entire solar system. I hope that happens. I hope we 86 every nightmare this program has faced as a contender. I hope we shut up every blue blood program fans base across the nation. I want people to hate OBD this year. And teams to fear us. This team can do that.

"They have the capacity to nuke the entire solar system."

Sheesh! When you get hyperbolic you don't mess around! ; P

This is the year. NC or bust. Anything else will seem like a letdown.

There is one step forward I think that the defense in 2026 needs to make: Pressure vs. Finish rate. The Ducks had a very good (comparable to historically good defenses) pressure rate last season, but the sack rate of 4.7% was half that of teams like Ohio State (2024) and Georgia (2021) who had 9.5% and 9.6% respectively.

If the Ducks can turn those pressures into a better sack rate, this defense has the chance to go down as one of the best defenses of the decade and I think that (plus Moore dealing with simulated pressure better against better teams like Ohio State) could lead the Ducks to the title.

Broke it down in two different articles here:

FREE: Wednesday War Room: What Oregon’s Defense Must Become in 2026

PREMIUM (Deeper Dive): Wednesday War Room: The Final Step for Oregon’s Defense

I think we took a poke at this a while back? Since bringing the Georgia defense to Oregon, over four seasons, both Oregon and Georgia have exactly 122 total sacks.

That is about 30.5 per year (Oregon had 30 in 2025-2026).

In the last 8 seasons, Georgia has had between 20-37 sacks 7/8 times, the only outlier being the 2021 team that had 49 sacks, which famously had 4 future 1st round NFL draft picks on the DL: T.Walker, Wyatt, Davis, Carter and 2 future 1st round NFL draft picks at LB in: Q.Walker and N.Smith, plus a pair of future 3rd round picks: Dean, Channing. Oregon's front is pretty loaded this year, but 2021 Georgia was more like on the "all-time historical great kind of loaded" scale.

On average, it suggests maybe 30-32 sacks per year should be expected from this D, based on the 12 seasons of data (in keeping with a philosophy that at its core is a lot of "bend-but-don't-break").

That isn't to say more sacks wouldn't be great, only maybe not what the scheme tends to normally generate. Advanced stats have "havoc rate", which is basically how much a defense is able to disrupt an offense by generating negative plays and pressure.

It is somewhat hard to find, but one site that looks pretty good (cfdb) has the following numbers (generally a havoc rate of 20% or more is considered very good):

Oregon:

2022: 15.1%

2023: 17.2%

2024: 19.3%

2025: 18.2%

Georgia:

2022: 16.0%

2023: 17.1%

2024: 15.7%

2025: 15.1%

For comparison, Indiana was 23.2% this year and 22.0% last year under Cignetti and Haines. Texas Tech was 23.3% this year with Bailey, Height, Hunter, and Rodriguez, after being at 13.7% the year prior.

They further break the number into how much the front contributes to the havoc and Oregon's fronts have been:

7.8%

9.3%

11.5%

9.6%

Georgia:

10.3%

9.7%

11.0%

8.1%

Indiana's fronts have been 14.5% and 16.0% and Tech's 15.0% this last season.

I think there might be some evidence in all this that Oregon and Georgia's scheme by design trades off less havoc (pressure) than someone like Indiana or Tech (for more safety on the back end).

Borrowing from that great 2021 Georgia D (and all those sacks), its havoc rate was still only 20.2% and 12.1% for its front. Very good but not Indiana or Tech good. That may indicate having even great front players still trails behind an overall great pressure scheme (and huge jumps should likely be viewed as outliers). 🤷‍♂️

I could be wrong though 🙂🙂🙂

Edited July 1Jul 1 by AnotherOD

On 6/26/2026 at 5:33 PM, Mike West said:

Sorry to rain on the parade, but we have been here before

Not raining on my parade, but it can be your own perspective. Nobody can change the past, but we all can have goals and dreams.

To achieve any difficult goal takes the courage to risk failure. Failing to achieve a goal does not define who you are, it identifies you as an individual, or team, that had the talent to compete at the highest levels.

I admire all the athletes at Oregon that have that talent, win or lose.

What an exciting topic to discuss. Great defenses are a thing of beauty. Watching my favorite defense in cfb stomp on the souls of opposing offenses is by far they most exciting part of the game for me.

Last year had stretches where the D flashed that OSU/UGA type of excellence. Other times not so much. You would think I would have more empathy for opposing fan bases, I just don't.

My gut tells me this is the year Oregon fields the top D in the B1G and possibly the nation. Sitting here on July 2nd it's all speculation but this feels different than going into any year prior. This D might just match the all-time great Duck offenses of the past.

I will be interested to see how Oregon has fixed the red zone issues from last year. It was pretty frustrating when redzone was automatic point for the opponent.

I am also interested in seeing how Oregon performs post Lupoi. How much of the defensive issues were directly on Lupoi's in game coaching?

That said, there were times this D was elite last year. With another year of experience, from coaching to the young DB's, this defense is going to be absolutely nasty. NC or bust in my mind.

On 7/2/2026 at 9:37 AM, Log Haulin said:

That said, there were times this D was elite last year. With another year of experience, from coaching to the young DB's, this defense is going to be absolutely nasty. NC or bust in my mind.

You hit the hammer on the head perfectly. So much good information coming out of this thread. I do believe Lupoi produced his best defense last year. All things considered. I was very impressed with Lupoi last year.

On 7/3/2026 at 4:12 PM, Mike West said:

I do believe Lupoi produced his best defense last year. All things considered. I was very impressed with Lupoi last year.

I think Lupoi coached his career best last year. He played a huge role in the recruitment and development of the talent.

There is a lot of criticism of Lupoi from many fans. I ingnor game chat critics, out side of game chat some make good arguments.

It will be interesting to see how the next few years play out. I am grateful that Lupoi spent this time with the Ducks. He is a big reason, not the only reason, Oregon is at the elite level they are.