Marsh Duck Tuesday?

Well I was unable to get to editing the article on Sunday evening so I pushed the publishing date off until today. I also had sword classes on Sunday which was great for my mental health but also made me a bit too tired to want to deal with some of these issues facing the program right now.

Anyways I hope you find the article interesting... it wasn't the article I wanted to write and probably not the article you wanted to read this year about the coaching situation but here we are.

Trust in Lanning is Breaking

This isn’t the article I wanted to write and this isn’t the article you wanted to read.

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 ____.

Edited 53 minutes ago53 min by OregonDucks

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.

I think a lot of this discussion needs to be focused on Dan Lanning himself. How did we end up hiring a riverboat gambler? I don't think he learned his way too agressive behavior (IMHO) from Kirby Smart or Nick Saban. The most recent examples are the Oklahoma State game where his go for it attitude on 4th and 8 yards arguably cost us the game. Against UCLA his poor decision to go for two points after the first TD probably cost us the game. Our defense is playing relatively well considering they had to play the 2/3rds of the last game due to offensive miscues. The offense is a mess. Mehringer has done a poor job and his resume is poor but he works for the Head Coach who is ultimately responsible. Changes need to be made now because we are trending in the wrong direction.

4 minutes ago, Santa Rosa Duck said:

I think a lot of this discussion needs to be focused on Dan Lanning himself. How did we end up hiring a riverboat gambler? I don't think he learned his way too agressive behavior (IMHO) from Kirby Smart or Nick Saban. The most recent examples are the Oklahoma State game where his go for it attitude on 4th and 8 yards arguably cost us the game. Against UCLA his poor decision to go for two points after the first TD probably cost us the game. Our defense is playing relatively well considering they had to play the 2/3rds of the last game due to offensive miscues. The offense is a mess. Mehringer has done a poor job and his resume is poor but he works for the Head Coach who is ultimately responsible. Changes need to be made now because we are trending in the wrong direction.

Oregon has had some pretty good success rates on 4th down under Lanning and if he wants to keep that going he needs an offensive coordinator who can make sure those short yardage situations are effectively a freebie. Anyone remember how frustrating some of those David Shaw teams at Stanford were? Fourth and 2 and here comes the jumbo package and they convert almost every freaking time. Part of that is power and part of that is scheme and part of that is just darn good coaching.

I need to dig up the old article I had from 2022 but Dillingham's jumbo package was a thing of beauty. With that package it was almost a guarantee of converting in short yardage situations.

Lanning wants to play like he has top tier coaches in the sport and is making decisions with that in mind. The reality is that he doesn't have those coaches.

Lanning is the one who is going to need to make those changes to his coaching roster and he will need to own it. If not in public at least with himself. At the end of the day Lanning is ultimately accountable and the fan-bases' trust in him is breaking but I am not saying broken. He will get an opportunity to prove himself in the off season and next season. And yes, I am aware we still have half a season ahead of us still.

11 minutes ago, The Kamikaze Kid said:

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.

Good news is that he rights the ship in a timely fashion in the off season he reloads the roster with talent from the portal quickly and can be right back in contention next year. Rebuilds are faster than ever. Holding onto key pieces on this roster will be difficult but again communicating to players at least behind closed doors can ensure players stick around.

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.