On to 2026

[Booger20]

Season ended on a very sour note but probably exceeded expectations for pretty much everyone on this forum.

With that said looking forward to the 2026 schedule I think this is the year where all are chips are in to win the championship. Our BIG10 schedule is as followed:

Away Games
@Illinois, @Michigan St. @Ohio St. @USC

Home Games
Michigan, Nebraska, Washington, UCLA, Northwestern

I forsee Moore back and will have crazy amounts of talent at receiver and runningback to go 12-0 at worst 10-2. IMO you could see Moore actually progress throughout this shithole of a game and another year will do him well.

I think the only real glaring hole is at LB and always could use the best on the lines (I do believe in our young guys).

Rose Bowl QF, Fiesta SF, Vegas Final. Its our year.

With that said 'Sco Ducks

[whosyourwally]

On one hand, I’m remembering the jump Joe Burrow made between his first and second year at LSU and on the other, it feels like it’s 2002, and we just watched our window close as Pete Carroll launches a juggernaut.


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[GrantDuck]

1. Hire the right OC/DC
2. Get the OT position figured out
3. Get Dante Moore to make more consistent reads (ties into #1)
4. Get a safety than can cover (or a scheme where they aren't always covering WR's)
5. Keep the culture great (it really has been).

Go Ducks!

[Everythingsducky]

Bring in quality LB’s please moving forward. Boettcher was fine, Mixon was fine, but the Ducks need a stud LB or two, of the quality transfer safety Thiennemen was.

[GrantDuck]

Bryce was lights out in the playoffs. He's gonna get drafted.

Young DB's/safeties simply didn't win enough in coverage and their QB made them pay every damn time.

[alxtw]

Hope Dante can make his decision soon. So we have ample time to get another qb if he wants to move on or if he's staying, I'd imagine more guys on our team will also want to stay and stars in the portal will want to join Oregon next year.

[Phalanx]

I am curious: Does everyone here want Dante back, or are we ready for a quarterback with a higher ceiling, maybe one who doesn't regularly fumble on exchanges with the running back or melt in big games?

My wish list for 2026 is that Oregon starts building position pipelines rather than having to go to the portal every year for O-line and QB's.

[rockthief]

I am curious: Does everyone here want Dante back, or are we ready for a quarterback with a higher ceiling, maybe one who doesn't regularly fumble on exchanges with the running back or melt in big games?

My wish list for 2026 is that Oregon starts building position pipelines rather than having to go to the portal every year for O-line and QB's.

If he returns, I hope he has to compete with another QB for the number one job.He repeatedly does not see open receivers. It can't be his height so what is it? I am unsure if his ceiling really is as high as some people believe it to be. There is no way he can compete for the job in the NFL with his current "being".

[OregonFan4Life]

I am curious: Does everyone here want Dante back, or are we ready for a quarterback with a higher ceiling, maybe one who doesn't regularly fumble on exchanges with the running back or melt in big games?

My wish list for 2026 is that Oregon starts building position pipelines rather than having to go to the portal every year for O-line and QB's.

I haven’t been anywhere close to silent about my thoughts, but while I don’t blame the Dante doubters, I do think his talent is hard to pass up. Plus I think Stein did him no favors and was proven this season to be a lackluster playcaller with lackluster strategies and he also has shown he can’t develop a QB. My hope is Lanning makes a great hire at OC/QB coach that can develop Dante and scheme up a great passing attack and if so, I do think Dante could be a lethal QB that could give us a natty level passing offense.


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[whosyourwally]

Yes, I want Dante back.
His 3rd string RB clipped his blind side and knocked the ball out… Mendoza fumbled twice and brought home some hardware this year.


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[pezsez1]

GO DUCKS! Great season. Yeah, crappy ending, but I definitely think this team exceeded expectations and the culture was fantastic. Solid positives.

That said...

This next football season is going to tell us a lot about Dan Lanning.

Lanning appears to be a great head coach. He's an elite program builder, elite recruiter, elite promoter, all that stuff. And clearly the man knows defensive playcalling. Oregon's defense has been the foundation of its success for the past two years, and I'm guessing that's largely because of his involvement. Most of his coordinator/staff hires have been great. His staff seems elite at evaluating young talent & finding recruits who can contribute right away. They mostly target the right guys in the portal. The team wins all the games it should win, which is no small achievement in college football. And he's also won some big games on big stages, proving he doesn't just fatten up on bottom feeders. There's a lot to love about Dan Lanning. He seems like the guy to bring home a natty.

My one concern with Lanning is his loyalty -- the same loyalty that compels him to say "the grass is damn green in Eugene." Behind our greatest strengths often lie our biggest weaknesses. I strongly believed after last year's Rose Bowl debacle (and the fact that our offense struggled such much) that someone's head should have rolled. But Lanning stuck with his crew and ran it back. The offense was better over the course of this season, but still not great and definitely not consistent, and at times it was just hard to watch. We owe the success of this season to our defense. It's hard to say this season would have been better with a new OC and a new system, but it's hard to imagine our offense taking a step back given the depth of our talent and the already bland nature of Stein's playcalling. Anyway, enough about that guy, my point is that Lanning had an opportunity to make us better but he chose to give his guy another chance.

Fast forward to now, and Lanning is reportedly promoting our next OC from within. He's a guy who has either little or no OC experience, and apparently he called some plays at Rutgers (woohoo) but nowhere else. It's difficult to imagine Alabama, Ohio State, etc. promoting such an inexperienced guy from within at such a vital moment in program history. Lanning should have launched a national search for both coordinator positions, really. Is Oregon's coaching tree really good enough to be hiring from within? I just don't believe it is, especially if Will Stein was one of its biggest fruits.

Also now we have the case of Dante Moore. I like Dante, and I think he'd take a big leap with a real offensive coordinator. (But are we getting a real OC?) Just like with the coaching situation, though, there's some urgency here to make improvements when we can. If Sam Leavitt or another portal comeback would come here with equal-ish talent and a lot more moxy, then maybe change would be best for the program. Of course, I'd love to see Dante grow and thrive, but at the end of the day this isn't summer camp. I get the feeling that Lanning will stick with Moore just like he stuck with Stein. Lanning is loyal, and he wants his guys to succeed. I think he wants to coach his coaches just as much as he wants to coach his players. That's very noble, but it's also not a balls-to-the-wall championship mentality. I want him to get the best coordinators he can get in the building, then worry about helping them out. I fear his loyalty might be overriding the opportunity to improve.

Next year, the Ducks will be led (in part) by two internally promoted coordinators who'd worked under guys who weren't known for being Xs and Os junkies. And we'll probably have a QB entering his third year in our system who brings tons of talent but also some glaring red flags. This is 100% Lanning's choice. He could have looked nationally for coordinators, and he could also choose to pursue a steadier QB who might be better suited for big moments. But he'll probably choose loyalty and roll with his guys.

I'm willing to trust that Lanning knows more than I do. Perhaps these internal hires are secretly the best-possible coordinators in waiting, and maybe Lanning just KNOWS that Dante is going to take a big leap next year and blow us all away. But if next season ends like the past two (filled with frustrating inconsistency and the wheels flying off when it matters most) then I think it will be fair to start questioning whether Lanning has the killer instinct needed to take us all the way. As OregonFan said yesterday, it's time for Lanning to raise the standard.

[dthomas=ddixon]

The fact that during the most important games of the season your coordinators are job hunting, getting hired, and running another football program while your players are talking with other teams, entering the portal, and quitting on the team is ruining the sport.

No other sport functions like this. Getting in the playoffs and playing for a championship is the whole point, and that’s also when coaches and players are bailing on the team? Makes absolutely zero sense. The sport is incredibly dysfunctional and every season pushes me closer towards no longer following it.

[GDuck]

College football isn’t so much a team sport anymore. It maybe is more so for the non-stars but even many of them are going into the portal. The players are out just for your own selfish notoriety so they can make money playing in college and pro ball. It’s too bad because college football has the best atmospheres but it is being run into the ground now and with very little loyalty and individual sacrifice for all.

[pudgejeff]

College football isn’t so much a team sport anymore. It maybe is more so for the non-stars but even many of them are going into the portal. The players are out just for your own selfish notoriety so they can make money playing in college and pro ball. It’s too bad because college football has the best atmospheres but it is being run into the ground now and with very little loyalty and individual sacrifice for all.

Thank goodness for that, why on earth would you not want what is best for these kids?

[GDuck]

College football isn’t so much a team sport anymore. It maybe is more so for the non-stars but even many of them are going into the portal. The players are out just for your own selfish notoriety so they can make money playing in college and pro ball. It’s too bad because college football has the best atmospheres but it is being run into the ground now and with very little loyalty and individual sacrifice for all.

Thank goodness for that, why on earth would you not want what is best for these kids?

Money in college is what’s best? I want what’s best for the kids long term. Growing and being on a loving, cohesive team will help them much more in life. Most chasing fame and money won’t get it and they will be worse off for it.

I tell me kids not to look to transfer high schools to try to get more attention in their sports and the same applies with these kids in college. Short term gain for very little of them many times equates to long term pain.