Via live stream ☹️

https://www.youtube.com/live/014E0lS-nrY?is=wC8ArkGKB7LHLnPL

The Ducks wasted their season because every button Lanning thought was the right one on offense — the new coordinator, the high-profile backup QB, the latest attempt to revamp the line — didn’t work.

It’s hard to say exactly how much of the offense’s failure is on Mehringer. We don’t even know how much play-calling he did in his final weeks on the job. (Lanning has been cagey about that.) But Mehringer was likely empowered to shape the offense to his liking, at least structurally, because Lanning’s background is on defense.

The Ducks’ struggles at the start of games might tell us something. On their first 15 plays of a given game, they are 129th in the country in EPA per play. These are the plays an offensive coordinator often scripts ahead of time, roughly two drives’ worth. Mehringer’s offense was pantsed time and again on these possessions. Oregon ranks a more palatable 54th in EPA per play on all other plays, suggesting the less the Ducks scripted, the better.

Of course, 54th in the country still isn’t good for a team with Oregon’s financial might. Moore played well in the season’s first three-plus games, with stats similar to last year’s. But much of that was inflated by an 84-0 romp over FCS Portland State. Moore had posted a negative EPA per dropback in a Week 2 loss at Oklahoma State and was in the second quarter against USC when he took that horrifying hit to the head.

When Moore went down, former five-star Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola sprang from the bench and delivered an all-time relief performance to beat USC. But as a head coach told Bruce Feldman a few weeks later, Raiola is much easier to prepare for when a defense has a full week to look at him. Raiola posted 23.5 extra points added on his dropbacks in that USC game, then minus-30.8 in three appearances (two starts) against UCLA, Nebraska and Illinois. Whatever it cost Oregon to bring in an experienced backup with a five-star recruiting pedigree, it didn’t turn out to be a good investment.

So what is lanning’s back up plan after firing the OC? He must have had something in mind before he made the move. Didn’t work so well for Pete Carrol when he fired Chip from the Raiders last year. Hope Lanning’s decision stems the losses and gets the team back to where they should be.

The moment a college football program starts believing it has all the answers is the moment it starts falling behind.

Bellotti recognized Oregon needed something different and brought in Chip Kelly, who arguably changed the sport. When the talent gap became apparent under Helfrich, Oregon turned to Taggart to elevate recruiting. Cristobal emphasized physicality and winning in the trenches. Lanning took recruiting, culture, and motivation to another level.

Each evolution came from understanding that what worked yesterday might not be enough tomorrow.
But complacency is the danger every successful program faces. We look inside our own building, see the talent, resources, and people we’ve assembled, and convince ourselves we’re doing everything right. We become so invested in our own system and results of the past that we stop recognizing what others are doing better.

NIL and the transfer portal have taught us that the best talent isn’t always on your roster. Why should coaching be any different? Sometimes the best ideas and brightest minds are outside your building.

And that’s where Lanning faces the defining test of his tenure. He’s proven he can recruit elite talent, build a culture, and motivate a program. But can he recognize when the very system he’s built has become the thing holding it back?

Firing Mehringer showed he’s willing to make a difficult personnel decision. But replacing a coach isn’t the same as rethinking a philosophy. Oregon’s struggles aren’t theoretical anymore. They’re showing up on the field, and only changing faces without changing ideas won’t solve them.

The question isn’t whether Lanning can build a successful program. He’s already demonstrated that. The question is whether he can challenge his own assumptions, look outside his circle, and reinvent the program before its decline becomes entrenched.

Oregon wasn’t built by following the rest of college football. It was built by forcing everyone else to catch up.
Lanning’s next great recruiting win may not be a five-star player. It may be the offensive mind willing to challenge everything Oregon thinks it knows. Because the greatest threat to Oregon’s future isn’t a lack of talent. It’s Lanning’s belief that the answers were already in the building.

85-57. Final exhibition game.

Currently watching the Saints/Steelers game and I can’t help but notice the time Shough has to go through his reads. Not saying Shough is a bad QB by any means or that Raiola is a good one, but a great o-line can make a decent QB look great and a great QB look bad. We all know Dante Moore is a great QB, we’ve seen it with our own eyes. But this year it looks as if he got worse somehow. I believe our the overall bad QB play and horrid play calling comes down to poor o-line play. Everything in your offense is dictated by the line. Pass plays that take time to develop and the creative running plays all need protection. We must focus all our resources this off season on a new o-line coach and recruits whether it be high school or the transfer portal. As always Sco Ducks! See you sickos on Halloween

It was not a completed pass for anyone who was wondering.

In the offseason after we got DR I went and watched a few replays of Nebraska game's. It was obvious why Nebraska fans didn't like him. He has no arm and a horrible throwing stance.

How didn't Dan see it when watching the tape?

Did Dan really think DR was the best recruit option?

DR was supposed to start this year, we picked him up before Dante decided to return.

So to start this season Dan's plans at one point was to start DR and promote two new coordinators (buddys.) Thats for a team that had national title aspersions.

You could argue that all three of the decisions were probably the worse decisions he has made as a coach.

Dan and Chip have a great relationship and Dan always says Chip is an offensive genius. Our offense under Chip Kelly when we was here as OC/Head Coach was one of the best in the nation. He did well as the Buckeyes OC and won a National Championship and now as Northwesterns OC he has their offense rolling at 6-1 and they will likely make the College Football Playoffs. Drew Mehringer is a horrible OC and his only stint at Rutgers they were ranked 127/128. Dan made a horrible choice promoting him because anybody could have looked good under Will Stein. Dan Lanning is a defensive genius so he needs to hire an offensive genius in Chip Kelly. Dan + Chip would be a DREAM scenario for the Oregon Ducks! Make Chip Kelly the higjest paid OC next year and watch us get back to the top! SCO DUCKS!🦆

We're on our third offensive coordinator: Dillingham (2022), Stein (2023-2025), Mehringer (2026) and, while clearly the offense is a mess, I think it's worth looking at what common issues we've seen that might be worse now, but are not unique to Mehringer. I'm curious what other tendencies or issues you all have identified that are not unique to Mehringer's tenure.

Since Lanning became HC, we've been overly aggressive going for 2 point conversions and 4th down attempts, even when special teams could deliver points. This isn't the first time it's come back to haunt us, so I think it's safe to assume that regardless of OC, Lanning is the one calling for those aggressive and oftentimes risky attempts.

We've had a number of gimmick/gadget/trick players which seem to have little flow within the offense. Back in the Chip days and even under Helfrich you'd see a set up, like a bunch of screens leading to a go route, or identical runs to set up a flea flicker or other trick pass. But under Lanning these plays seem to be called at random, often disrupting productive drives and stalling out effective plays just as the team is getting into rhythm. Again, Mehringer might be egregiously bad at this, but we ran some of this stuff under the previous OCs, so you could assume Lanning is the one pushing for gadget plays and making sure to not just have them in the book, but to call them on game day.

Abandoning the run game. This isn't new, we've all seen so many games where productive runs early turned into an air raid offense in the 2nd half. In most of his losses we've passed more than we've rushed, though one could argue that is a result of falling behind more than offensive philosophy. But, you could also ask if we fell behind because we gave up on the run game. In any case, we tend to win more when we rush more, but in most of our losses, even close ones, we're airing it out way too much.

Self scouting is terrible this year but it's not new. How many times did we start a drive with a predictable screen pass in the last 4 years? Or throw behind the sticks on 3rd down? If we can see these issues at home there's no excuse not to have someone on staff tracking these tendencies and injecting some unpredictability into the game plan. I can only imagine what kind of gems teams like Indiana have found from their own scouting, and we know it's an issue because players from other teams have mentioned knowing our calls or what was coming after the game!

Not utilizing our best players. We had so many games where guys like Sadiq or Moore were not even targeted for long stretches. Sure, sometimes it's coverage, but you don't see Ohio State just give up on throwing the ball to their best guy. They scheme around him! We've had great players that went quiet for long periods of time when better game planners would have forced the issue and found ways to get the ball in their hands.

I'm not saying Lanning is terrible or Mehringer is good. But firing Mehringer isn't going to make us a contender if Lanning continues to repeat his same mistakes on the offensive side of the ball. Whether he tends to hire people who do this stuff, or he overrules them and pushes it himself, really doesn't matter. In the end, this program is too successful and has way too many resources, to be losing games this way.

I really hope this season is Lanning's wake up call to make major changes to how he operates. Otherwise we'll be back here next year, losing winnable games and throwing another OC under the bus.

A year ago, after watching Indiana embarrass Oregon, I wrote a post wondering whether we were seeing the growing pains of a championship program or something much worse.

It wasn’t received too well, some thought it ungrateful. Spoiled even. Apparently winning 12 games a year means you’re supposed to shut up, smile, and be thankful you’re not watching Oregon football in 2004.

And I get it. I really do.

But after watching whatever the hell that was against Illinois, I keep coming back to the same question.

What exactly are we building here? Because we were told this was different. And for a while, it felt different. The recruiting, the money, the facilities, the swagger. Dan Lanning was building a monster. A program that wasn’t just going to sit at the table with Ohio State and Georgia but start taking things off their plates.And now? I don’t even know what I’m watching half the time.

Same problems. Same bewildering stretches of football. Same refusal to adjust when something clearly isn’t working. Watching an entire season of waiting for somebody on that sideline to recognize what the rest of us can see from our couches.

Look, I like Lanning. He’s produced some of my favorite memories as a fan. But I’m sorry you don’t get to sell us a championship standard and then act like we’re unreasonable for holding you to it.

We’re not playing with house money anymore. This program has everything it needs to compete for championships. Which makes watching it look this lost all the more maddening.

Last year I asked whether those embarrassing losses were warning signs.

I think I’ve got my answer.

So, what now?

As if you needed more evidence, this play sealed it for me.

Mehringer is a certified moron. Jet sweeping to the side with no blockers on this absolutely ridiculous formation.

I am so concerned that any adult who has ever watched football would think this would work, or fool anybody, or even remotely be a good use of time in practice.

Get him out of here. And if Dan wants to die on the Mehringer hill, let him.