Oregon’s head football coach, Dan Lanning, is one of the best and youngest coaches in the game. He is heading into his third season with the Ducks, but he should be counting his days in Eugene because he needs to get out while he can.
Oregon Is A Good Football School, Not A Great One
There is no question that Oregon is one of the most famous college football brands, and almost everyone knows the Duck’s color scheme and logo not because of how they play the game but what they look like while playing the game in their awesome new Nike uniforms they get each week.
The Ducks have a great advantage over many schools regarding apparel since Nike founder Phil Knight attended college there in the late 1950s. The school gets all the new and cool Nike apparel they want in every sport. Still, the biggest is football, and of course, many high school kids see how cool it is to get new apparel and uniforms each week. They could want to play football there because of it, but what has Oregon done on the football field to make you think they are some great football school?
The program has never won a National Championship, and it has been close a few times but could never get the job done. At the same time, its head coaches always leave the team for other opportunities.
Chip Kelly left school after four great years and joined the NFL. His replacement, Mark Helfrich, didn’t leave on his own but was fired after all his success ended with Chip Kelly’s players. Willie Taggart left after one season in 2017, and Mario Cristobal bounced for Miami after four years.
Clearly, something is going on in Eugene that coaches do not want to stay, considering three of the last four left for other jobs. Dan Lanning has the potential to be better than every single one of those coaches, so why should he stay?
Oregon Is Heading To The Big Ten
The Ducks will move to the Big Ten starting in 2024, and the program’s challenges will increase. USC, UCLA, and Washington are also joining the conference, and those teams have gone back and forth with Oregon before but now have to add Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and a few other teams who will give the Ducks trouble.
Oregon was one of the biggest brands in the PAC-12. They might not even be a Top Five brand in the Big Ten. If things start rough for them this season, which could happen, the program could start to take a turn for the worse because upcoming recruits could see this and not want to join the team and go to a place like Ohio State and Michigan, where they know they will be able to win.
Dan Lanning Should’ve Taken The Alabama Job
When former head coach Nick Saban retired, Dan Lanning was rumored to be the favorite to land the Alabama job this winter. Still, Kalen DeBoer from Washington was hired instead. Of course, Alabama denies that Lanning was the favorite for the job, but everyone knows that’s not the case.
Dan Lanning used to be a coach for the Crimson Tide, has had great success at Georgia, and knows the SEC well, so the job would be Lanning’s if he wanted it.
Dan Lanning wanted to stay in Eugene, and Alabama was a perfect spot for the young coach. Still, now he has to stay at Oregon for another year or two and compete in the Big Ten, which will be a great challenge for him and the team and could lead to frustration and problems next season.
3 Comments
Yes we have never won a championship, but we have been close and have gone multiple times in a short number of years, while having flip flopping coaches and with that play styles. Yeah we get cool uniforms but our 12-1 records speak for themselves. The difficulty will go up with the Big Ten no doubt. Cristobal and Taggart clearly used us as a stepping stone. Good for Planning for staying for the boys and the brand. Yeah, he could have gone to Alabama, but he believes in the program which is what the ducks need. A coach having tenure and building the brand. If we compete and are competitive in the Big Ten he’s a hero, if we don’t they’ll say the move to the Big Ten was bad. Eitherway Planning has proved his value to teams forever.
You need to stay focused on Ohio State. Did you even bother to do research on WHY coach Lanning opted to stay at Oregon? Good folder for an article that is lacking pertinent detail and accuracy.
Go Ducks.
Are you serious?
They have massive O and D lines, top prospects, great portal QBs, lights out DBs and you think they’re good because of the unis?
The other coaches left because they couldn’t recruit like DL and/or knew that Ducks would be a good stepping stone to get where they wanted to go. DL is making Oregon a destination, not a stepping stone.