S. Nicolas

This should set off alarms inside the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. Before Oregon becomes last year’s version of Penn State, we need to have an honest conversation about what’s going wrong and, more importantly, what can actually be done about it while there is still time to save the season. The offensive issues are the most alarming. As reported by @DuckSports, Oklahoma State senior linebacker Tate Romney said after the game that their defense noticed during the week that Oregon’s offensive line had stance tendencies that helped them identify run versus pass before the snap. That should sound eerily familiar to Oregon fans. After Indiana beat Oregon last season, multiple Indiana players told Yahoo Sports they were able to identify what Oregon was likely running based on formations, alignments and how players were positioned before the snap. Now Oklahoma State players are saying something very similar. At some point, this stops feeling like coincidence. And before somebody replies with, “Everybody knows tendencies” or “Defenses always have an idea what’s coming,” that’s not really the point here. These players are talking after the game about Oregon giving them useful information before the ball is even snapped. They aren’t just saying they guessed right a few times. They’re basically bragging about how Oregon helped them diagnose what was coming. Meanwhile, Oregon fans are sitting there watching a roster with superior talent get dog walked and wondering how the hell this keeps happening. Again, and again, and again. Teams don’t need Oregon’s entire playbook. If a linebacker can look at an offensive lineman’s stance and increase his confidence that a run or pass is coming, Oregon has already given him an advantage before the play starts. That is a self-scouting and preparation problem. How does Oklahoma State find that on Oregon’s film during the week and Oregon not correct it before Saturday? That question deserves a real answer. At the next press conference, Oregon's beat writers and media shouldn't let Lanning off the hook here. Ask the question and press for an actual answer. @AaronJFentress @johncanzanobft Drew Mehringer’s previous Power Five play-calling experience also deserves to be part of the conversation. His only previous season as a Power Five offensive coordinator came at Rutgers in 2016. Rutgers finished 128th out of 128 teams nationally in total offense, 127th in scoring, 122nd in passing and was shut out four times. He was 28 years old. That matters, and I don’t think it’s fair to pretend a coach can’t improve dramatically over ten years. People get better at their jobs, and the Rutgers roster was obviously nothing like the roster Oregon has today. But Oregon also isn’t a program that should need two or three seasons to find out whether someone has developed into a championship-level play caller. This roster is ready now. That doesn’t mean I think Dan Lanning should panic and fire both coordinators three games into the season. There is a massive amount of room between firing everybody and simply hoping the problems fix themselves. Oregon replaced both lead coordinators this offseason with internal promotions. Drew Mehringer and Chris Hampton were already important members of Lanning’s staff, and Lanning obviously knows both of them far better than any of us do. There were reasons he trusted them with these jobs. But replacing Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi at the same time was still a major gamble for a team that expects to compete for a national championship immediately. Being a good position coach or co-coordinator is not the same thing as being responsible for the weekly game plan, identifying your own tendencies, anticipating what an opponent is going to attack, making adjustments and calling a game under pressure. The defensive side is a little different, and I don’t think Hampton and Mehringer should just be thrown into the same bucket. Hampton has legitimate coordinator success on his resume, including what he did at Tulane. Still, Oklahoma State just put up 554 yards. Oregon has spent years assembling one of the most talented defensive rosters in college football. When a roster like that looks confused, gets hurt repeatedly by the same concepts or struggles to adjust, that deserves serious scrutiny too. And because defense is Dan Lanning’s background, that responsibility doesn’t stop with Hampton. I’m also not pretending I can diagnose every busted coverage or front adjustment from my couch. That’s actually part of why I think the solution here is pretty straightforward. Go add experience right now. Not a new offense. Not a new defense. Not some panic move where half the staff is fired on Monday morning. Bring in experienced coaches who can immediately help with self-scouting, tendencies, game planning and in-game adjustments. Give Mehringer and Hampton another set of eyes from somebody who has already done these jobs at the highest levels. If those veterans eventually need to take on more responsibility, then Lanning can make that decision after they’re actually inside the building and understand what Oregon is doing. There’s recent precedent for this. Nebraska brought Dana Holgorsen into the program during the 2024 season. Within days he was deeply involved in the offense, and shortly after that he took over play-calling duties. Nebraska didn’t have to throw away its entire offense or fire everyone involved to make it happen. Oregon can do something similar. The NCAA rules aren’t really the obstacle here either. Oregon would need to formally bring the person onto the institutional staff, but once that’s done, that coach can provide technical and tactical instruction. This isn’t a situation where Oregon has to wait until December because some rule says an outside coach can’t join the staff in September. The more interesting part is how quickly something like this could actually be executed, and this is where the agent side of college football matters a lot. Dan Lanning is represented by Jimmy Sexton and CAA. Jimbo Fisher is also a Jimmy Sexton client. Gus Malzahn has been represented by Sexton. Hugh Freeze has too. So if Lanning and Rob Mullens decide they want to know whether Jimbo Fisher would consider coming to Eugene for three months to help stabilize the offense, this does not require Oregon to launch some three-week national search. Lanning can call his own representation. Sexton can call another one of his clients. Oregon can probably know within hours whether there is any interest. That’s literally part of what these agents do. They quietly figure out whether an opportunity makes sense before anything becomes public. There are similar connections elsewhere. Brian Kelly and Justin Wilcox have both been represented through Athletes First, Kelly through Trace Armstrong and Wilcox through David Dunn. The coaching world is incredibly connected. Oregon doesn’t need to send out a job posting and wait for resumes. They can call the agent and ask a very simple question: would your client consider this if the role and money were right? If the answer is no, move on. If it’s yes, start working. That’s why I don’t think this necessarily takes weeks. If Oregon decided today that it wanted to add veteran help, there is a realistic path to having somebody in Eugene within three or four days. The first day is figuring out who you want and whether that coach is interested. The second day is working through compensation, responsibilities, contract length and authority. Then legal, HR and compliance get the person formally brought onto the staff. By the third or fourth day, that coach could realistically be inside the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex watching film, sitting in meetings and attacking Oregon’s self-scout. That doesn’t mean Jimbo Fisher walks into Eugene on Wednesday and installs his offense by Saturday. Obviously that would be ridiculous. The entire point is that you don’t install his offense. You keep Oregon’s terminology, Oregon’s protections and the concepts Dante Moore already knows. Then you bring in somebody who has spent decades solving offensive problems and let him look at the offense the way an opposing defensive coordinator would. What are we tipping? Which formations have become predictable? What are defenses keying on? Are the offensive line stances giving away run or pass? Are there protection tells? What concepts fit Dante best? What are we calling too often? What aren’t we calling enough? What are defenses consistently doing to us on third down, and why aren’t our answers against pressure working? That kind of experience can provide value almost immediately without changing the offense. From there, Lanning decides how much responsibility that coach earns. Maybe he stays in a senior advisory role and helps Mehringer with the weekly plan. Maybe he gets heavily involved with situational football and halftime adjustments. Maybe things still don’t improve and eventually Lanning decides somebody else should call the plays. You don’t have to answer all of those questions before the guy even gets on a plane. The first objective is getting another experienced football brain into the room and attacking the problems that are already showing up on film. Jimbo Fisher would be my first offensive phone call. Brian Kelly would absolutely be another. Mike Gundy deserves a call too, and if Gus Malzahn would even consider coming out of retirement for a three-month sprint, I’d call him as well. Maybe every one of them says no. Fine. Make them say no. On defense, Justin Wilcox feels almost too obvious not to call. He’s a former Oregon defensive back, an Oregon graduate and an Oregon native. He has been a defensive coordinator at Boise State, Tennessee, Washington, USC and Wisconsin, then spent nine years running a Power conference program at Cal. He understands college football. He understands defense. He understands Oregon. And he’s currently available. If Wilcox isn’t interested, then keep working down the list. Steve Wilks and Mike Zimmer are both worth serious conversations. And yes, I’d make the crazy calls too. Sean McDermott. Mike Tomlin. Are those likely? Of course not. But if Oregon can offer a short-term role, essentially no recruiting burden, a talented roster, a chance to work with Dan Lanning and a serious amount of money for a three-month commitment, there is zero downside to asking the question. Make them tell you no. Oregon has spent years building advantages other programs simply cannot match. Facilities, NIL, recruiting infrastructure, personnel departments, analytics, sports science, nutrition, money, whatever edge they can find. If Oregon genuinely believes this roster can win a national championship, then coaching experience should be treated exactly the same way. And Portland State being next actually makes the timing about as good as it could possibly be. You aren’t asking a new coach to walk in Tuesday and prepare Oregon for Ohio State four days later. Bring somebody in now. Let him learn the language. Let him watch film. Let him challenge assumptions and look for things the people who have been inside the same system for years may not notice anymore. None of this has to embarrass Mehringer or Hampton either. You can frame it as exactly what it is: giving two young coordinators every possible resource to succeed. If they grow into the jobs and Oregon takes off, great. If it becomes obvious that one of them needs help with play calling or game planning, Oregon already has an experienced alternative inside the building. Either outcome is better than waiting until November to decide September was trying to tell you something. My biggest fear is that Oregon beats the hell out of Portland State and everybody convinces themselves Oklahoma State was just some bizarre one-off. The next scoreboard does not erase what Oklahoma State found on film. It doesn’t erase what Indiana players said last season either. At some point, you have to listen when opponents keep telling you the same thing. Dan Lanning has built this program by being aggressive. Aggressive recruiting. Aggressive portal evaluations. Aggressive NIL. Aggressive fourth-down decisions. Aggressive investment anywhere Oregon can find an advantage. This is not the moment to suddenly become passive. There is too much talent on this roster and too much invested in this season to look back in November and realize the warning signs were staring everybody in the face in September. Oregon doesn’t need to blow up its coaching staff. It needs to honestly evaluate where experience may be missing and go get it. The rules allow it. The coaches are out there. The money is there. The agent relationships are already there. And if Oregon decides today that it wants veteran help, there is a very realistic path to having that person inside the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex within a matter of days. So make the calls.