Eric Boles

Two names I like are Jerry Neuheisel and Sean Brophy. You could make Brophy co-OC and get some of those ideas from North Texas and mix them into the offense.

Looks like Lanning is set to promote Drew Mehringer to OC. Will be good offensive scheme continuity. Mehringer has called plays before and has called games for us — one with a banged up Bo Nix.

Oh yeah, he’s going to have no problem getting the guy he wants.

Those a good names. And if you like the Kiffin/Weiss offense, you could give Weiss a call. He’s been with Kiffin for a while, but three of Lanning’s coordinators have become HCs, and in the same amount of time, none of Kiffin’s have. Could be enticing. I’ll probably get some boos for this, but I don’t think Andy Kotelnicki wouldn’t be a bad hire. He’s getting a lot of crap for what’s going on at Penn State, but that whole operation fell off a cliff. His 2024 Penn State offense was good, and we know about his work at Kansas. I don’t think he was getting HC looks by accident.

I didn’t think of Justin Burke and Jonathan Brewer. Burke being the UTSA OC puts him in the exact offensive lineage as Stein. And Brewer coming from the Rhett Lashlee offense puts him in the Gus Malzahn lineage. Same as Dillingham.

Oh no, that’s fine! I thought maybe I had news mixed up with Sheppard.

I don’t know if it makes you unqualified, it just hasn’t been the pattern. And didn’t he just get a HC position?

While they are both most shotgun based spread offenses, they are quite different schematically. The North Texas offense is very much an air raid system, while Oregon has run a pro-style spread with a lot of west coast offense principles. Oregon has had much more variety in their run game too. At least from what I’ve seen from North Texas. Oregon also use quite a bit of multi TE and FB sets. And it’s not that I don’t think he’s capable of meshing the systems — Kliff Kingsbury has evolved his in the NFL — I just don’t know if Lanning hires outside the system he’s hired the last two guys to run. I could be totally wrong though.

There’s also Mack Leftwich, the Texas Tech OC. I think his system would integrate well into what Oregon already does. He also uses some veer and shoot sets.

I have zero doubt Lanning hires the right guy.

With Coach Stein taking on the HC position at Kentucky, speculation with start about who the next Oregon OC is. Right off the top, I don’t think Chip Kelly is coming back in any capacity. I also don’t expect Coach Lanning to promote from within. I could be wrong, but Lanning in two hires hasn’t hired/promoted a coach with no play calling experience. Three guys I could see as candidates are: Corey Dennis (UNLV OC) Dean Kennedy (JMU OC) Buster Faulkner (GT OC) These three run offense similar to what is already ran at Oregon. Lanning has made it pretty clear with his first two hires what the style of offense he wants is. There’s also who seems to be the fan favorite, Jordan Davis (North Texas OC). I think the two systems are too different for him to be the guy, but they could find a way to mesh them. Coach Lanning could also hire someone none of us are thinking about.

Nice RPO design from Stein at 3:45!

All of those things help in the same way that a good screen game will help all of those other things. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

It’s been incredibly clear through three games that the Duck’s are much improved blockers on the perimeter of the offense this season. It has allowed their screens to hit in a way that wasn’t always the case last season. I know there was some confusion from fans surrounding the screen game last year, and one of the popular jabs was that all Stein does is call bubble screens. The reality is that the grand majority of WR screens you see are option attached to run plays. I imagine with the improved perimeter blocking, most people will be just fine with bubbles when they’re thrown.

Hey Mike, Everything is great on my end. Hope all is well with you! Looking forward to talking some ball this season!

When you really think about it, it a 4-3 with a safety at MLB. So none of it is new really, just a different personnel grouping. And Knowles has been doing it a while. And they’ve really only run zone out of it so far.

I would say it was installed because it gave them issues in the Rose Bowl and they have the safety talent to do it. Coaches tend to take things that they like, or things they struggled against, and add them to their system if it fits.

The staff has more so added to the scheme. It’s really no different than the offense going four wide on one play and then subbing in a two tight end look on the next.

No, I would say that’s not the case. It’s just another alignment/personnel package in the tool box. It’ll be used for specific offensive looks. Jadon Canady is the starter at the star/nickel in the base 4-2-5.

A lot of you have probably seen that Oregon has implemented a new — to them — defensive position this year. I’ve heard it called a Rover, and I’m sure Oregon has their own name for it, but it is a third safety playing as a deep middle linebacker. It’s a Jim Knowles staple. Probably something Oregon picked up on last season, and something they may see in a couple of weeks.

I think if Dillingham was still the OC, Nix would have run more this season, even if less than last season. Though the offense is much the same as it was last season, Stein leans into RPOs where it’s a handoff or a throw a lot more. If you look back on his time at UTSA, he had a quarterback that was capable of running but preferred the RPOs where he didn’t have to or it was a last option. Thats not to say that he never runs the QB, just not at a high rate. There are also RPOs of the type that Stein prefers that would counter the type of pressure Washington brought this season and I bet they lab some of them this offseason.

Good question. In college, offensive lineman can be downfield if the ball is thrown behind the line of scrimmage. That’s why RPOs that are screens never get called for ineligible downfield. It’s only the RPOs that are thrown past the LOS that run the risk. I’ve seen some wonder if that hinders the run portion of the play — like are the linemen holding back to avoid penalty. The answer is no, the OL isn’t concerned with that at all. They block just like it’s a pure run play and it’s the QB’s responsibility to get the ball out in time.

There’s a lot going on for a defense in the play, and it really takes advantage of the west coast principles that the passing attack is built on. Merry Christmas to you too!

I don’t think so. The play with the fumble, Tez was motioning completely across the formation. If it was this play, that’d mean the ball was snapped way too early since Tez would have to still complete the motion and start his return before the snap.

They ran the same play from the article on the 3rd down right before half, and Holden was open there too. I also believe Franklin was open on the 4th down play right before the half. Outside of a few plays, the passing game hadn’t really been stopped either, and the LBs were triggering fast on run plays, but I can see where you’re coming from.