Official Press Release: Ross Douglas Named Wide Receivers Coach And Pass Game Coordinator

[Charles Fischer]

 EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning announced the hiring of Ross Douglas as the Ducks’ new wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator on Thursday.

 

Douglas joins the Ducks after spending the 2024 season in the same role at Syracuse. He was the wide receivers coach for the New England Patriots for three seasons prior to going to Syracuse, and has also had collegiate coaching stints at Richmond and Rutgers.

 

“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Douglas, his wife, Kaylyn, and their son, RJ, to our Oregon family,” Lanning said. “Ross is an extremely bright coach who will be a tremendous addition to our coaching staff, bringing valuable experience both at the college and professional levels. He does a great job of building relationships with his players both on and off the field, and I know he is going to work tirelessly to get the best out of our student-athletes. Ross’s experience makes him a great fit to enhance our passing game and we’re excited to get him to Eugene.” 

 

Douglas helped direct the nation’s top passing offense at Syracuse in 2024, as the Orange led the FBS with 370.0 passing yards per game while ranking sixth with 34 passing touchdowns.

 

“It is an honor and a privilege to join Dan Lanning and the football staff at the University of Oregon,” Douglas said. “This is a prestigious university with a great tradition of excellence within the athletic department. I am excited to give everything I have to our players and program on a daily basis so we can compete for championships.”

 

 

Syracuse’s rise to the top passing offense in the nation with Douglas on staff came after the Orange ranked 116th nationally in passing in 2023. The Orange passed for at least 300 yards in 12 of 13 games, and had multiple passing touchdowns in 11 contests including five in a 52-35 win over Washington State in the Holiday Bowl.

 

With Douglas coordinating the passing game, Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord led the nation in passing yards per game (367.6) and the trio of Jackson Meeks (78.5 receiving yards per game), Trebor Pena (72.4) and Oronde Gadsden II (71.8) all ranked in the top five in the ACC in receiving.

 

Douglas spent three seasons with the New England Patriots prior to going to Syracuse, joining Bill Belichick’s staff prior to the 2021 season. He worked as a defensive assistant in 2021 before being promoted to wide receivers coach in 2022, becoming the youngest position coach in the NFL at the time.

 

Under Douglas’ guidance in 2022, Patriots receiver Jakobi Meyers set new career highs in receiving yards (804) and receiving touchdowns (6) as New England earned a spot in the postseason as a wild card team.

 

Prior to the 2022 season, Douglas served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the West team in the East-West Shrine Bowl.

 

A former defensive back at Michigan (2013-15) and Rutgers (2016-17), Douglas began his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant for the Scarlet Knights from 2018-20. He worked primarily with the secondary, helping Rutgers lead the Big Ten in takeaways and tackles for loss in his final season in 2020.

 

Douglas had a brief stint at Richmond as cornerbacks coach in the spring of 2021 before joining Belichick and the Patriots ahead of the 2021 season.

 

Douglas appeared in 18 games across three seasons at Michigan before transferring to Rutgers, where he was a two-time letter-winner and started every game as a senior in 2017.

 

A native of Avon, Ohio, Douglas graduated from Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in 2016 and earned his master’s degree from Rutgers in 2018.

 

 

[30Duck]

On 2/20/2025 at 3:25 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Syracuse’s rise to the top passing offense in the nation with Douglas on staff came after the Orange ranked 116th nationally in passing in 2023.

Well, 116th to 1st is very impressive, the Ducks were higher than 116 last season, this projects well. 

[Solar]

I like the idea of a new passing coordinator. Dink and dunk won't work for Moore. 

 

Let's get dudes open consistently down the field. 

 

To be unstoppable with Moore at QB we need to be able to make 10-20 yard passes without yards after the catch, at will.

 

3rd and 10? 3rd and 15? no problem.

[David Marsh]

On 2/20/2025 at 11:40 PM, Solar said:

I like the idea of a new passing coordinator. Dink and dunk won't work for Moore.

Dink and Dunk is still going to be a staple of this offense. So much of the offense is built around getting the ball out fast and to play-makers who in turn make a big play. 

 

This last year it did feel like the deep ball was a consistently missing element of the offense. I don't see the offense going deep every series but it should be a bigger factor in the play calling.  Nix went deep more often it felt like than Gabriel did this year and Gabriel threw a pretty good deep ball.

 

The difference could have been in Gabriel's shorter height and his difficulty to see over the linemen at times and the offensive line's decline this year. Yes, the offensive line generally did well but I think a lot of that had to do with Gabriel getting the ball out fast so that the line didn't need to hold up for too long. 

 

However, the big game that stands out as an outlier is the win against Ohio State as Gabriel did go deep and that offensive line absolutely held up during the course of the game. 

[30Duck]

On 2/21/2025 at 11:36 AM, David Marsh said:

However, the big game that stands out as an outlier is the win against Ohio State as Gabriel did go deep and that offensive line absolutely held up during the course of the game.

Gee, didn't Evan Stewart play in that game?