“Everyone else right now is focused on our ice cream cone, and if I’m busy looking at theirs, that means mine’s melting.” The picture-perfect Cinderella story. When the Ducks managed to run the table on the regular season with 13 back-to-back wins, everyone knew that Dan Lanning had finally found his beat. 3rd year at Oregon and these guys are already being called the “Kings” of college football. But when it was time for Dan Lanning to truly lock in and take Oregon to greatness, we saw this “once hailed offense and defense” go 8 points in the first half while giving out more than 30 to Ohio State – a team that they had BEATEN during the regular season. The moment the Ducks fell during the Rose Bowl, questions erupted on whether Lanning was even capable of taking UO to great heights.

“It must have just been smooth sailing for them the whole time. It’s not, it’s not real life. Like I, we, as college football fans, especially in this generation. When we craft this narrative around Oregon football, it is so warped,” J.D. PicKell pointed out on On3. An honest look at the Ducks 2024 season would reveal that this year was not only “good” for OU football. It solidified them as one of the leading contenders in the B1G scene. You could say that losing to OSU with a 20+ point deficit is not a good show – the truth is that Lanning went up against a juggernaut of a team that peaked at the right time.

That one UM loss pretty much painted the Bucks road to National Champs. The North came in prepared and even if Lanning says that his boys and their mentality was all set, it truly wasn’t. The lack of focus was visible but even if they had locked in, do you think they would’ve won against an Ohio State team whose only 2 options were: Either win the natty or get lit on fire by the fanbase? 

“So, Dan Lanning, he’s in his third year at Oregon. Not even 40 years old yet. To define what he is, as a head coach or to craft this narrative around, what Oregon football is based on who Dan Lanning is. That’s just, it’s so useless,” PicKell added. OSU has the better roster out of all the teams this season and there is no denying it.

While UO did have the bigger NIL budget at $23 million, we are sure that Lanning will use that “loss” as a stepping stone to change the direction of Oregon football. There are people to be proven wrong, and we cannot wait to see how Lanning gets it done.

Developing the trenches

With the draft here, the Ducks will lose out on QB Dillion Gabriel, around 4 DL, and their entire receiver room. While the defense will survive, the loss on the offense splits apart the already shaky run-pass game strength. The biggest thing that haunted the Ducks in 2024 was their shaky offense.

Top Comment by Christopher Daly

Oregon won by one point at home due to a smart coach drawing a 12 second runoff by taking a...more

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Debate

From time to time you’d see glimmers of glory, but then it all faded to black in an instant. They had struggled to go past 16 points against Wisconsin and the Bucks even held them to 8 in an entire half. This calls for a change and Lanning has something ready…

…“I had two different people tell me, no Oregon’s trying to get Carnell Tate from Ohio State,” Dante Moore had pointed out a few days back. Hey, if there is anything NIL has made possible, it is flipping players from your rivals. And the Carnell Tate pick makes a lot of sense.

Over 700 yards with 52 catches and 4 TDs. Stats are not even bad for a receiver. With the Ducks losing out on their receiver corp, if Lanning manages to secure Tate, then it will be a big boost. However, it is going to take a lot more if Lanning wants to bring another natty run in 2025.

Let’s hope the Ducks have something good planned.