Oregon is walking into Saturday with one eye on Michigan’s offense and the other on a familiar kind of chaos.
The No. 16 Ducks, 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, host Michigan at Autzen Stadium in a game shaped by a sudden coaching change in Ann Arbor.
Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck on Nov. 8, a day after the Wolverines fell 15-6 to Michigan State. Now offensive line coach and assistant coach Jim Harding is taking over the play-calling duties for a team that opened the season ranked No. 16 in the AP poll.
That kind of move rings familiar in Eugene. Oregon coach Dan Lanning made his own change on Oct. 25, dismissing offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer after the Ducks lost 21-10 to Illinois. Since then, Oregon’s offense has picked up under assistant quarterbacks coach Jay Johnson.
Lanning said the Ducks can’t just look at Michigan’s recent box scores and call it a day.
“It just makes you do a little bit of a deeper dive,” Lanning said. “When you’re trying to look to say, okay, what else could they pull out? And I think one thing you recognize about changes in college football is teams that have done that, experienced that recently.”
He pointed to the way other teams have responded after similar shakeups.
“They’ve kind of had a resurgence on offense,” Lanning said. “I mean, whether it’s a coaching change, there’s several programs that I showed that to our players today. Here’s programs that made changes at head coach or coordinator this season, and here’s what the next week looked like, or the next two weeks looked like.”
That list includes TCU, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The Sooners, after naming tight ends coach Jason Witten as interim offensive coordinator, beat No. 24 Florida 23-7 on Nov. 7 in Gainesville and piled up 351 yards, highlighted by a 20-play, 89-yard touchdown drive.
“We’ve seen a lot of those teams have a lot of success,” Lanning continued. “And sometimes that’s not just because of a change. But there’s a spark that’s sometimes lit when those things happen.”
“So, we anticipate to see their absolute best, and then we’re going to have to chase ghosts a little bit and look for every answer that we might be able to find based on what might be different,” he added.
Oregon’s defense is coming off a dominant showing against Ohio State, holding the Buckeyes to 39 total yards in the second and third quarters. But the Ducks got tough news Monday: star outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti is out for the season after suffering a knee injury that will require surgery.
Tuioti was injured in the fourth quarter against Ohio State after a standout outing that included two tackles, one for a loss, and a 30-yard fake-punt pass to fellow outside linebacker Matayo Uiagalelei. He finishes the season with 44 tackles, including 22 solo stops, plus 5.5 sacks. He also led the Ducks with nine tackles for loss and eight quarterback hurries.
If his college career is over, Tuioti leaves Eugene with 200 tackles, 105 solo tackles and 36.5 tackles for loss, which puts him ahead of former Oregon defensive end DeForest Buckner for 10th in program history.
With Tuioti sidelined, Nasir Wyatt and Elijah Rushing could see more snaps as Oregon prepares for a Michigan offense that managed just 192 yards, six points and five sacks allowed in a loss to Michigan State. Wyatt was listed as probable on Oregon’s first injury report.
Lanning also has to sort through the uncertainty at quarterback, with Oregon preparing for either Bryce Underwood or Tommy Carr. The Ducks know the job Saturday is as much about adjusting to Michigan’s new look as it is about replacing one of their most disruptive defenders.
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