A season that looked ready to collapse has turned into Dan Lanning’s strongest coaching job yet at Oregon.
That’s a strange sentence to write about a team sitting at 6-3, especially one that entered 2026 with big goals and now appears unlikely to win the Big Ten, reach the College Football Playoff, or chase a national title. But the Ducks’ record doesn’t tell the whole story. The way they’ve stayed alive after everything that went sideways says plenty about Lanning.
The criticism around Lanning has followed him since his first game in Eugene, when Oregon was blasted 49-3 by Georgia to open the 2022 season. The familiar line has been that he recruits and motivates at a high level, but doesn’t always deliver on game day. The argument has been that his teams can look great until they run into an opponent they can’t simply out-talent.
Saturday at Ohio State pushed that debate back into the spotlight. Oregon beat the Buckeyes 41-28 in The Horseshoe, a result that doesn’t fit neatly with the old knock on Lanning.
The Ducks didn’t arrive there smoothly. Their season opened with a close win over Boise State that felt flat, then came the shocking upset loss to Oklahoma State. The concerns about having two new coordinators - both internal promotions rather than splashy outside hires - quickly looked justified as both sides of the ball struggled early.
Then the injuries and quarterback chaos hit.
Two weeks after the Oklahoma State loss, Dante Moore took a vicious hit while sliding against USC and was knocked out of the game. Oregon still won that night, but Moore hasn’t played since and is out for the year.
Dylan Raiola then made his first start and the offense coughed up the ball seven times in a 17-15 home loss to UCLA. That defeat sent Raiola to the bench in favor of Brock Thomas, who struggled the next week against Nebraska before Raiola returned and helped lead a game-winning fourth-quarter drive.
By then, Oregon was 4-2 and still had something to play for, but the margin for error was gone. Then came the trip to Illinois, where the Ducks lost to a team starting a true freshman at quarterback because of its own injuries.
That was the kind of loss that can break a season.
It didn’t break this one.
Lanning kept the group together when plenty of teams in the transfer portal era would have drifted apart. He also made the hard call to fire offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, a move that amounted to admitting a mistake.
Coaches don’t love doing that. Pride usually gets in the way.
Lanning didn’t let it.
The response came right away. Oregon fell behind Northwestern by 14 points the next week and still rallied for a 34-26 win.
Then came Ohio State, which jumped out to a 14-0 lead before Oregon answered again and again. By the time the Buckeyes scored next, it was 38-14, and Ohio Stadium had started emptying out.
That’s where the Ducks are now: 6-3, with a path still in front of them. It’s not an easy one, but it exists. Oregon has already survived the hardest part of its schedule and now gets Michigan and Washington at home, with a road game at 2-6 Michigan State in between.
Since the coordinator change, the offense has looked more comfortable. The defense has steadied over the past month. No one can say for sure whether Oregon will finish strong enough to reach the playoff, and the odds still say probably not.
But the bigger story may be what Lanning has done with a season that could have unraveled completely. He kept the Ducks from folding, made a tough staff change, and got his team to respond when it would have been easy to quit. In a year when almost everything went wrong, that might be his best work yet.
In Other News...
Oregon Left Its Biggest Win With Serious Questions Before Michigan
Oregons win over Ohio State gave the Ducks a signature result, but it also left behind a few issues that are hard to ignore heading into Michigan week. Edge rusher Teitum Tuioti went down during the game, and his status is still unclear, adding another layer of concern to a defense that will need to be sharp again in a hurry.
There were other warning signs in the victory, too. Safety Koi Perich had a rough outing that drew public criticism, and the rushing attack never really found its rhythm, averaging under two yards per carry outside of one touchdown run. The Ducks and their coaching staff know the performance was enough to win, but not enough to feel settled about what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Dan Lannings Ohio State Statement Just Changed Oregons Week
Oregons football win over Ohio State did more than just reshape the national conversation, it gave Dan Lannings program a fresh jolt at exactly the right time. After the Ducks reentered the AP Top 25 at No. 18, the ripple effects of that performance are still being felt around Eugene, where the football teams rise is landing alongside a strong start for the mens and womens basketball teams, both of whom opened 2-0.
The broader week has also carried some personnel news that matters for the long haul. Tyrone Riley IV is dealing with a hand injury that will be re-evaluated in four weeks, while Kelly Graves added another major piece to the future by landing a commitment from five-star recruit DeAndra Minor. For Oregon, it has been the kind of stretch that reminds everyone how quickly momentum can spread across a program when one headline win changes the tone. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Just Unleashed Its Wildest Brand Flex Yet
Oregons latest off-field move leans all the way into the programs flair for spectacle, with a new Godzilla vs. Duck merchandise line now out in the wild. The collection pairs The Oregon Duck with Godzilla on apparel and comes from an agreement between Toho International, Inc. and the Ducks NIL group, Division Street, giving the school another high-profile crossover that fits its long-running knack for turning branding into an event.
The timing makes the whole thing feel even more on-brand, with Oregon set for a 2026 preseason trip to Japan and the promotion also bringing back the inflatable Duck used in previous events. Fans can already find the collection online and at The Duck Store, and for a program that has never been shy about making a statement, this one looks built to travel well beyond Eugene. [Read more 🡒]