Dan Lanning isn’t pretending Oregon’s recent playoff pattern has gone unnoticed.
The Ducks have taken the long road into some of the biggest games of the last three seasons, only to run into the same problem once they got there: a second meeting with a team that had already seen them earlier in the year. Oregon lost the 2023 Pac-12 Championship to Washington, then dropped the 2024 College Football Playoff quarterfinal Rose Bowl to Ohio State, and most recently fell to Indiana in the 2025 playoff semifinals Peach Bowl.
That repeated-opponent issue came up again during both Big Ten Media Days and Oregon’s own media day, and Lanning didn’t dodge it. He said the NFL is the model he keeps in mind when thinking about how to handle a rematch.
"Yeah, it's most common in the NFL. You know, so just more so conversations with approach and what that might look like.
You know, it's a little bit different. I won't hop into great detail on it, but there's certainly some things that I think we've learned from and can use," Lanning shared.
That approach makes sense in a pro game where teams can see each other two, sometimes three, times in a season. It also means coaches have to keep finding new layers - different answers, different wrinkles, different ways to make sure a familiar opponent doesn’t walk in already knowing the script.
Lanning’s point is that the Ducks can’t afford to let a first meeting define the second. There’s value in what they learn the first time around, but only if they use it to change the way they attack a rematch and keep mistakes from snowballing against elite defenses.
Quarterback Dante Moore addressed the same topic at Oregon’s media day and said he hasn’t broken down repeat opponents with Lanning personally, but he has seen how detailed the coach gets when the Ducks line up against someone they already know. Moore also admitted he needs to clean up the nerves he felt when facing Indiana twice in the same season.
"You know, Indiana, for example, did a great job last year on Ohio State. Everybody copied that defense," Moore said.
"So it's going to be a lot of things that happen with change. That's how football works.
But yeah, I know coach Lanning. I'm trusting his game plan, and I'm excited for this year."
Lanning expanded on the same idea at Big Ten Media Days, giving credit to both Indiana and Ohio State while also making it clear Oregon is studying teams that found a way to win the second time around.
"All the things that we’ve really studied about ourselves. We’ve studied some other teams that have won games in their second opportunity and we’re looking for our opportunity to be a team like that but it means you got to be clicking on all cylinders at the end of the year," Lanning said.
"Obviously, Indiana had an unbelievable team last year. I think everybody that played them got to see that, and certainly everybody that watched and then Ohio State the year before.
So I’m excited about this group. It’s a different level of experience that we have going into this year with this group and a different coaching staff as well.
So it should be a lot of fun," Lanning added.
Looking ahead to Oregon’s 2026 schedule, there are already a few teams that could wind up back in the Ducks’ path later in the postseason. Ohio State remains a regular playoff pick among analysts, USC could make some noise, and Michigan’s revamped roster gives it dark-horse appeal.
If Oregon is going to break through, it may have to do it by finally solving the same team twice. For now, though, the conversation is still centered on building another strong regular season and putting the Ducks in position to write a different ending when the rematch comes around.
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Mehringer has talked about the adjustment and the support around him, and that kind of change can be felt most in camp, where every rep and meeting has a little more weight attached to it. Oregon does not need this to be a learning year, but it is one in which the Ducks are asking new voices to carry major pieces of the operation, and the early signs suggest the staff has settled in quickly. The real question is how that comfort holds once the work gets more demanding and the season starts to put those new roles under a brighter light. [Read more 🡒]