Chris Hampton didn’t waste time dressing up the answer when he talked about Oregon’s cornerbacks after the 16th day of fall practice. He likes the group. And he likes it for more than one reason.
“It’s been good…Finney and Ify started majority of the season last year. Na’eem’s had an unbelievable camp.
Really proud of him. He’s playing his best football right now,” Hampton said.
“Dorian Brew, Aaron Scott. So we’ve got quality depth.
Tre Watson is a guy that was a junior college kid that signed with us and he’s had a lot of good flashes this season.”
That room has the look of a young group with real upside, and Oregon has already seen what that can turn into on a big stage. In the College Football Playoff quarterfinal, Brandon Finney Jr. was the name that jumped off the field. The true freshman cornerback in that Orange Bowl win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders picked off two passes and earned Defensive MVP honors.
Finney finished the 2025 season as a Second-team All-Big Ten selection, a strong marker for a player who was still a freshman when he delivered that standout performance.
Another player the Ducks are hoping to see take a leap is Na’eem Offord. The sophomore cornerback arrived in Oregon’s 2025 high school recruiting class as a five-star prospect, and as a true freshman in 2025 he logged 15 total tackles.
Hampton’s confidence in the position group matters even more because this is his first season as Oregon’s defensive coordinator. He spent the previous stretch on Dan Lanning’s staff as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2023-2025.
The move into the top defensive chair comes after Tosh Lupoi left for the head coaching job with the California Golden Bears following the 2025 season. Lupoi had served as Oregon’s defensive coordinator since 2022, Lanning’s first year in charge.
There’s a standard attached to the job, too. Oregon’s defense gave up 17.9 points per game in 2025, which ranked 12th fewest among 136 FBS teams. Hampton steps into that with plenty to work with, and with a roster that gives him a real foundation.
He’s also done the coordinator job before. Before joining Oregon in 2023, Hampton was Tulane’s defensive coordinator from 2021-2022.
In his final season there, Tulane allowed 22.2 points per game, ranking 32nd fewest out of 131 FBS teams. That Tulane team won 12 games and capped the year with a Cotton Bowl win over the USC Trojans.
So the question hanging over Oregon’s defense is a straightforward one: will Hampton’s transition be smooth, or will Lupoi’s departure show up? The Ducks open the 2026 season against the Boise State Broncos on Sept. 5.
In Other News...
Oregon Fans May Have Strong Feelings About This New Big Ten Rule
The Big Ten has tightened its stance on a growing college football wrinkle, adopting a rule that bars players on NFL rosters from returning to Big Ten teams. For Oregon, now firmly part of the conference landscape, it is another reminder that the league is trying to draw a harder line between the college game and the pros as roster movement gets more complicated.
Once a player declares for the NFL Draft, signs a contract or is listed on an NFL roster, the door back to a Big Ten school is closed under the new policy. The move comes after recent situations in which players with remaining college eligibility found their way back to campus after NFL stops, a path some coaches have opposed, and it will be worth watching whether fans around Eugene see the rule as common sense or as one more example of the conference changing the rules of the road. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Players Weigh In On A Fairness Fight Fans Will Feel
The eligibility fight around college footballs ever-shifting rules has landed close to home for Oregon, where several Ducks coaches and players have started weighing in on what it means when former professionals are allowed back into the college game. A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit pause on a ruling that had granted Class of 2022 athletes an extra season has only added to the uncertainty, and the issue has become more than a legal wrinkle for programs trying to plan ahead.
Evan Stewart and Iapani Laloulu have both raised concerns about how players who have already had pro experience can affect younger athletes trying to earn their way on campus. For Oregon, it is not just about roster math or one offseason dispute, but about whether the system feels fair to the players building their careers the traditional way, and how long the NCAA can keep pushing that question down the road. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Portal Hype Faces A Tough Reality On This Roster
Dan Lanning gave Oregon a major offseason boost by bringing in about a dozen transfer additions to help build depth for the 2026 season, and the names alone have plenty of Ducks fans paying attention. Safety Koi Perich and quarterback Dylan Raiola headline the group, giving Oregon both talent and intrigue as the roster continues to take shape around a program that expects to reload quickly.
The reality, though, is that portal hype does not always translate into immediate roles, especially on a roster already carrying established pieces. Raiola will have to fight for time with returning quarterback Dante Moore, while other arrivals such as tight end Andrew Olesh and wide receiver Iverson Hooks may find the path to snaps crowded by the depth already in place at their positions. [Read more 🡒]