Dan Lanning has spent plenty of time on the coordinator carousel at Oregon, and now the Ducks coach is back in the market again after dismissing offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer seven games into the 2026 season. Jay Johnson has taken over play-calling in the interim, but the search chatter around the opening has already started to swirl.
One of the names drawing attention is Mike Norvell, whose dismissal at Florida State has put a familiar figure back into the conversation. Norvell’s connection to Lanning runs deeper than most coaching candidates. The two have crossed paths at three different programs, and Norvell was the one who gave Lanning his first full-time FBS assistant coaching opportunity at Memphis.
That relationship matters because Lanning has repeatedly pointed to Norvell as one of the coaches who helped shape how he runs Oregon. He has also credited Norvell, along with Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, as influences on his own approach.
“Yeah, I think ultimately, getting to watch Nick and Kirby both, Mike, there were things that you walked away with. And as a head coach, you're like, OK, I want this to be a part of what we do,” Lanning said.
Norvell’s résumé is the kind that naturally gets attention when a Power Four opening pops up. He started his head coaching career at Memphis in 2016 and later took over at Florida State for the 2020 season. Along the way, he collected conference championships at both stops and national coach of the year honors.
His peak at Florida State came in 2023, when the Seminoles opened 13-0, won the ACC championship and still missed the four-team College Football Playoff. That season brought Norvell the Dodd Trophy and the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award.
Norvell has also built a reputation as one of college football’s more inventive offensive minds. His offenses have leaned on tempo, multiple personnel groups and a flexible running game to stress defenses. On top of that, he spent seven seasons recruiting in Florida, giving him experience in one of the country’s richest talent pools.
His Memphis run was just as notable. Norvell turned the Tigers into a conference champion, delivering their first outright conference title since 1969. Over four seasons, he went 38-15, capped by a school-record 12 wins, the American Athletic Conference championship and a Cotton Bowl berth in 2019.
The end came quickly at Florida State, where his tenure finished after seven seasons and a 3-5 start in 2026.
Lanning and Norvell’s shared history stretches back to Pittsburgh in 2011, when Lanning was a graduate assistant and Norvell was co-offensive coordinator on Todd Graham’s staff. They followed Graham to Arizona State, where Norvell served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach while Lanning handled defensive and recruiting duties in 2012 and 2013.
Lanning later moved on to Sam Houston State as defensive backs coach and co-recruiting coordinator before joining Alabama as a graduate assistant for the Crimson Tide’s 2015 national championship season. After Norvell became Memphis head coach, he brought Lanning with him to coach inside linebackers and serve as recruiting coordinator for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Lanning has been open about taking ideas from every stop along the way, and he has said those lessons helped form Oregon’s offensive identity around versatility, physicality and quarterback play.
Norvell has clearly left a mark on him. In 2024, Lanning described him this way on Bussin’ With The Boys: “Mike has a crazy passion for the game,” Lanning said in 2024 on Bussin’ With The Boys.
“When it comes to his intensity, you want to see that start at the top. You want a head coach that you know he’s not going to ask you to do anything that he’s not willing to do.
He put in the work, he put in the time. He looked at things outside the box, right?
… A guy that’s willing to put in everything that they have for us to be successful and willing to adapt and change.”
That kind of adaptability is something Lanning has needed this season, too, with quarterback Dante Moore’s injury and a midseason change in offensive play-calling forcing Oregon to adjust on the fly. He has said he is watching developments across college football and the NFL, but he does not expect a hire to happen “right around the corner.”
For now, Norvell’s availability simply adds another intriguing layer to the search. Whether the two coaches cross paths again is still unknown, but Lanning has already made it clear how much he took from their time together.
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