Anonymous opposing coach says Oregon will have 'lots of eyes on them' in 2023

In modern college football, very few teams have been as successful as the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks are a team that has found success despite lacking a long history of dominance, going through seven coaches since 2008, and now conference realignment.

In his first year, head coach Dan Lanning had Oregon playing at a level few people expected. Behind an awesome offense, Oregon went 10-3 and won the Holiday Bowl. However, as one anonymous opposing coach to Athlon, everyone is watching the Ducks to see if they can sustain success, or if their defense is going to trip them up.

“There will be a lot of eyes on them this year,” the coach said. “They could win the conference just as easily as they could fall back to an eight-win team if they can’t stop good offenses.”

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“They’re Dan [Lanning’s] now, so it was Mario [Cristobal’s] roster, or his coaching last year? [Bo] Nix works really well for them, and the kid’s been through hell. Now he has another coordinator? He’s a great leader, great poise, he’ll end up OK.”

“It will be interesting to see how they hold up as a West Coast brand once the L.A. schools leave for the Big Ten. It might backfire a little bit and help the Ducks.”

Essentially, the coach is arguing that Oregon is facing two big questions. The first is whether Dan Lanning can build on his early success, or if that success was due to the roster he inherited? Adding to that difficulty, Lanning, a defensive coach, needs to replace offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham who left for Arizona State.

Then, what happens when USC and UCLA leave? Those two marquee programs are leaving the Pac-12, and when that happens will the conference’s brand be affected in a way that hurts Oregon too?

How Dan Lanning and Oregon created a national footprint

One thing that’s important for Oregon is to make sure it has established a national footprint in recruiting. As On3’s JD PicKell explained, that’s exactly what the team has under Dan Lanning.

“At Oregon, the unfortunate reality is with that job; you’re only as good as your reach. What I mean by that, at Oregon, it’s not necessarily a hotbed of high school football talent. I’m not saying there are no good players that come out of Oregon. But the reality is, if you want to find the hornet’s nest of top players, you got to go elsewhere. And so for Oregon to have this reach now and go to Maryland and get a quarterback, go to Oklahoma and win a recruiting battle over the Sooners, take a four-star defensive lineman, that matters. That matters for Dan Lanning; that matters for this team,” PicKell said.

“So why are they able to do this? Well, the first reason is Dan Lanning is just that dude and he comes from Kirby Smart staff. And remember this now, they played Kirby Smart in the opener last year, and he said we beat Oregon because we got better players than them. But then you start to think about it a little bit more, look at the roster, and you’re like, he ain’t lying. But Dan Lanning probably already knew that last year and has gone to work, via the recruiting trail, to go and get those Jimmys and Joes tirelessly, to be a part of what he’s building at Oregon.”