Dan Lanning Is Turning In His Best Coaching Season as Oregon Refuses to Fold

A couple of months from now, Oregon's 2026 season may be remembered as one in which the Ducks fell short of every major goal. There is a strong chance they will not win the Big Ten, and a good chance they will not even reach the College Football Playoff, let alone compete for a national title. It may also be remembered as the finest coaching performance of Dan Lanning's career.

The criticism of Lanning has been consistent since his debut on the Oregon sideline, a 49-3 loss to Georgia to open the 2022 season. He is widely regarded as an elite recruiter and motivator, but skeptics say he is not a game-day coach, pointing to how often his teams come up short in the biggest games when they cannot simply "out-talent" the opposition. Saturday's performance at Ohio State offered a compelling counterargument.

Nearly everything that could go wrong for Oregon this season did go wrong. The Ducks opened the year looking like a team that had believed its own hype, lacking urgency in a narrow win over Boise State before suffering a shocking upset loss to Oklahoma State a week later. Preseason concerns had centered on two new coordinators, both internal promotions rather than big-name hires, and those worries appeared well-founded as the offense and defense both struggled early.

The quarterback situation became a saga of its own. Dante Moore took a vicious hit while sliding against USC and was knocked out of the game. The Ducks rallied to win without him, but Moore has not played since and is out for the year. In his first start, Dylan Raiola, a high-priced transfer brought in to back up Moore and wait his turn to start in 2027, was part of an offense that turned the ball over seven times in a 17-15 home loss to UCLA.

That defeat led to Raiola being benched for Brock Thomas, who struggled mightily a week later against Nebraska before Raiola came back in to lead a game-winning fourth-quarter drive. At 4-2, Oregon still had everything to play for. Then the Ducks went on the road and lost to an Illinois team forced to start a true freshman at quarterback because of its own injury problems, their third loss before the end of October.

It was the kind of perilous moment in which teams with high expectations have been known to quit on a season, a tendency that has become more common in the transfer portal era. Instead, Lanning held his locker room together and made the difficult decision to fire offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, a public admission of a mistake that many coaches refuse to make out of pride.

The response was immediate. A week after the change, Oregon trailed Northwestern by 14 points and fought back to win 34-26. On Saturday, Ohio State stormed out to a 14-0 lead at Ohio Stadium, another invitation to fold. The Ducks declined again, pouring it on until the score read 38-14 before the Buckeyes scored again, with the stadium emptying well before the final whistle.

Now 6-3, Oregon has cleared the most difficult stretch of its schedule. The Ducks close with home games against Michigan and Washington, with a road trip to 2-6 Michigan State in between. The offense has looked far more comfortable since the coordinator change, and the defense has had its act together for more than a month.

Whether Oregon wins out or sneaks into the College Football Playoff remains doubtful. But Lanning's handling of a season in which nearly everything went wrong has been more impressive than any of his successes, and the lessons learned this fall may one day help the Ducks accomplish the goals that are likely out of reach this time around.