The University of Oregon (UO) is coming off one of its greatest football seasons in school history. The team went 13-0 in the regular season and won the Big Ten Championship in just their first season in the conference. Despite this regular season success, UO could not win a single College Football Playoff (CFP) game, losing the Rose Bowl Game to The Ohio State University (OSU) 41-21.
Some highlights from the regular season include a win over OSU on Oct. 24 and defeating Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in the Big Ten Championship game on Dec. 7. Although UO obtained an undefeated regular season, the team had to overcome some hiccups, especially early in the season.
UO began with games against the University of Idaho and Boise State University. UO beat the University of Idaho by only 10 points despite being favored by 44.5. The next week, UO was favored to win by 18.5 against Boise State University (BSU), but only won by three thanks to a game-winning field goal as time expired.
After defeating BSU, UO collected themselves and started playing like the team most major sports outlets believed they could be; not only winning but by doing so with large amounts of points. Although it’s hard to tell exactly what caused that initial struggle, many people have theories. One of those people is Dusty Harrah, UO’s sideline reporter; he believes the offensive line was holding the team back at the beginning of the season, and once they made adjustments, fans began to see a change in the team’s success.
“Josh Conerly Jr [at] left tackle, and Nishad Strother at left guard, Iapani ‘Pancho’ Laloulu moved from right guard to center, Marcus Harper II moved from left guard to right guard, and then had Ajani Cornelius on the right tackle. When they got that combination of guys together, and on the offensive line, it looked like a completely different unit.”
UO proceeded to go on a tear, winning their next three games by over twenty points. Then OSU came to town in what was viewed as the possible game of the year. In an exhilarating back-and-forth battle, the No. 3 UO took down the No. 2 OSU 32-31. UO fans played a pivotal role in the game, by being so loud that it’s believed the noise caused OSU to make errors throughout the game. College football analyst Josh Pate agrees on this take, saying, “[OSU] was at times very shaken and very rattled by that [UO] environment.” Kainoa Hosaka is a freshman at UO and attended the game. “I don’t think that I’m gonna live through another game in my college career with that much energy,” Hosaka says.
The team got through their schedule fairly easily, besides one close call when UO narrowed out a 16-13 win against the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Nov. 16. Going undefeated for the whole season allowed UO to play in the Big Ten Championship game against the No. 3 PSU. UO started the game strong and gained a 28-10 lead early in the second quarter. PSU didn’t let that stop them though, as they slowly but surely crawled back into the game, making it only a seven-point difference with a little over three minutes left. Nevertheless, thanks to a great defensive interception by senior cornerback Nikko Reed, UO won the Big Ten Championship in their first year in the conference.
Going undefeated in the regular season granted UO the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP. This led to them being placed in the Rose Bowl Game — in Pasadena, California — against OSU in a highly anticipated rematch. OSU had just come off arguably its best game of the season against the University of Tennessee and was ready for vengeance against UO.
It had been almost an entire month since UO had played at that point, and their rust showed tremendously, starting the game down 34-0 with a complete barrage of touchdowns by OSU. UO tried their best to get back into the game, but couldn’t overcome their horrendous start, ultimately losing 41-21.
This defeat was hard for UO fans to take as UO’s magical season and national championship hopes had melted away in what felt like seconds. However, there’s a lot for UO fans to look forward to next year with how head coach Dan Lanning has been recruiting.
According to On3, a website focused on collegiate recruiting, Lanning has the fourth-best recruiting class in the country this cycle, taking talent from all over the U.S. including Texas, Florida, and Maryland. This is a very different approach to recruiting than UO fans had been accustomed to seeing before Lanning arrived in 2021, largely due to the difficulty of convincing kids from thousands of miles away to take their academic and athletic talents to the Pacific Northwest.
Harrah says Lanning took what he learned from all the previous coaches he worked with and established their philosophies at UO when he arrived, saying, “What Dan Lanning did was he took a blueprint that he learned with Mike Norvell at Memphis, [brought] it, and learned even more from Nick Saban at Alabama and Kirby Smart of Georgia of how [to] connect with those five-star recruits,” recruits are rated on a five-star scale, 5 being the best recruits in the entire country.
Since beginning his tenure at UO, the Ducks have experienced some of their best recruiting classes in school history. It’s more than just a one-man operation when it comes to recruiting; Harrah explains both the staff Lanning has put together and his mentality allows them to recruit the way they do. “I think that [Lanning’s] competitiveness translates to the recruiting trail too, because he is a dynamic personality that gets along with a lot of people, and he put a staff together [that’s] not just football smart. They are recruiters, and they are relentless in recruiting all season long,” Harrah adds.
Lanning is also aggressive in the transfer portal, a place where players from other schools can enter to get a fresh start at schools that offer them a scholarship. The transfer portal is a great place for coaches to get players that fill holes for a short time, as most people in the transfer portal are upperclassmen looking for schools that fit them for their last season(s). So far, UO already has nine transfer commits this transfer cycle, who are prepared to make an immediate impact on the team as soon as they step foot on campus.
Currently, UO players who are eligible for the National Football League (NFL) draft are deciding whether to return for a final year at UO if they are eligible. As of now, UO is expected to lose 18 of its 22 starters from the 2024 season because of graduation or declaring for the NFL draft. This means there are lots of shoes to fill for next season, but luckily for UO they have great depth and are gaining tremendous talent from the transfer portal and from high schools. On3 recently released their self-titled “Way, way, way too early 2025 top ten” rankings and placed UO as the No. 2 team in the country heading into next season.
Although this season didn’t end the way UO fans would’ve hoped given their flawless regular season, Coach Lanning has this program ready to compete for national championships for years to come. College football analyst JD Pickell believes this too, saying, “I would be wildly surprised if, in the next five years, Dan Lanning hasn’t won one, if not more than one, national championships for the Oregon Ducks.” So as the saying goes, “The grass is damn green in Eugene” and UO fans can expect their future teams to be amongst the very best in the country.
