‘Natty or Not?–Oregon’s Spring Game a Snoozer

BY KEN WOODY

With roughly 46,500 fans on hand at Autzen Stadium, coach Dan Lanning unveiled his 2026 Oregon football team, and the Combat Ducks knocked off the Fighting Ducks 17-10, on a long touchdown pass from reserve quarterback Brock Thomas to Dakorien Moore with less than 30 seconds left in the game. Ironically, it was nearly the only exciting play of a game that will not be remembered for its execution (a 76-yard scoring toss from Nebraska transfer Dylan Raiola to a healthy Evan Stuart was the other).

After the scrimmage, which was obviously limited to only basic “vanilla,” Lanning observed, “We’re not going to put out a bunch on film. We wanted to go out and execute some base calls.” Weary of hearing the public’s expectations for this team, Lanning will peruse the game stats and wonder, exactly, what they might mean for the season ahead.

Bailey Ettridge punted for both teams and booted ten for a 43.5 average, which will come in handy in the fall if the Ducks rush the ball as poorly as they did in this game—the Combat team gave up five sacks for minus 43 yards and the offset of positive rush yardage gave them a meager 1.5 yard per-carry average. The Fighting Ducks didn’t do much better, giving up five sacks, losing 37 yards and rushing for only 2.5 yards per-carry. With that kind of rushing offense and poor blocking of the offense, Ettridge will get enough playing time to letter before homecoming this fall.

Don’t despair—Lanning made it so the spring game will be competitive, breaking up the offense line with both first and second team players, which can break up the coordination the first team players have developed. The same goes for the defense: Oregon’s nationally ranked defensive front did not play as a unit, mostly sitting for the backups to get most of the snaps.

The Ducks lost seven defensive players, mostly backups, to the transfer portal when former defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi took some Oregon talent to his new job as head coach at Cal. Lanning had to hustle in two transfers of his own, Jerome Simmons from UL-Monroe and D’Antre Robinson from North Carolina to push and back up his fierce front four, all of whom are seniors. The experience the backup players possessed and that the new defensive coordinator  Chris Hampton needs to sustain the defensive potential this year and next was lost; and will be difficult to replace with younger players.

It’s going to be the same challenge to new offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer on the offensive line as well. There were ten “official sacks” in the game; all the quarterbacks were running for their lives, just as Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore did in their past spring game debuts. In the past four years the sack total in the spring games has been higher than the whole season, largely due to inexperience linemen alongside veterans; good for the future, but a negative for building a first-line group that will play together in the fall.

It’s not realistic to take the total sacks of this spring game as impending doom, although it does highlight where Lanning will need to see growth. With a month of practice before the opener against a dangerous Boise State team, Lanning, in his fifth year as head Duck, will need his offensive line to be more proficient, more together and provide the protection the quarterback (most likely Dante Moore) needs to throw to one of the most talented wide receiver groups in the country.

In the past three years, Oregon was in the top three running for the Ray Moore Award, which goes to the best offensive line in college football. The group has only four seniors and four juniors on the roster, along with three sophomores and six freshmen. Based on film, the youth is talented, but not of the physical prowess necessary to dominate at this point especially when you have USC in the conference opener and rugged Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Washington in the final four games of the season.

Lanning is excited about the potential of this team: “I think the intelligence of this group is really high, and the acumen and ability to execute offensive and defensive plays is really up there; they know and understand what we’re trying to do. We’ve got a lot of stuff packaged that these guys can operate really well; that part’s ahead. We’ve become a much more connected team this spring; that’s going to continue as we go through the remainder of this offseason. We’ve got to get stronger. We’ve got to continue to become the physical team that we’ve been here in the past. So, there’s a lot of areas still for growth, but I think we’re a really smart team right now and understand what we want to accomplish.”

Lanning was the host of a luncheon after the annual Oregon football letterman’s golf tournament on Friday before the game and he observed that one of the biggest lesson both he and the team learned from last year’s season was two-fold: “we have to be healthy. We had personnel disruptions at the end that kept us from being our best, and we did not play well. This year we must be stronger down the stretch and play our best football.”

Indiana, last year’s national champion, beat Oregon twice last season, once in Eugene, and the other a total disaster in the Peach Bowl, a blowout from the opening whistle. A close look at those defeats is ugly; Indiana dominated the Ducks in every category, particularly in the trenches, on the line of scrimmage. The previous year in a national playoff game, Oregon was a number-one seed and was humiliated, on both sides of the ball, 41-21.

To be the champion, Lanning will have to drive the Ducks to better defense. Oregon was 114^th in Red Zone defense last season, allowing 32 scores (11 rush, 15 pass, 6 field goals) for an 88.6% scoring average. The Ducks were 125^th in stopping fourth-down tries, allowed too many explosive pass gains, and forced few fumbles and sacks, allowing offensive teams opportunities to extend drives into scoring territory.

You only need to look at Ohio State as the Cadillac of Defenses: number-one in the country, allowing only five touchdowns on runs, five on pass plays and eight field goals out of 27 incursions into the Red Zone. Lanning is a defensive-oriented head coach, with experience coaching outstanding defensive teams like Georgia and Alabama and knows what it takes to be the best.

Oregon has traditionally dazzled opponents with persistent rushing offense, big-play passing and creative formations and motion, along with the occasional trick play. Where Lanning finds his team now, hungry for the ‘Natty, the Ducks must bring physical presence with their offensive and defensive combatants to win a slug-fest, like the Hoosiers did to Oregon twice last year and how they dominated their final playoff games against Ohio State, Alabama and Miami. To do that, Oregon’s big boys will have to understand and expect that the games are going to be won in the pit and will be, at times, an awful slog.

Ken Woody coached college football for 18 years as an assistant at Oregon, Washington, Utah State and Washington State and as a head coach at Whitman College and Washington University-St. Louis. He conducts a coaching clinic, free to all, at the 6^th Street Grill  ON WEDNESDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. IN THE FALL.  Plays from Oregon game are analyzed, there are scouting reports for opponents, and highlights from referees; all to learn and enjoy football and understand why the Ducks win or lose.