The Assignment: Oregon vs. Texas Tech – Orange Bowl

The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (12-1)
Bad Guys: Oregon Ducks (12-1)
Where: Hard Rock Stadium | Miami Gardens, Florida
When: Thursday, January 1st @ 11:00 am
TV & Streaming: ESPN
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Oregon -1.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Oregon
Weather Report: Sunny, High of 74, Low of 57

Dan Lanning has been with Oregon since 2022 and has won double-digit games every year. He was a player at William Jewell College in Missouri and as you’ll see below, he got his start as a GA at Pitt after convincing Todd Graham to give him a shot. Lanning then had a spin through Memphis and made his name at Georgia. Offensive coordinator Will Stein is the Kentucky head coach and he runs a versatile RPO spread offense with lots of mesh and intended to get the guys who are the most talented the ball. You can expect motion and formations and lots of different things, maybe quite a bit like Utah. Once Oregon’s season is over, he’ll start his head coaching career at Kentucky, his alma mater. Tosh Lupoi has also found new employment, taking the California job, also his alma mater, and Lupoi has been a hot name for what seems like years, at first at Alabama, then bouncing around the NFL for a couple of years before arriving at Oregon. Lupoi will run a 4-2-5. As mentioned below, Ra’Shaad Samples is the assistant head coach and running backs coach, a tremendous player for Skyline in Dallas, playing at Oklahoma State for 2 years and Houston for the final 2 years. Mack Leftwich’s brother, Cutter Leftwich is the assistant offensive line and run game coordinator for Oregon, but will be going with Stein to Kentucky.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

Congrats to Krista, saw last 2 minutes of the Baylor game and same last 2 minutes of the Duke game. So fired up for Grant and fun to watch.
Introduced our team to Oregon, how lucky are we, that’s a statement of gratitude. So fortunate and grateful that we get to do this. Huge fan of Dan Lanning, listen to a lot of what he does. He’s a great coach and great for college football. They play with an edge. Huge fan of his. Great game, two really good teams and very similar. Looking for a great match-up in 10 days.
Very physical up front, #1 and #52 are good up front. Really impressive are the running backs, they are home run hitters. Very explosive. Look up and they’ve scored 35 points. Need to make them drive the field. Little different at quarterback, but Utah as far as physicality on defense, good length at corner and the secondary.
We have to get there to the red zone. When we play well in the red zone we execute at a high level. Our quarterback has been more mobile and can extend plays.
They are a really fast team, probably top 1 or 2 from the teams we’ve faced this year. Really starts with trying to stop the run and then puts us in a situation with them passing the ball and earn the right to pressure the quarterback.
They are very creative, Will Stein, excited for him getting the Kentucky job, one of the O-line coaches is Mack’s brother, they are one of the teams that we study in the offseason and the biggest thing is set edges on defense and take on half a man.
I think more than anything, we are different each week and struggling in the red zone, also about who we played, BYU is good defensively in the red zone. When you self scout we learn stuff that we are better at and we learn that we need to execute better and execute at a high level.
It’s tough, Lanning’s coach said that they lost focus after they jumped on them, but they had their way with them. I thought JMU did some good things in the run game and Oregon did the best was knocking down the football, especially in the 1st half. Was a loud stadium and had some pre-snap penalties. Need to find a way to run the football and our receivers, Coy, CD and Reggie and TC and Johncarlos, have to attack the football and win the 1-on-1 battles.
We did give them Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, they will get out of there the 23rd in the afternoon. Majority will go home and get a break to see their families. That was kind of the reward for winning the Big 12.
This game is about complimentary football and Indiana did a good job of that, their offense was on the field a lot and effective on offense to help the defense. It all starts with their run game and they create explosives there. Make them drive down the field. Stop the run and earn the right to rush the passer. Our defensive line has to show up. This quarterback is special, he’s probably the #1 quarterback in the draft, him or the Indiana kid, he’s really good.
They’ve done a good job of hiring coaches, Dan was a slam dunk, they made it cool to be an Oregon Duck, players love that. We are fortunate with adidas and Patrick Mahomes, we are doing the same thing. They have a great booster in Phil Knight and go in the highest level, we’ve shown we are doing that. We are comparable. Guys have done that, the big 5, Cody, John, Mike, Dusty and Gary, along with Red Raider Nation. We are comparable.
It’s really tough and hate to eliminate anybody. Everybody should be in the same criteria. Be in a conference and you are in the playoffs. Marcus Freeman is a rock star, I’m talking about it across the board where we are all measured the same, then if you put a G5 in then their scheduling needs to change some, where you have FCS and G6 playoffs, they do it with home games and then Power 4 playoffs. Lots of talk on how fast we expand. I would have love to seen Notre Dame play Ole Miss in the Grove, and BYU in Oregon in Eugene, those would have been great games and great TV. There needs to be changes in college football.
Behren, feel really good, the 3 linebackers have been banged up, they are feeling better. Howard Sampson feels great. Behren is bouncing around, probably not this good since this camp.
When I was hired at Crowley, I was the tight ends coach and freshman baseball coach, and we won the district championship and was able to make the schedule, I knew that I wanted to be the head coach. Everything I’ve done since then is to be the head coach, especially when you are doing it with a close group of players and staff and a place you love so much.
He didn’t play in that game, how this team responded and doubled-down. Lee Hunter, that Sunday, he goes into Lance Barlow’s office, Skyler went down and Lee asked what he needed to do coming off that loss, and he said he needed to be the voice and challenge players, in good and forceful ways. Them as a group, the playoffs started then and we couldn’t lose another game and be where we are today. Practicing at a high level, we doubled-down from there.
I think Oregon’s staff may have been in my office recruiting Damion Hobs. They have a phenomenal freshman from Duncanville. Oregon is such a great brand and carries a lot of weight in the State of Texas, coach Samples is a legend in this state, he can walk in any high school in this state, because he was a high school player and a coach.
You can tell when Dan speaks about his team and how much he cares about players. He was a high school coach for a short time, he was a GA at Pitt, Mack Leftwich’s dad was there and was waiting there in Todd Graham’s office waiting, and he does it the right way. They play with an edge and great effort, that comes from him and his coaching staff.

Education: This week’s education is the smartest plays of week 14 in the NFL.

Stock Up:

The Oregon offense is good. Quite good. They are 5th in the nation in points per play at 7.1 and they are especially good at running the ball, yards per rush is 5.9, which is 2nd in the nation, and 13th in rushing yards per game at 214.
The Ducks don’t pass a ton, just 103rd in passes per game, but Oregon is 3rd in completion percentage at 72%.
Defensively, Oregon is 2nd in the nation in opponent yards per pass, just 5.4 and 2nd in the nation and 3rd in the nation in opponent passing yards per game at just 154. I don’t know if that is a result of teams just not throwing the ball because the Big Ten doesn’t throw the ball or if they are really good.
And to add to that, Oregon is 13th in the nation in opponent interceptions thrown.

Stock Down:

Oregon is 66th in the nation in red zone scoring, which seems crazy, at 84%.
Of all things, when Oregon commits a penalty, they make it count as they average 10 yards a penalty at 131st in the nation.
The Oregon rushing defense isn’t great at stopping 3rd downs, 42nd in the nation and stopping opponents at a rate of 35 and teams even more than that they are 128th in stopping teams on 4th down at 71%.
The biggest issue for Oregon is that they are 120th in the nation in stopping red zone scoring (maybe teams are making a lot of field goals because they are 6th in the nation at 4.2 yards per play).

Does Anyone Care: I just sort of find this funny that ESPN has a lot of good content, but for me, this ain’t it.