Breaking Down the New Big Ten Teams: Oregon Ducks

By Sam Merendino

Ladies and gentleman, conference realignment has arrived. Numerous teams will change conferences for this upcoming season, but the headliners are the teams moving to the Big Ten and the SEC. In this weekly series, we’ll just be focusing on the former.

Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington will be racking up tons of frequent-flyer miles this year as they begin their inaugural seasons as members of the Big Ten Conference. We’ll take a quick look at each squad’s roster, including returning players and transfer portal additions, and I’ll give my take on what each team needs to do to be able to consider this upcoming season a success. We’ll start with the Ducks.

Roster Preview:

Despite losing offensive stars Bo Nix (QB), Bucky Irving (RB) and Troy Franklin (WR) to the NFL, the Ducks’ offense might actually be better than last season, which saw them rank second in the nation in both Yards Per Play (7.82) and Total Offense (531.4 YPG).

Dan Lanning was working the transfer portal this offseason, pulling in former Oklahoma star Dillon Gabriel at QB, and the Ducks’ new signal-caller will have weapons galore flanking him. Speedy WR Tez Johnson returns this year, and Oregon also snagged Texas A&M transfer WR Evan Stewart out of the portal as well. Combined with a by-committee tailback room that features Jordan James , a healthy Noah Wittington , and newcomer Jay Harris , the Ducks’ offense should be just as potent and explosive as last season.

Due to the turnover on the defense, that side of the ball faces a few questions entering the season. They’ll replace four veteran players on the D Line, with Derrick Harmon (Michigan State) and Jamaree Caldwell (Houston) coming over via the portal and expecting to be plug-and-play solutions, while incumbent former five-star DE Matayo Uiagalelei (brother of D.J.) looks to make an impact in his second season.

The Ducks will also replace three starters in the secondary, hoping that transfers Brandon Johnson (CB, Duke) and second-team All-Big 12 safety Kobe Savage (Kansas State) can make an immediate impact. The good news for Lanning’s defense is that they do feature an experienced LB corps, headlined by Jeffrey Bassa and Jestin Jacobs . Those two will be the anchors and leaders for a defense with a lot of new pieces.

The Key to 2024:

The biggest key to success for the Ducks this season will be to improve their pass defense, which ranked 63rd in the country in the 2023 season. While that’s not necessarily bad, for a team like Oregon with championship aspirations, 63rd in the country in any metric is simply not where they want to be.

Against top competition last year, the Oregon pass defense was absolutely annihilated. In two games vs the Ducks, Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was a butcher, carving up Oregon’s secondary for 302 yards and four scores in October, then throwing for 319 yards and a TD in their rematch in the final Pac-12 title game.

The Ducks’ schedule this year features a rematch against those same Huskies, albeit without Penix. Still, Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers will be a more than capable field general for the Huskies this season, and they’ll again look to set fire to the Oregon defensive backfield.

The Ducks will also host Ohio State on October 12th of this year. The Buckeyes feature perhaps the best skill position group in the country, with Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, and Jeremiah Smith at WR, joined by TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins in the backfield. With dual-threat QB Will Howard running the show, the Bucks will likely be more of a run-first offense. However, they’ll still have the weapons to throw on Oregon’s defense if the Ducks allow them to, so the name of the game this season for Oregon is to reduce big plays through the air and shore up that part of their defense.

Another issue that has plagued Oregon since Dan Lanning’s hire has been their inability to close in big games. The Ducks have lost three straight games to ranked Washington teams by a total of nine points, with two of those losses accompanied by questionable fourth-down calls from Lanning. For the record, this is not an indictment on Lanning or his ability as a coach. He’s an excellent headman, and he appears to be building a monster in Eugene.

However, the point still stands. Oregon will have multiple chances this season to prove the narrative wrong and take home a huge ranked win, with the aforementioned Ohio State and Washington matchups, as well as an early November trip to Ann Arbor to take on the defending national champs in Michigan.

If the Ducks can patch the holes in their pass defense and figure out how to finish in big games, they’ll give themselves an excellent chance to win the Big Ten in their first season and make the journey to the sport’s first 12-team playoff.