Heading to Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten media days for the first time, and with the event now split up into three days with the additions of Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA, the Ducks will send four representatives to chat about football on Thursday.
The event begins Tuesday with representatives from Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Rutgers and Wisconsin speaking. Wednesday is for Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, UCLA and USC. On Thursday the Ducks will speak along with Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington.
Oregon is sending coach Dan Lanning to speak, along with linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, tight end Terrance Ferguson and quarterback Dillon Gabriel .
Here are three questions for the Oregon Ducks ahead of media days in their new conference.
How is Oregon football transitioning to life in the Big Ten and preparing for a new schedule this fall?
Last season the Ducks had to answer questions in Las Vegas at Pac-12 media day amid swirling rumors of the conference’s demise and conference realignment . With a much more stable position in the Big Ten, the Ducks will now all but certainly field questions about preparing for life in a bruising and physical Big Ten.
Lanning and the Ducks have shown through their offseason moves in the transfer portal — getting new players like Gabriel and Washington cornerback transfer Jabbar Muhammad among others — that they are trying to win in year one in the Big Ten.
“I think at the end of the day the Big Ten is going to have to prepare for us and what we do different,” Lanning said on the "Ryen Russillo Podcast" in January.
Last month, Bassa told Sports Illustrated much of the same: teams in the Big Ten are “going to have to adjust to us, with our speed, and with how physical we are.”
Whether it’s trying to wear teams down with their speed or size, Oregon is well-positioned to win in year one in the Big Ten but will face questions about the week-to-week grind of a much more physical set of teams than the Pac-12 had a year ago.
How are the new pieces fitting in for Oregon football?
Now becoming more of the norm than the exception due to the transfer portal, Oregon welcomes a new top signal caller, will have a new starting running back and top receiver, new starters on the offensive line, and a completely revamped secondary in the fall.
Starting at the top, the Ducks replaced college football’s most experienced quarterback in Bo Nix with another that could very well break his record for most career starts in Oklahoma transfer Gabriel.
The senior slinger comes to Eugene with almost 15,000 career passing yards over 50 games played.
He’ll have some new weapons to utilize, including touted Texas A&M receiver Evan Stewart, along with emerging tailback Jordan James, who came on strong at the end of the 2023 campaign.
On the defensive end, Oregon has a couple of new lockdown corners in Washington transfer Muhammad and UTSA transfer Kam Alexander, along with new safety from Kansas State Kobe Savage.
The Ducks will hope all those pieces fit together and fast as they begin play in a new league in 2024.
How is Oregon football approaching being one of the Big Ten title favorites?
Receiving five first-place votes, but ultimately finishing second in USA Today’s preseason Big Ten poll , Oregon is not only looking to hit the ground running in their new league but win it all.
Doing so would be historic, in terms of conference realignment and how teams have often fared in their first season in a new conference.
Since 1976, only two teams in their first season in a new Power Five conference won their league: Florida State in 1992 and Virginia Tech in 2004, both in the ACC.
Oregon is aiming to become the third team to do it, and the first in the Big Ten in the modern era.
How to watch Big Ten media days
Big Ten Network will broadcast six consecutive hours of live coverage beginning each day at 8 a.m. PT. Rick Pizzo and Jake Butt will host morning coverage of the day’s press conferences while Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith will interview all 72 attendees on set during the afternoon.
Oregon will be the first team to speak at 8:30 a.m. PT on Thursday.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, women's basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@gannett.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: 3 questions for Oregon football ahead of Big Ten media days
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