INDIANAPOLIS – The banners in Lucas Oil Stadium provided a matter-of-fact statement about the state of the College Football Playoff era in the Big Ten.
Eight of those 10 banners read Ohio State or Michigan. The Buckeyes won five Big Ten championships (2014, 2017-20) and the Wolverines won the past three Big Ten championships (2021-23). Only Michigan State (2015) and Penn State (2016) broke through in that stretch.
Ohio State and Michigan are the championship mechanism that drives the conference, but in an 18-team conference and 12-team College Football Playoff setup that could change. Will Oregon be that school that disrupts the two-part harmony of the Big Ten?
"What should the Big Ten know about Oregon?" Oregon coach Dan Lanning asked at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday. "We're mighty different, we're mighty different in a lot of ways. You look out on the pond. You'll see a big old duck, and hopefully, we will follow that duck to all of our away games this year.
"We're mighty different when it comes to the jersey, the facilities we use, and we're innovative," Lanning said. "We've always been on the cutting edge in everything we do."
Sure enough, a large inflatable duck floated on the Indianapolis River this week. Lanning, 38, is one of four under-40 coaches in the Big Ten along with Michigan's Sherrone Moore, Purdue's Ryan Walters, and Northwestern's David Braun. Lanning's aggressive approach is popular, and he's emerging as the college football version of Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell, right down to the risky fourth-down calls.
"They've done a great job with the quarterback situation," CBS Sports analyst Brad Nessler told Sporting News. "Bo (Nix) came in and was a superstar, and Dillon (Gabriel) is probably going to come in and do the same thing. Their defense is top-notch. Lanning is not going to have a bad defense. They can make noise, and they would be the co-favorite if someone asked, ‘Who is going to win the Big Ten?'"
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What Dan Lanning said about transfer QB Dillon Gabriel
Lanning said players read books such as "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and "Hidden Potential" by Adam Grant. He emphasized a theme around the word "connection." The key connection this season will be with Oklahoma transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel, one of eight transfers who are projected to start this season.
Gabriel has 125 TD passes and 26 interceptions over the past five seasons between UCF and Oklahoma, and the Hawaii native is being compared to Marcus Mariota, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2014 and led the Ducks to the College Football Playoff championship game.
"Those moments away from football where you get an opportunity to connect and spend some time with each other, and then seeing him carry those same moments over to our players," Lanning said. "He really has a passion to be great, and it's exciting."
Lanning and Gabriel saw Mariota on the golf course at a recent outing, and that was one of those moments. Gabriel beat Lanning by two strokes on the first hole, and Lanning responded with what Gabriel called a "bad, competitive nerve.”
"Fun fact – don't par early,” Gabriel said. "Try to get him off his game after.”
Lanning won the golf match, but Gabriel met Mariota on the course. That was a special moment, and Lanning continues to bring out more in Gabriel in the offseason.
"Being my sixth year in college there is no stagnant energy," Gabriel said. "There is a continuous push to be the best version of myself. There is continuous growth, too. I wouldn't have it any other way."
Bo Nix had 74 TDs and 10 interceptions at Oregon over the past two seasons. Gabriel looks to be the next high-efficiency quarterback for the Ducks.
Other programs have won national titles in the past 50 years, but they were not members of the Big Ten at the time. Nebraska's last national championship was 1997 in the Big 12. Penn State's last national title was 1986 as an independent. Those programs also are aware of Oregon's place as a nouveau riche blue-blood with a locker room full of fresh threads.
"They've really become a national brand in a short period of time, for a lot of reasons, and a big part of that is the Nike logo and Phil Knight," Penn State coach James Franklin said. "They're a battle. We're in a situation where almost every guy we recruit, it's those types of programs."
"There are players now that we try to recruit, and you cannot tell Oregon is not the coolest place in the world," Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said. "They lived through that era of multiple uniforms, multiple jerseys, cool offense. That is what they know."
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Will Oregon win Big Ten in 2024?
Oregon is 90-38 since the start of the CFP era, the same record as Wisconsin. Ohio State leads the Big Ten at 115-15 in that stretch, and Michigan is second at 94-32. Will the Ducks challenge that order?
The Ducks are 1-9 in the series against the Buckeyes, and that includes a 42-20 loss in the first College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 12, 2015. The Ducks, however, won the last meeting in a 35-28 upset at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 11, 2021. Oregon also beat Michigan in 2003 and 2007, the latter of which was a 39-7 blowout at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 8. Dennis Dixon and the Ducks piled up 624 yards that day.
Oregon is the only incoming Pac-12 school that is playing Ohio State (Oct. 12) and at Michigan (Nov. 2) this season, and there is also a trip to Wisconsin (Nov. 16). USC – the other Pac-12 blue-blood – is not on the schedule.
The matchup at Autzen Stadium against the Buckeyes comes at the midpoint and will be a defining moment for the conference race.
"I have great admiration for (Ohio State and Michigan), the job that they've done and the games that they've won,” Lanning said. "I think that's what makes this conference so great is that you will have some great matchups within the season. We're certainly looking forward to competing.”
That is a coy answer from a coach who learned as a GA under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2015 and an assistant under Kirby Smart at Georgia from 2018-21. The conference does not matter. The program does, and Oregon continues to be on the rise.
"Just build a great team – it doesn't matter what conference you are in,” Lanning. "At the end of the year, you are going to need a great team. They throw the conferences out at the end of the year, when it matters. That's our focus at Oregon."
That focus is in lockstep – or connected – with Gabriel heading into 2024.
"We have a clear vision of what we want to accomplish — that being a national championship," Gabriel said. "We also know there are steps in between to get to that point. If you don't handle those steps, you won't be in that conversation."
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