The first question Dan Lanning received after No. 6 Oregon's stunning 39-31 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday was one that had to be asked, and Lanning's answer was the only answer he could give.
Do you regret promoting from within for your coordinator roles?
"No. I think it's an easy thing to say it's an OC, DC thing. It's a combination of a staff. The decisions I make, the decisions we make as an offensive staff, the decisions we make as a defensive staff, and then execution. Every bit of that, I own, I'm responsible for. Ultimately, plays don't matter unless you execute the play," Lanning said.
"Now, can we call better plays? Absolutely. On both sides of the ball. But this isn't Ham, Drew, that's the reason. No. We have to go execute plays. If we were executing plays and they weren't working, that'd be different."
Lanning promoted Drew Mehringer to offensive coordinator after Will Stein landed the Kentucky job, and Chris Hampton to defensive coordinator after Tosh Lupoi did the same at Cal. Mehringer is an original member of Lanning's staff (since 2022), and in his first lead coordinator role since a one-year stint at Rutgers a decade ago. Hampton has been at Oregon since 2023, moving west after a successful 2-year run as Tulane's defensive coordinator. All three men, and the rest of the Oregon staff, got a soft launch of life without Stein and Lupoi last winter when the pair accepted their head coaching roles in December and split time between Eugene and Lexington/Berkeley, to varying degrees of success. Oregon blew out James Madison and Texas Tech in the first two rounds of the College Football Playoff before being blown out themselves by eventual champion Indiana in the semifinals.
But that was last year.
Oregon looked mildly unimpressive in a hard-fought 34-27 win over Boise State in Week 1, and then downright disastrous in Saturday's loss. Dante Moore completed 5-of-15 passes in the first half, and the Ducks mustered only 14 points in the second half. Defensively, Oregon surrendered 554 yards and 25 first downs, allowing Oklahoma State to run 83 plays and posses the ball for nearly 37 minutes. The same Oklahoma State team that lost to Tulsa by two touchdowns last week, and a program that hadn't beaten an FBS team since Sept. 14, 2024. No shade to Eric Morris's team, but until Saturday Oregon hadn't lost to a team that didn't go on to play for the national title since Nov. 26, 2022.
It's early, but Oregon defensively ranks 117th in plays defended, 95th in yards per play, 107th in rushing defense, 107th in plays of 20-plus yards allowed, and 89th in pass efficiency. Moore's passer rating is 44th nationally, after ranking eighth in 2025.
Perhaps most concerning for Oregon, Oklahoma State spotted tendencies for the Ducks' O-line that told them whether a run or pass was coming.
From our guest reporter today:
— Scott Reed - Duck Sports Central (@DuckSports) September 13, 2026
“We were noticing earlier in the week that their (Oregon’s) offensive line had tendencies that helped us key into run (or) pass and a couple areas we could take advantage of,” said senior linebacker Tate Romney, “and obviously our defensive line…
Lanning said all of Oregon's goals are still ahead of them, which is of course true. And though the question Saturday had to be asked, of course Lanning was not going to fire Mehringer and/or Hampton after Game 2. But it's also true that Oregon has been the most disappointing team relative to expectation all season so far, and their Sept. 26 visit to No. 12 USC looks more challenging than it did just a few weeks ago.