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The best place to have a conversation about the last decade of Oregon football might end up be in a Reno locker room.
While the main cast of the critically-accepted Mario Goes to Oregon has now departed for Miami, the directors of the 2022 season have assembled the ensemble cast for the Mountain West spinoff.
Coming this fall to Peacock is Reno 22: The Ducks Fly South, starring former Oregon linebackers coach Ken Wilson as the wise new leader of Nevada, a program where he once worked as an assistant for 19 years. He returns after nine years away, bringing with him a trio of up-and-coming coaches ready to make their own mark in the Biggest Little City in the World.
Ok, so maybe some of Oregon’s departures haven’t registered as loudly as some of the incoming moves the Ducks are making. Dan Lanning is putting together a staff that will be a recruiting powerhouse, and the most recent addition of former Washington receivers coach Junior Adams covers the Ducks even better on the West Coast.
The floor is high. They’re going to win some games.
The Ducks are in a good place.
But the departures of Kwame Agyeman and Nate Costa to Nevada come at the cost of losing some of the last bits of institutional knowledge in the building.
Agyeman, who was announced Monday as Nevada’s co-defensive coordinator, played four years for Mike Bellotti at Oregon and has spent the last seven years on staff as a graduate assistant and then defensive analyst. And if you want to see how well he’s regarded among some people who matter, check out the replies and quote retweets to his departure note:
Players loved Agyeman. He worked hard. He’s an exceptionally nice human. As is Costa, who is only 33 and has been at Oregon for three different decades: First as a backup quarterback in the 2000s, then as a graduate assistant working with Marcus Mariota, and since 2019 as a senior offensive analyst. Even one of Costa’s three years away between 2016-18 was spent with Chip Kelly at UCLA.
Reports in December had Costa leaving Oregon to become Nevada’s quarterbacks coach. And while there’s been some back-and-forth with Oregon since, a source said Costa to UNR is close to a done deal.
They’re career moves for both Costa and Agyeman, who both get the coveted on-field coaching roles never afforded to them in Eugene. Same goes for Jalen Ortiz, a graduate assistant at Oregon since 2020 who was named Nevada’s cornerbacks coach.
It also just further drives home that it’s a new era in Eugene.
Part of Oregon’s identity is about pushing through the limitations that come with being tucked away in the Northwest. It’s why, after Cristobal left, Bellotti advocated for Oregon to not limit itself.
“You don’t hire somebody just because you think they’re going to stay forever,” he said. “You hire somebody because they’re going to help you rectify the situation right now.”
Lanning fits that mold in exciting and risky ways, but the number of people within Oregon’s football department who worked there before Cristobal is dwindling. The Win the Day years are getting smaller in the rearview and, more than anything, this is what comes with multiple staff changeovers and the passing of time. It’s why people still around the program, like equipment director Kenny Farr (on staff since 2008), should be held with a little more reverence.
It’s OK to be forward thinking and still keep a few people around with memories of the place, which is why Lanning should strongly consider retaining Tony Washington Jr. (former player, director of player development since 2020) and Matt Noyer (on staff since 2012, now director of football operations) — especially with their connections to a current roster that’s ready to compete in 2022.
And, selfishly, us reporters wouldn’t mind having a familiar face or two around. I always enjoyed chatting with Costa, who would occasionally pitch stories that combined football and technology. Recently he started working a ton with Oregon’s sports science staff and loved pouring over the data produced by the bells and whistles at his disposal. He was also someone nice to have around for stories about the Kelly era, like the time Costa was dubbed “Extra-point Jesus” for saving a bad snap that would have cost Oregon a win over Arizona and a berth in the 2010 Rose Bowl. I wrote that story up before the 2020 Rose Bowl, in Costa’s first year back at Oregon and outside the Kelly umbrella.
He made a good point then that I think still stands now.
“My growth and education has been exponential because I’ve seen a new way of doing things,” he said. “Whether it’s the right way or the wrong way, that’s not really for me to decide. But I just learned a lot from a lot of people around this program because there are a lot of different faces, and it’s been really enjoyable.”
— Tyson Alger
