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The Ducks are reportedly hiring Tosh Lupoi, a move that would significantly soften the recruiting blow from Mario Cristobal’s departure
There’s been a lot of shifting lately, not that anyone had to tell Verone McKinley III.
All Oregon’s All-American safety had to do at Monday’s Alamo Bowl press conference was take a look at his surroundings. The only head coach he had ever played for was gone and in Miami. His new head coach was somewhere else preparing to coach Georgia’s defense in the College Football Playoff. Next to McKinley on stage wasn’t Kayvon Thibodeaux, who opted out and is off to the NFL, but less heralded teammates and a defensive coordinator in Tim DeRuyter who will be on his way to Texas Tech as soon as Wednesday’s Alamo Bowl concludes.
“College football is a place where there is always going to be movement,” said McKinley, who led the FBS with six interceptions in 2021. “Coaches are going to move, players are going to move, but the ‘O’ is going to stay the ‘O’ regardless.”
As to whether McKinley will be one of the many who move on from Oregon after this season, that’s still to be determined. He’s going to play in Wednesday’s Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma and then take a lay of the land. He’ll talk with people on the NFL side. He’ll talk with his family. And he’ll certainly spend some more time talking to Dan Lanning, hired to replace Mario Cristobal earlier this month.
And while yes, Lanning is still with No. 3 Georgia preparing to face No. 2 Michigan in Friday’s Orange Bowl, Oregon’s new coach has been busy filling out a coaching staff he hopes is worthy of keeping players like McKinley in tow.
“(The Time change) has given us the opportunity to be able to really focus on Georgia early on during the day and then later on at night able to get a lot of things accomplished with our team there at Oregon and our staff as we’re piecing that together,” Lanning said from Orange Bowl media day. “I don’t clock in and clock out. We work until the work’s done — sometimes that’s later than other nights. We’ve hit a couple of late nights, but no lack of energy or ability to roll here.”
The Ducks have so far added:
Adrian Klemm, offensive line coach previously with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Kenny Dillingham, offensive coordinator/QB coach previously with Florida State.
Matt Powledge, co-defensive coordinator previously with Baylor.
Tony Tuioti, defensive line coach previously with Nebraska.
Demetrice Martin, defensive backs coach previously with Colorado.
And while all of these moves come with their own intricacies, the first big hire reportedly happened on Monday, with multiple outlets reporting that current Jacksonville Jaguars defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi will be on his way to Eugene as Oregon’s co-defensive coordinator as soon as the NFL season ends.
And while a coach from Urban Meyer’s tire fire of a staff in Florida might not exactly pop off the list for those uninformed, this one checks an awful lot of boxes for the Ducks.
Mainly: Lupoi recruits at a Mario Cristobal level with West Coast ties.
Lupoi is from California. He played at Cal, coached at Washington and spent five seasons at Nick Saban boot camp in Alabama, where Lupoi started as a defensive analyst in 2014 and ended as defensive coordinator in 2018. Lupoi worked with Lanning on Alabama’s staff. He also teamed with Cristobal to create the best one-two recruiting punch in the country.
Consider this:
In Lupoi’s first year as an on-field coach at Alabama in 2016, he finished No. 9 in 247Sports’ national recruiter rankings, two spots behind No. 7 Cristobal.
In 2017, Cristobal was No. 6 and Lupoi No. 7.
In 2018, with Cristobal off to Oregon, Tosh was No. 7 again, then No. 20 for the 2019 class before moving on to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns.
Every year Lupoi’s been in college he’s been one of the best in the country at talent acquisition, and the list of five-stars he’s served as the primary recruiter for — including Tua Tagovailoa, Najee Harris and Shaq Thompson — are better than some entire programs’.
There is some minor different-era baggage. Lupoi’s time in the Pac-12 came to an end when Chris Petersen didn’t retain him at Washington when hired in 2014. Lupoi had been with the Huskies for two seasons under Steve Sarkisian, but was reassigned within the athletic department while under investigation for reportedly paying a $4,500 tutoring fee for defensive recruit Andrew Basham. The NCAA’s investigation never turned up enough evidence, Washington wasn’t punished and a year later Lupoi’s football career resumed in Tuscaloosa.
The big fear with Cristobal leaving didn’t revolve around what the Ducks were losing from an in-season standpoint. Cristobal’s success in Eugene was built around strong recruiting and strong hiring. He had his own reputation for recruiting, sure, but he also hired coaches like Keith Heyward, Donte Williams and Alex Mirabal who moved heaven and earth to bring two top-10 recruiting classes in four years to a school who hadn’t previously had one ever.
The Ducks have just seven players signed in the 2022 class, one that ranks 56th in the country following Cristobal’s departure. Lupoi’s addition should ensure that’s not a sentence that’ll will be written again in the coming years.
And we’ll find out in the coming weeks whether or not it’s enough to ensure the return of McKinley, the best player on Oregon’s defense right now.
— Tyson Alger
