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It’s been a quick 986 days.
PORTLAND — Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve made it.
One of the most unique college football seasons we’ve ever had is set to embark this week across the state.
The Beavers have Idaho State at Reser.
The Ducks have Idaho at Autzen.
And Portland State begins its bear of a schedule — nine of its opponents this year finished ranked in the FCS’ Top 25 in 2023 — on the road in Pullman against Washington State.
The Ducks, of course, are the largest draw and will be the primary focus here on The I-5 Corridor during the 2024 football season. We will still sprinkle in features and coverage from around the state, but the fact of the matter is Oregon is the No. 3 football team in the country going into Week 1 and that simply doesn’t happen around here too often.
It’s been a decade, in fact. The Ducks were the preseason No. 3 in 2011, 2013 and 2014. But even then I can’t remember the sort of build-up that Dan Lanning’s squad has had here this fall. Back then, the Ducks were either thriving with a high-tempo offense or a generational quarterback — things that gave the otherwise undersized, overlooked Ducks a puncher’s chance when competing against Goliaths from around the country.
In 2024, the Ducks might not be playing as fast as they once were, but they do still have a very good quarterback from Hawaii and now have a roster built around him that would leave few teams around the nation wanting for more. It was almost jarring to tune into GameDay on Saturday and see Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit confidently pick Oregon as their national champions.
Then again, Lanning has been telling us to expect this from the day he first landed in Eugene.
“This program is staged to compete and win national championships,” Lanning said on Dec. 14, 2021. “We won’t shy from expectations, and our goal is to compete for national championships here.”
That sounded good at the time, but it also didn’t sound far off from the similar speeches in the same auditorium given by Willie Taggart and Mario Cristobal in past years. And you’ll forgive Oregon fans if they greeted Lanning’s excitement with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, the foundations Taggart and Cristobal laid down were abandoned as soon as they were strong enough to lift those coaches back across the country. Lanning was the fourth coach introduced at Oregon in eight years and the third consecutive with no ties to Eugene. Many — including this writer — had barely heard of the guy when he showed up with his wife and three kids at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex on that Tuesday morning while still a member of the national title game-bound Georgia Bulldogs and told a fanbase with an exposed nerve to trust him.
Actually, that’s not exactly what Lanning said.
“Ultimately — I said the same thing to our players yesterday — I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking for an opportunity to earn your trust,” Lanning said. “But also, my situation is unique. If William Jewell College comes calling, I love William Jewell College, but I’m staying at Oregon as long as I can stay at Oregon and as long as Oregon will have me. There is no other for me. This is a premier job in the nation, not just the league, in the nation. It was going to take a premier job for me to leave the situation I was in. I’m thrilled to be here because I know what we can do here. There doesn’t have to be a next step for me. This job can be the final step.”
So, after 23 wins in two years, has Lanning earned your trust?
How about after landing back-to-back program-best recruiting classes? Or positioning Oregon as the go-to destination for players coming out of the transfer portal?
How about when those calls started coming? When Auburn and then Texas A&M and then Alabama opened up, and each time Lanning used the coaching carousel platform to further sell Oregon?
Do you think the grass is damn green in Eugene? Because 986 days into his tenure at Oregon, I truly believe Lanning does. That doesn’t mean Oregon wins the national championship this year. That doesn’t mean Oregon wins the national championship next year. There is nothing guaranteed in this sport, not for the front-runners and not for the underdogs.
There may be some thrilling wins in 2024. There may be some devastating losses. And there may be zero chance that Lanning’s ever looked at through this prism again — as a coach on the rise with a program banging on the Blue Blood’s doors. If they stumble, opposing teams and fanbases will jump at the opportunity to revel in another Oregon offseason championship that fell short on the field.
If they don’t? The next five months will change the program more than any era before it.
The opportunity is there. And while Lanning isn’t asking you to trust him, I get the sense that many of you already do.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
