The Sunday Duck Report: Oregon’s timeline is off

Phil Knight can be a bit of a crutch for Oregon writers.

Oregon’s billionaire booster isn’t publicly seen around the Ducks as much as he used to be. So when he does show up, it often makes its way into our stories.

I’m guilty of it, too. When Knight watched from the sideline in 2023 as Dan Lanning’s Ducks went for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter in Seattle, this is how I recapped things on The I-5 Corridor after that 36-33 loss:

Bo Nix and the offense stayed on the field. Instead of punting and forcing the Huskies to travel, at minimum, 75 yards, the Ducks went for it. And instead of watching the coronation of a program he’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars — and decades — supporting, the Nike co-founder instead got to watch Nix’s pass fall incomplete to Tez Johnson.

“God damn it!” Knight bellowed, throwing his hands up.

Knight was frustrated. But Lanning was young, and his team had just started to fully take advantage of Knight’s deep pockets in this NIL era.

There was still time.

That Phil Knight is three years older isn’t notable. That Phil Knight has become frail and walks with a cane isn’t breaking news. But on a picturesque college football Saturday in Eugene, where two ranked teams faced each other on CBS, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Knight even stayed until the end.

He’s 88 and well aware of it. Consider the billions he and his wife, Penny, have committed to philanthropy in recent years — or this statement he made in May 2025 when he voiced his disinterest in acquiring the Blazers.

“Five years ago, when I was a younger man, I had a great interest in being a part of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise,” the then-87-year-old said. “However, at my current age, I can confirm that I no longer have interest in acquiring the team.”

It was too big of an undertaking. There wasn’t enough time.

So what must he have thought Saturday?

In a season that began with title aspirations, Knight’s Ducks were embarrassed for the second time in a month. The Ducks lost 17-15 to No. 21 UCLA, but just like the 39-31 loss to Oklahoma State in Stillwater, the game wasn’t nearly that close.

The Ducks threw for fewer than 200 yards, didn’t break 100 yards on the ground, lost five fumbles and threw two interceptions and, by the end of the game, had Brock Thomas, a walk-on from Sheldon, in at quarterback trying to save Oregon’s season.

He couldn’t.

Now, the Ducks have two losses. Talk of what they’ll do once they make the playoff has transitioned into legitimate worry about finishing above .500 in Big Ten play. They have Nebraska next week, a team that has looked better than Oregon. Then they go to Illinois before closing out the month at home against a Northwestern team that revolutionized its offense after going outside the program to bring in Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator.

At this rate, there’s a better chance the Ducks are fighting for bowl eligibility than playoff seeding when they arrive in Columbus in November to face Ohio State.

And it’s not guaranteed Dante Moore returns to save them.

“I anticipate there’s going to be an opportunity for him to be back out there,” Lanning said, “but it would be unfair for me to say that right now.”

Ordinarily, a season like this would offer at least one consolation: Next year. Another recruiting class. Another round of spending. Another chance to fix whatever went wrong.

But what exactly is Oregon supposed to do differently?

The recruiting can’t get much better. The Ducks already spend more money than most of their peers.

Between Moore and Raiola, Oregon had two five-star quarterbacks — and millions of dollars in estimated NIL value — on the sideline while a walk-on admirably failed to lead an offense to a win in a home game where 18 points would have done the job.

The estimated value of just one of those players is enough to wonder how much of Mark Wasikowski’s baseball team Oregon could have kept out of the transfer portal. What do you think Kelly Graves’ women’s basketball team could do in March if it wasn’t punching above its weight class?

Football is the priority, though. It’s the bet Oregon and Knight have placed. And five games into what was supposed to be the apex season, offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer is coaching for his job, Raiola is playing for his job, and then there’s Lanning, who, in a sane world, would be nowhere near the hot seat.

He’s 40. He’s been to the playoffs twice. Everything that’s happened in the last month doesn’t negate what came before it.

But Saturday, watching an Oregon team that cost substantially more than that 2023 team look substantially worse, I wondered whether Knight and the Ducks were still operating on the same timeline.

This story is part of Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s Sunday Duck Report. For the full report, subscribe to the free newsletter here.