Oregon’s Slow Start Raises Questions About Its National Title Hopes

We probably should have seen a slow start coming for Oregon.

The Ducks were a trendy national title pick before the season began, No. 2 in the preseason AP poll.

They have been one of the best recruiting teams in the country with Dan Lanning in charge, and according to a report from The Athletic this week, have one of the three highest-paid rosters in college football at somewhere between $48 and $54 million.

For some time now, people have thought Oregon would be the next college football program to win its first national title, an honor Indiana actually stole from the Ducks after beating them twice last season.

And they still are right on the doorstep. But this season, which has begun with a narrow win over Boise State and a loss at an Oklahoma State team that, while talented, lost to Tulsa the week before, doesn’t seem likely to be that breakthrough.

What Oregon’s slow start means for title expectations

To me, there’s one obvious reason that you can point to as to why Oregon hasn’t lived up to expectations.

It has two new coordinators this season, replacing outgoing offensive coordinator Will Stein (now the head coach at Kentucky) and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi (now the head coach at Cal) with internal hires.

In a season where it appeared the Ducks had a national championship-caliber roster, they haven’t remotely looked up to the job so far. The coordinator changes could certainly explain that.

Quarterback Dante Moore hasn’t been bad by any means (569 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions before annihilating Portland State), but the Oregon rushing attack, which lost its leading rusher but returned Nos. 2 and 3 in rushing from a season ago, was averaging just over half as many yards per game (104.5) as it did in 2025 (198.6) before taking it out on the FCS foe.

All in all, an offense loaded with future NFL talent ranked 80th in total offense (389.0 yards per game) before the mismatch this week.

The defensive stats were somehow even worse, with the Ducks ranking 117th out of 138 FBS teams in allowing 414.0 yards per game.

One could point that Oregon has played a tougher schedule than just about any other team through two weeks of the season, with many teams easing into things with cupcakes while the Ducks did not.

But that doesn’t explain this level of discrepancy, not when LSU is No. 3 in total offense and No. 1 in total defense and has also played a Power Four opponent (Clemson) and a Group of Six team (Louisiana Tech) through two games.

It’s entirely possible Oregon figures it out. The 2024 team started with a shockingly close win over an FCS team and a narrow home win over Boise State before finishing the regular season 12-0, winning the Big Ten in its first year in the league and earning the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

But it’s about time to flip that switch, especially since this Oregon squad has already squandered one of its few mulligans with a tough conference slate looming.