10/31/26 | Football
The Ducks host the Wildcats in Autzen Stadium on Saturday (12:30 p.m., Peacock).
EUGENE, Ore. — Things will look different for the Oregon football team in the coaches' box this week, with the intent that things will look different between the lines as well.
The Ducks are back home Saturday to host No. 20 Northwestern in Autzen Stadium. The game will be streamed by Peacock at 12:30 p.m.
UO coach Dan Lanning announced a staff change on offense in the wake of last week's defeat at Illinois, which saw the Ducks fall to 4-3 on the season. Northwestern is off to a 6-1 start, its only loss coming to defending national champion Indiana.
The two teams have met just twice all-time, neither in Eugene. Northwestern hosted the Ducks and won in 1974, before Oregon won there last season to even the series.
Saturday's stream by Peacock will feature Paul Burmeister on play-by-play, analysis from Yogi Roth and sideline reporting by Caroline Peneida.
Some storylines to watch when the game kicks off …
1. Lanning on Sunday announced a change at offensive coordinator, with Drew Mehringer departing. In his absence, first-year assistant quarterbacks coach Jay Johnson was tasked with overseeing Oregon's offensive preparations this week.
Lanning and Johnson were on staff at Georgia together in 2018, when Mel Tucker was defensive coordinator there. Johnson then worked as offensive coordinator when Tucker took head coaching jobs at Colorado in 2019 and Michigan State in 2020. After Tucker's tenure with the Spartans ended, Johnson became offensive coordinator at Wyoming in 2024.
"He has a lot of experience as a play caller," Lanning said. ... "He's going to head the efforts there with the offensive staff, but it'll still be a collaborative effort like a lot of the work that we do. He's also coming in with a different perspective, a different view, not being with us the last few years. He can provide a couple things that might be different than what we've done, that I think can trigger some success for us on that side."
2. Oregon's areas for improvement on offense include a more effective running game, behind an offensive line that showed signs of jelling at Illinois. The Ducks want to create more explosive plays, and to be more effective on third down.
Those are some of what Lanning often refers to as the Ducks' "DNA traits," and he wants to see them show up more often beginning this week.
"We want to go be the best version of us, and if that doesn't lead to success, that's OK, as long as we gave our best effort to be the best version of us and we didn't beat ourselves," Lanning said. "There's been moments this year where we beat ourselves, right? And we haven't necessarily matched the identity of what we've had in the past. There were moments in this last game where it's fourth-and-one — I wouldn't blink, and we'd be going for those in the past. We're playing good defense. We have to be able to get back to who we are."
3. Northwestern's 42 points in a win last week over Rutgers were the program's most in a Big Ten game since 2023, and for the first time in 10 years the Wildcats have scored at least 40 points three times this season.
The Wildcats are producing at that clip under the leadership of quarterback Aidan Chiles, who began his career at Oregon State, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the former UO head coach. Kelly revolutionized offense with the Ducks by employing an up-tempo read-option attack, but he's going old-school at Northwestern with elements of the Wing-T system.
"The great thing about Chip is, he always does an unbelievable job of utilizing his personnel and finding things that they do at a really high level," Lanning said. "So there's things you're seeing at Northwestern now that they haven't done in the past anywhere that he's been, and then there's wrinkles that are like, OK, that's a Chip play, that's an identity play that he's kind of always carried in his past. So you see a little bit of elements of both."
4. As Lanning said in discussing Oregon's DNA traits, the Ducks feel they can potentially afford to take more risks offensively going forward because of how strong their defense has been the last several weeks.
And Oregon's special teams continue to contribute as well. Punter Bailey Ettridge had another solid outing at Illinois, although placekicker Gage Hurych saw his perfect start to the season end with a 1-of-4 outing — the three misses being his three longest attempts so far this season, all from at least 47 yards out.
"Tough moments happen, but tough guys last," Lanning said. "You're asking him to kick two over 50-yard field goals; those weren't the easiest. Those aren't the situations we've asked him. The wind was a little bit of a factor. But there's a trust in Gage that he's going to go do his job, do it at a high level. You're going to have moments like that in your career, and you've got to be able to respond to them."
5. There's no doubt that the path this season is taking for Oregon looks different than was projected back in August.
The Ducks have spoken often in recent weeks about the fallacy of having "outcome-based goals," rather than focusing on daily improvement — process, not outcome. And Lanning acknowledged this week that his team hasn't been one that always responded well to adversity.
A goal going forward is to focus on growth, and to build back confidence with daily successes in practice. The Ducks saw signs of that this week, but they also know that games are the ultimate arbiter.
"I think there's been a spark, a focus there," Lanning said earlier this week. "We'll see what that translates like through Saturday. There's no guarantees."
The Ducks are back home Saturday to host No. 20 Northwestern in Autzen Stadium. The game will be streamed by Peacock at 12:30 p.m.
UO coach Dan Lanning announced a staff change on offense in the wake of last week's defeat at Illinois, which saw the Ducks fall to 4-3 on the season. Northwestern is off to a 6-1 start, its only loss coming to defending national champion Indiana.
The two teams have met just twice all-time, neither in Eugene. Northwestern hosted the Ducks and won in 1974, before Oregon won there last season to even the series.
Saturday's stream by Peacock will feature Paul Burmeister on play-by-play, analysis from Yogi Roth and sideline reporting by Caroline Peneida.
Some storylines to watch when the game kicks off …
1. Lanning on Sunday announced a change at offensive coordinator, with Drew Mehringer departing. In his absence, first-year assistant quarterbacks coach Jay Johnson was tasked with overseeing Oregon's offensive preparations this week.
Lanning and Johnson were on staff at Georgia together in 2018, when Mel Tucker was defensive coordinator there. Johnson then worked as offensive coordinator when Tucker took head coaching jobs at Colorado in 2019 and Michigan State in 2020. After Tucker's tenure with the Spartans ended, Johnson became offensive coordinator at Wyoming in 2024.
"He has a lot of experience as a play caller," Lanning said. ... "He's going to head the efforts there with the offensive staff, but it'll still be a collaborative effort like a lot of the work that we do. He's also coming in with a different perspective, a different view, not being with us the last few years. He can provide a couple things that might be different than what we've done, that I think can trigger some success for us on that side."
2. Oregon's areas for improvement on offense include a more effective running game, behind an offensive line that showed signs of jelling at Illinois. The Ducks want to create more explosive plays, and to be more effective on third down.
Those are some of what Lanning often refers to as the Ducks' "DNA traits," and he wants to see them show up more often beginning this week.
"We want to go be the best version of us, and if that doesn't lead to success, that's OK, as long as we gave our best effort to be the best version of us and we didn't beat ourselves," Lanning said. "There's been moments this year where we beat ourselves, right? And we haven't necessarily matched the identity of what we've had in the past. There were moments in this last game where it's fourth-and-one — I wouldn't blink, and we'd be going for those in the past. We're playing good defense. We have to be able to get back to who we are."
3. Northwestern's 42 points in a win last week over Rutgers were the program's most in a Big Ten game since 2023, and for the first time in 10 years the Wildcats have scored at least 40 points three times this season.
The Wildcats are producing at that clip under the leadership of quarterback Aidan Chiles, who began his career at Oregon State, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the former UO head coach. Kelly revolutionized offense with the Ducks by employing an up-tempo read-option attack, but he's going old-school at Northwestern with elements of the Wing-T system.
"The great thing about Chip is, he always does an unbelievable job of utilizing his personnel and finding things that they do at a really high level," Lanning said. "So there's things you're seeing at Northwestern now that they haven't done in the past anywhere that he's been, and then there's wrinkles that are like, OK, that's a Chip play, that's an identity play that he's kind of always carried in his past. So you see a little bit of elements of both."
4. As Lanning said in discussing Oregon's DNA traits, the Ducks feel they can potentially afford to take more risks offensively going forward because of how strong their defense has been the last several weeks.
And Oregon's special teams continue to contribute as well. Punter Bailey Ettridge had another solid outing at Illinois, although placekicker Gage Hurych saw his perfect start to the season end with a 1-of-4 outing — the three misses being his three longest attempts so far this season, all from at least 47 yards out.
"Tough moments happen, but tough guys last," Lanning said. "You're asking him to kick two over 50-yard field goals; those weren't the easiest. Those aren't the situations we've asked him. The wind was a little bit of a factor. But there's a trust in Gage that he's going to go do his job, do it at a high level. You're going to have moments like that in your career, and you've got to be able to respond to them."
5. There's no doubt that the path this season is taking for Oregon looks different than was projected back in August.
The Ducks have spoken often in recent weeks about the fallacy of having "outcome-based goals," rather than focusing on daily improvement — process, not outcome. And Lanning acknowledged this week that his team hasn't been one that always responded well to adversity.
A goal going forward is to focus on growth, and to build back confidence with daily successes in practice. The Ducks saw signs of that this week, but they also know that games are the ultimate arbiter.
"I think there's been a spark, a focus there," Lanning said earlier this week. "We'll see what that translates like through Saturday. There's no guarantees."
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