Dillon Thieneman will join our Oregon football program in 2025 as the top-ranked safety transfer in college football’s transfer portal. As the leading tackler on Purdue over the past two seasons (210 total tackles!!), he joins a Ducks roster that is poised for another run at the College Football Playoff.
The 6-foot, 207-pound sophomore has the perfect opportunity to light a spark on a depleted 2025 defensive roster as a former Freshman of the Year in the Big Ten, and a third-team All American from the AP. He joins the Ducks after an all-star signing day for Dan Lanning and his staff, as well as some of the top-performing transfers in the nation.
Now as the Ducks prep for the Rose Bowl in a few weeks, let’s look back on a star-studded roster that’s maintained a perfect 13-0 record, reflecting on recent transfers and superstars that have elevated this team to the elite echelon of programs in college football.
Remember this guy?And more importantly, what he was before Oregon? – Photo via Craig Strobeck
The Future of Oregon Football Lies in the Transfer Portal
This proposition is both a blessing and a curse: The last two quarterbacks who have dominated Oregon’s offense in the last few years have been acquired through the portal. The same goes for the vast majority of Oregon’s talent that’s reached the next level and led this team to a collective 35-5 over the last three seasons. As one of the top talents available across the board, Thieneman is going to be a welcome addition and offers a lengthy range of attributes that would have been sorely missed in 2025.
The plug-and-play, next-man-up mentality has become a mantra under Lanning, and with Kobe Savage and Tysheem Johnson’s success in 2024, I expect more of the same with Thieneman both in run support and downfield coverage. His athleticism jumps off the screen in pursuit, and Tosh Lupoi should be a HUGE fan of how often Thieneman is around the ball. He wraps up in the open field, breaks up key passes – he’ll even handle punt return duties if need be. My primary worry for players like Thieneman, though, goes far beyond them actually making plays and filling out our roster…
Has Oregon’s habit of snagging premier-talent transfers become TOO MUCH of an impact over the players the Ducks’ have recruited? Will players like Thieneman be the reason some players in the future DON’T commit to Oregon?
Thieneman did manage a handful of tackles in Oregon’s blowout loss over Purdue where the Ducks dominated on the ground – Photo via Zach Bolinger
What Does This Mean for Oregon Football?
While we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and are solely focused on the Rose Bowl at this time, I think we have to address the reality that Oregon is going to be a destination school for virtually every position on the field. This bodes well for stacking undefeated regular seasons and giving the B1G a run every single year, offering the Ducks the ability to build a stable roster of youth and experience that never needs a “rebuild.”
Still, I and many others have some concerns that recruiting will suffer when Oregon consistently goes and gets experienced players in the portal, rather than letting new starters give it a go as much as they used to. You can’t really pitch that you’re going to get playtime as a freshman/sophomore anymore, and it feels almost as though half of college football has become the minor league of the sport that top schools can poach from in 2024 and beyond. Once you’re experienced, have shown you can win, and are dominating on a less-talented roster, you can move on to the bigger schools that get you a better chance at going to the NFL, and replace 4-star and 5-star recruits who never saw the field.
Personally, I think our future is safe for Oregon fans as long as Dan Lanning continues to find a balance of both recruits and transfers getting playing time. Stories like Bryce Boettcher and The Herbert Brothers are perfect for maintaining that homegrown appeal.
Gabriel will look to a have a dominant Rose Bowl performance as the superstar transfer of Oregon’s 2024 class, a perfect counterpart to Oregon’s recruited-and-developed Justin Herbert’s masterclass in the 2020 Rose Bowl – Photo via Tom Corno
Dante Moore starting next year would be extremely helpful for recruiting in the future, despite being a transfer from UCLA. Oregon did recruit and get a commitment from Moore before he flipped his commitment, which was likely tied into Kenny Dillingham getting a head coaching opportunity with Arizona State (who’s had a sensational season, by the way). So for future recruits that aim to replace Moore and Thieneman down the road, Oregon will be able to boast a wealth of talented players that developed in their building. Remember: Bo Nix was projected to be a late-round pick before he joined the Ducks. Now, he’s winning big on Sundays the same way we expect Dillon Gabriel to in 2025. It seems that both realities can be true: You can thrive off of the transfer portal, and ALSO develop those same players to hit another gear.
Well… Lanning can, at least. Other CFB coaches? Not so much.
Anyway, enough from me, Oregon fans. How do you think Thieneman will integrate into this defense? Who has been your favorite transfer in the past pair of seasons for the Ducks? Let us know in the FishDuck Forum with decorum.
Go Ducks!
Alex Heining
Los Angeles, California
Top Photo Via: Twitter (@RivalsPortal)
Alex Heining is an Oregon alumni from the graduate class of 2021. After studying sports business and media studies, he has moved into the field of digital marketing as a copywriter and content manager in the Los Angeles area. Still, he loves his Ducks and goes to local high school games all over the Los Angeles and Orange County area to check out new recruits of the future (and a SoFi game or two with the pros). On any given Saturday, expect to find him doing martial arts, playing the guitar, or screaming at the tv over a missed holding penalty.