Will the Duck Defensive Secondary be a Liability Again this Year?

It feels strange to say that perhaps former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning’s biggest weakness is his team’s defense. I mean the Oregon secondary in particular, but looking back at his first three years as head coach, that weakness is what stands out — but perhaps 2025 will be the season this ceases to be the case. Even our Mr. FishDuck took a break from his gaming fun at Stake Hunters to express his hopes to me about Oregon’s defensive backs for 2025.

2022

2022 was Lanning’s first-ever season as a head coach, when he came to Oregon. His first game was against Georgia, his former team and that year’s reigning national champion. That game was a complete dismantling of the Ducks, and out of fairness that loss isn’t worth talking about from a defensive standpoint. The team was demolished on a whole.

In Game 4 Oregon went to Washington State and the Ducks found themselves in one of the most gutsy games of Lanning’s tenure to date. The Cougs destroyed the Oregon secondary and the Ducks only managed to pull ahead due to some impressive offense and a little luck. The Ducks won by three points 44-41, but Cam Ward still threw for 375 yards.

Oregon then lost in a shootout against Washington. Oregon’s front seven couldn’t get any push against Washington’s offensive line, while the Oregon secondary completely broke down. Michael Penix Jr. and the Washington receivers were incredibly good and they picked the Ducks apart.

The final game of 2022 was the Civil War and the Beavers really didn’t have much of a pass game, so the secondary was adequate — but the front seven had a massive meltdown.

2023

The Ducks only had two losses in 2023 but they both came at the hands of the same team, Washington. Some questionable offensive playcalling aside, the Ducks’ secondary was shredded by the Huskies for a second year in a row. The defense’s inability may have actually pushed Lanning to lean on his veteran quarterback more in some risky fourth down calls rather than punt and have faith his defense could get the stop.

This isn’t to say the defense didn’t improve from 2022 to 2023. The improvements really came from the front seven who excelled in shutting many teams down at the line of scrimmage. But against pass-heavy teams like Washington State, Texas Tech and USC, the Ducks gave up 30, 24, and 27 points respectively in all those wins. Those were all a result of secondary problems.

The Ducks had some good players at cornerback in Khyree Jackson and Jahlil Florence, though both were out of the first game against Washington with injuries and Florence didn’t even play in the second game against the Huskies due to injury. But the secondary wasn’t comprehensive, it was a bunch of individuals rather than a unit.

2024

The Ducks’ only loss in 2024 came against a team Oregon again played twice in one season, Ohio State. Oregon edged out Ohio State at home by one point to win during the regular season, but by the time the Rose Bowl and the re-match rolled around, the Buckeyes were ready.

Oregon’s biggest weakness in this loss was again its secondary. The Ducks just didn’t have the backs to defend some of the best wide receivers in the country. As a result Ohio State’s pass catchers did whatever they wanted.

But how did the Ducks beat the Buckeyes the first time? Clever coaching a bit of luck.

The luck came in when Nikko Reed was able to draw an offensive pass interference penalty out of freshman superstar Jeremiah Smith. It was textbook offensive pass interference and it was a freshman mistake from Smith, who had gotten away with doing the same thing countless of times previously. Lanning then out-coached Ryan Day with his 12-man penalty.

The reality is that the B1G isn’t a major passing league and the league on the whole adheres to a similar style of play I broke down last year in my article “Is the B1G Easier than the Pac-12?” Going beyond Ohio State, one of the teams that caused the Ducks far more trouble than it should have was Maryland, effectively the league’s token air raid offense. Sure, the Ducks won 39-18, but the game was a lot closer than it should have been with the talent disparity.

The B1G may not be a passing league, but an elite secondary is still required to win it all and the Ducks weren’t quite there in 2024.

Why Will 2025 be Different?

For the last three years Lanning has been bringing in transfer portal recruits to fill the holes. It has mostly worked, he has only lost six total games. However, even bringing in veterans from other programs to learn the system in spring and fall camps and then execute it in games does restrict what a coordinator can do and how effective the defense can be.

This season marks a major turning point in Lanning’s Oregon program, as all of Mario Cristobal’s recruits are gone and this is a roster that Lanning has built. Cristobal’s recruits didn’t fit Lanning’s scheme or vision for the team, but he made the best of them. Lanning brought in transfers every year but those were only band-aids on a larger problem — he didn’t have the players he needed.

To make matters worse, the 2022 class was a bust in terms of secondary players. Former co-defensive coordinator and safety coach Matt Powledge and cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin both brought in players who have all left Oregon, with Florence being the lone exception. Lanning didn’t really start stacking recruiting classes at cornerback and safety until the 2023 recruiting class, thus extending the need for transfers.

Now, 2025 looks different. Yes, Lanning still brought in a few transfers in Dillon Thieneman, Theran Johnson and Jadon Canady, but only Thieneman seems projected to actually start right now. Instead there is a lot of hype around cornerbacks Ify Obijekwu, Sione Laulea, Na’eem Offord and Brandon Finny. Then at safety Kingston Lopa and Aaron Flowers are making the rounds on practice reports with second-year transfer Peyton Woodyard also in the mix. These are all players recruited out of high school to Oregon, or in Woodyard’s case in his second year with the program.

These are not players brought in to fix a problem immediately; these were players selected and trained for this defense.

2025 may very well be the year we see Lanning’s defense take its true shape and it comes down to fixing the secondary.

David Marsh 
Portland, Oregon
Top Photo By: Max Unkrich

 

Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in technology in SLC, Utah.

 

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