By now it’s not news to any of you that Coach Kenny Dillingham has become the new head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils, making him the youngest HC in the FBS. That is a huge feat, and I wish him good luck in this new chapter of his career. With that said, it’s time to take a look at a few candidates who could possibly replace him in Eugene.
Joe Brady
A name that’s popped up quite a bit among Oregon fans across social media is Coach Joe Brady, who is the current quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills. Most will recognize him for his time as the LSU Tigers offensive coordinator during the 2019 season. His offense torched every opponent they faced on their way to a national championship.
Coach Brady is a disciple of former Oregon OC, Joe Moorhead. The core of his offense is built on Coach Moorhead’s, mixed with a plethora of NFL passing concepts that he picked up during his time with the New Orleans Saints.
Coach Dan Lanning has admitted that the reason he’s so aggressive on fourth down is because he hated when offenses did it to him as a defensive coordinator. Perhaps that same philosophy will leak into his decision when hiring the new OC. He couldn’t have enjoyed Coach Brady’s Tigers unit putting up 37 points on his Georgia Bulldogs defense. One that was only allowing an average score of 10.69 points per game.
Chad Morris
DazeNconfused put the idea of Coach Brennan Marion out there, which I really like. Besides the Go-Go portion of his offense, the system is from the same family tree as Coach Dillingham’s. Another option that would give the same benefit of not having to completely learn a new offense to the players is Coach Chad Morris.
Coach Morris’ offense is a variation of Coach Gus Malzahn’s, just as Coach Mike Norvell’s was and in turn Coach Dillingham’s. This would make the transition a lot smoother for the Ducks than learning a completely new scheme would. On top of that Coach Morris is an extremely experienced play-caller. There’s not a lot he hasn’t seen a defense try.
Kevin Decker
The highest ranked offense in the FBS belongs to the Tennessee Volunteers, and it just so happens that the same offensive style rules the FCS too. Under the guidance of offensive coordinator Kevin Decker, the Fordham Rams have installed an offense really similar to the one used by Coach Josh Heupel at Rocky Top.
Coach Decker has added a few of his own wrinkles to the offense and has ridden it to 609 yards per game at a clip of 7.77 yards per play and 49.5 points per game. The offense is actually an evolved version of what the Baylor Bears ran in the early to mid 2010s. The one area where this offense differs from that of the Bears is the breadth of the run game. Oregon’s athletes would have incredible success in this type of system.
Whether it’s any of these candidates, or someone else completely, we should have complete confidence that Coach Lanning will get this hire right: he did a heck of a job the first time around.
Coach Eric Boles
Newark, OH
Top Photo Credit: Danny Karnik/Associated Press
Phil Anderson, the FishDuck.com Volunteer editor for this article, is a trial lawyer in Bend Oregon.
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Eric resides in Central Ohio, just outside the capital city of Columbus. He is a former offensive assistant and return game coordinator for the Ohio State – Newark/Central Ohio Technical College Titans football program.
He is an OSU-N graduate, having completed a Bachelor of Arts program in psychology.