Well, there you have it.
Our Oregon football program’s offseason is in full swing, and now that we’ve crowned a national champion of the College Football Playoff, I think it’s time to evaluate the Ducks a bit more fairly on what they accomplished in 2025. Head coach Dan Lanning led the program to a 13-2 record in his fourth season at the University of Oregon, finishing third in the country with only two losses, both to the eventual national champion, Indiana. Sound familiar?
Over the last three seasons, Oregon has only lost to teams that have made the national championship. Washington (lost to Michigan), Ohio State (won over Notre Dame), and Indiana (won over Miami). That’s an unbelievable resume of seasons since Lanning’s first, which opened on the road with a blowout loss to Georgia.
The fact that only a seasonal juggernaut can beat these Duck teams creates a much larger avenue for Oregon to win a championship of its own. I’d love for that to change, obviously, with Oregon being on the right side of the blueblood carnage in the future. 2027 should be a season where the Ducks pick up right where Tosh Lupoi and Will Stein left off, as Lanning has consistently proved he’s great at learning from his mistakes. Next year’s roster could also be his best team yet.
But before we get to next year? A quick ponder point this week: How should we grade the 2025-2026 Oregon football season?
Dante Moore made massive strides from the spring game on – (Photo by Eric Becker)
Season Grade for Oregon Football in 2025-2026: A-
Thinking back to how the program was viewed in the spring, this team dramatically overperformed.
VERY few folks in the media and around the game in general believed QB1 Dante Moore would be able to elevate this team in his first year starting with the Ducks. His tape at UCLA wasn’t great, and most expected a major learning curve with the void left by Tez Johnson (drafted by the Buccaneers), Terrance Ferguson (drafted by the Rams), and Evan Stewart (injured the entire 2025-2026 season).
Oh, how wrong we were.
By season’s end, we were frantically checking the injury report to see if our leading scorer would be available for the Peach Bowl, an eighteen-year-old running back who was supposed to be a “role player” this year. Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill Jr. far exceeded expectations from the first game on, along with Dakorien Moore, Brandon Finney Jr., Jeremiah McClellan, and so many other freshmen. For how young this team was, it’s shocking that they not only competed with 23-year-olds at the highest level but also earned national recognition in the country’s most competitive conference.
Would it have been great to win it all this year? Absolutely. Entering 2025, I had minimal expectations to even win a College Football Playoff game, considering how much NFL talent this team lost. Winning two postseason games and only losing to the eventual champion is a GREAT foundation for Dante Moore and many returning players to grow from.
The only piece of the 2025 team that I’m hung up on is the way in which the Ducks have ended their last two seasons. Even with both coordinators having a foot out the door and the egregiously formatted portal schedule, I expected a much tighter game against Indiana in the semifinal. Instead, we got whatever that was. Crucial turnovers early led to the team falling hopelessly behind once again.
Overall, there are a TON of aspects to evaluate when looking at the season as a whole. What sticks out to you? Given how the season ended, do the Ducks and Dan deserve an A- grade? How did they perform in comparison to your preseason expectations? What’s your biggest takeaway entering 2026-2027? Let us know in the FishDuck Forum with decorum.
GO DUCKS!
Alex Heining
Los Angeles, California
Top Photo By: Eric Becker
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.