Dan Lanning is shaking up his offense. Oregon announced Sunday that it had fired offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer after just seven games, following a 21-10 loss to Illinois that ended the Ducks' College Football Playoff hopes.
The defeat was the third straight game in which Oregon failed to reach 20 points. Lanning, in a statement, praised Mehringer's work since joining the staff in 2022 but said the offense needed to change course. "This was a decision I felt was in the best interest of our football program," he said, according to CBS Sports.
A steep drop-off
Mehringer was elevated from co-offensive coordinator after Will Stein left following the 2025 season, a move that drew wide criticism as the offense sputtered, CBS Sports reported. Last year the Ducks scored 36.9 points per game, 11th nationally. This fall they are averaging 33.1, a figure propped up by an 84-0 rout of Portland State.
Conference play has told a harsher story. Oregon has gone over 17 points only once in Big Ten games, a 41-27 win over USC in which quarterback Dante Moore suffered a concussion that has kept him out for the last three games. Without Moore, the Ducks are scoring 14 points per game.
The injury explains part of the slide, but not all of it. Backup Dylan Raiola, a transfer from Nebraska, was expected to give Oregon one of the stronger second-string options in the country. Instead, CBS Sports wrote, he cost the team a win against UCLA and produced little against an Illinois defense that ranks 16th in the Big Ten in yards allowed and 17th against the pass.
The Stein comparison
Mehringer's struggles look worse next to his predecessor's start. Stein, now head coach at Kentucky, has the Wildcats at 7-1 and averaging 32.9 points per game in his first year, and they are one of two SEC teams with a single conference loss.
The program now plays out the rest of the season with its offense in flux and an open coordinator job to fill for 2027.
Reporting sources: sports.yahoo.com, “Oregon fires offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer after team scored just 10 points in loss to Illinois” · CBS Sports Headlines, “Oregon fires offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer amid continued scoring struggles”.