What worked?
What didn't?
How do we need to change and grow in order to achieve 100% of our potential?
How can I help these guys become the best versions of themselves?
It's the ability to self-evaluate and act from a big-picture vision that separates mediocre coaches from the progrum-builders.
After ten wins in year one, Dan Lanning is well on his way to being that kind of coach.
When questioned by reporters after a game about a critical play that failed miserably, Lanning's predecessor at Oregon would invariably say, "That's our identity. It's in our DNA."
That's a stubborn and ineffective way for a leader to think. A football team, or any organization really, has to strive to be fluid, respond to situations and rise in the moment. Little about greatness is encoded at birth. Courage is grace under pressure, executing sound decisions in difficult circumstances. It doesn't fall back on pat answers and predictable thinking.
A great coach has to be able to recognize a crisis, even if it means scrapping everything and starting over. Oregon's great run of championships and national relevance started with a come-to-Jesus meeting at Camp Harlow after a devastating loss to BYU in 2006. Former Oregonian reporter Andrew Greif describes it:
Former coach Mike Bellotti still refers to it less as a team meeting and more "a team intervention."
"I've been part of millions of team-bonding exercises," said UO offensive line coach Steve Greatwood, who was there that evening, "but nothing that really cut to the core like this one."
Some Ducks fans have likely heard of that cathartic retreat, but everyone knows what followed: The "Win The Day" mantra, coined by Chip Kelly; hopes of a national championship the following season in 2007; seven consecutive 10-win seasons; two appearances in national title games; one Heisman Trophy.
That run might have seemed unfathomable when Oregon coaches, support staffers and players, some still irked from their unfocused and unmotivated bowl loss, arrived by bus at north Eugene's Camp Harlow on a winter evening.
"That day," said former UO offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, who was entering his junior season, "changed the program."
The Ducks don't need anything that drastic in 2023. Lanning and his team are coming off a brilliantly-managed bowl win over North Carolina, a game in which they came from behind, hung together and played the most focused fourth quarter of the season.
But there are challenges to be addressed, starting with those key questions at the start of the page. It's not anything that has to be discussed at the podium with ten microphones and a dozen cell phone recorders under your chin, but Coach and his staff have to make time to look critically at all of last season, developing a concrete plan for the problems exposed in 2022.
These include:
1. Poor performance and big breakdowns in special teams
Oregon's special teams used to be special. The Osborn/Bellotti years were full of game-breaking big plays, dramatic punt returns, kickoff returns slammed down at the ten. Young players "made their bones" on the special teams units. Guys like Keith Lewis, Charles Nelson and Brady Breeze would volunteer for every one of them. There was great pride in execution, in knowing what you were doing.
2. Woeful third down defense (123rd in the country)
Underneath pass coverage in particular was a disaster, something the Ducks have begun to address by overhauling the linebacker corps. Jeffrey Bassa, Jamal Hill, Jestin Jacobs and Connor Soelle give the team more mobility in the middle, a chance to shut down those hooks, slants and crossing routes that resulted in easy first downs.
3. Knowing when to rely on analytics and when to trust your gut, particularly in a tense, close game against a strong opponent.
Football is a game of emotion and momentum. The two rivalry games were lost with big decisions that didn't pan out, failed plays on fourth down or getting no points after long drives that reached the Red Zone.
Lanning probably has his own list, far more detailed and purposeful than this sketch. He's too driven and competitive to repeat the same behaviors and expect things to change. The great ones get results, and they're hardest on themselves.
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