Here's a long read on how Will Stein and Bo Nix are collaborating to build their relationship and put together Oregon's 2023 offense:
QB Bo Nix and new Oregon OC Will Stein talk about the process of building their connection this spring.
oregon.rivals.com
New Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein knows how productive his predecessor was. He made a point to acknowledge that.
But he also made clear that he's not here to compare himself to Kenny Dillingham at every turn -- he's here to do the job he knows he's qualified to do.
Stein made that distinction subtly Saturday after practice when asked about a comment wide receiver Troy Franklin had made in an interview about his approach being more business-like and less high-energy than Dillingham was during practices.
"I'm me. I'm Will Stein. I've been the same dude, I hope, for a long time. Treat people the right way, coach this game hard, aggressive, passionate, and just I love being around these guys," he said in his first interview of the spring.
Oregon fans are no doubt eager to learn more about exactly who Stein is as an offensive play-caller, as he comes in with limited coordinator experience after serving as the co-OC/QBs coach at UTSA last season and the passing game coordinator/WRs coach there the prior two years.
It's not hard to see why Stein's name caught the attention of Ducks coach Dan Lanning this offseason, after Dillingham left for the head coaching job at Arizona State.
While Oregon ranked 6th nationally last season in total offense at 500.5 yards per game and tied 9th in scoring (38.8 points per game), UTSA ranked 12th at 476.0 YPG and 14th at 36.8 PPG. Stein is a rising up-and-comer in the sport who was going to get a bigger stage at some point if it wasn't the Ducks.
But the reality remains he has everything to prove at the Power 5 level still.
Stein was asked if his quick rise in the profession seems "surreal" to him given that he was the offensive coordinator at Lake Travis High School in Texas just a few years ago (2018-19).
"Yeah, I think it's a little bit misinterpreted that I was in high school ball -- yes, and it was an unbelievable opportunity. But I played major Division I football at quarterback, I coached at Texas, coached at Louisville. So before I got into high school I was a college football coach, went back down to high school to coach a kid named Garrett Wilson, who was a first-round draft pick, a kid named Hudson Card (now the QB at Purdue, previously at Texas) at a 6A Division I school in Texas, which to me is like an FCS-level organization. And then the last three years at the highest level of Conference USA with really great players that went toe-to-toe with some really big-time Power 5 conference foes," Stein said.
"The game of football hasn't changed. It's about blocking, it's about tackling, it's about getting really good players, and here at Oregon I might just be working with a little bit different level player and obviously on a grander stage, but it's something I'm accustomed to and ready to go."
Stein played at Louisville from 2008-12 and then served as a GA at his alma mater in 2013, a quality control analyst in 2014 and a QC analyst at Texas from 2015-17.
At UTSA in San Antonio, Texas, Stein shared OC duties last season with Matt Mattox, who then left for the offensive line coaching job at Purdue before stepping down abruptly this spring for personal reasons. Mattox was previously the run game coordinator at UTSA, making clear how the areas of expertise delineated between he and Stein.
Together, under head coach Jeff Traylor, they had the college football world taking notice of a Roadrunners program that won 23 games over the last two seasons after being a middling FBS program for the first nine years of existence in San Antonio.
"You know, the universe works in mysterious ways. I just did my job to the best of my ability at UTSA. I was where my feet were, I was not looking to leave. I was presented with an opportunity to interview for this job with Coach Lanning. I'd like to think I did a pretty good job to land this position," Stein said.
Stein now takes over a Ducks offense that boasted a prolific ground attack but was ultimately led by quarterback Bo Nix, who delivered with both his arm and his legs while passing for 3,593 yards, 29 TDs and 7 INTs while rushing for 510 yards and 14 TDs (plus a receiving TD) last fall.
Before Nix chose to return for his fifth and final season of college football, putting off the NFL for another year, he and Stein talked on the phone.
"Getting on the phone with him initially, I was a little mind-blown with just his intensity and what he was looking for from a coach and an offensive standpoint," Stein said. "He asked questions that were extremely mature and well thought out. He's made me better as a coach. He puts me in a position to really think as a coach, which I really appreciate."
Said Nix: "At the time it was one of those things I still didn't know my decision yet, so ... after that conversation I knew we got a good one and now seeing him in person, getting to hear his thoughts, seeing what he likes from the pass game, run game, different auxiliary stuff, it's just fun learning ball, fun talking with guys like who are like-minded, smart, good guys and they want to have success themselves."
They also found commonality in Stein's background as a college quarterback not so long ago and his own experience having to learn different offenses through the years -- like Nix has had to do over and over again between his time at Auburn and Oregon.
Stein made clear he is looking to build off of what Nix did so well last year -- not disrupt that momentum and reinvent the offense.
But with that process comes a mutual sharing of ideas.
"He's brought in different things that I haven't really done before so I'm really eager to listen to him and say, 'OK, how do you do this? How do you do that?' If I just don't know, I want him to teach me as much as he can. That's what he's done a really good job of," Nix said. "He's taken what I know -- we're going to continue to do that -- and he's also taught me things that he knows that have worked well for him. I think collectively we're going to have a great time. It's different when Coach Stein has played the game. He's played for a bunch of different OCs, he's been kind of in my spot, he's been through a lot of different systems. So ... I think he can relate to me from that point of view."
Said Stein: "I think the 2022 Oregon offense is very similar to the style of offense that I'm accustomed to, so coming in here, meeting with Bo, really feeling out ... what he likes in the passing game, what he's comfortable with and then making sure he knows what I'm comfortable with, blending it together with ultimately Coach Lanning's philosophy of running the football, being physically tough, playing clean, dictating tempo and blending it all together."
Stein was asked who have been his biggest influences offensively, and he rattled off just about every coach he's ever played and worked under while noting he's been fortunate to have been shaped by so many accomplished football minds.
"We're really based out of a pro-style offense but with spread principles -- RPOs, run-action pass, play-action pass. I like to think that we're multiple in our personnel groupings and our formations, and we want to be an attacking offense that throws the ball down the field," Stein said.
But he also reiterated it's not so much about him forcing his offensive identity on the Ducks.
"Offensively, our job is to get our best players the ball as many times as possible. Plays are highly overrated -- it's about the players, and here at Oregon we have unbelievable players. I'm really excited to work with them," he said. "... First of all you have to recognize there's some really good players here and they had a lot of success, so how do we build on that? I think we just fine-tune the details, tweak where we need to tweak and then let our kids go play.
"My big thing is set them free -- let's not overcomplicate this game. It's always been about players. We have great players here, put them in really good positions here to make plays, let our quarterback go, we'll have a lot of fun."
Nix said he returned for his final season because he wanted to "exhaust" everything he could do in college and not have any regrets.
In order to do that now, he is working to build the same kind of connection with Stein that he had with Dillingham, who had coached him for a year previously at Auburn and was key to bringing him to Eugene.
That remains an ongoing process but one Nix emphasized he is really encouraged by and enjoying so far.
"He's an easy guy to get along with, knows a lot of ball -- just a great guy, foundational great guy. He's got a great sense of humor, he's serious when he needs to be serious, so I've just enjoyed picking up on some things from him," Nix said. "He's very knowledgeable of the game, very smart, and he's very talented too as a quarterback so it's fun to watch him do some drills and get some visual tendencies. So I'm excited to continue to grow our relationship. Obviously, it's got to be serious from coach to player, but then off the field it can be a good relationship and continue to grow that."
As it relates to Nix, Stein said he wants the veteran QB to remain mobile when the opportunity presents itself.
Again, he is aware of what Nix did last season -- he just wants to build upon that.
"Yeah, I think Bo's numbers last year, if we can get that again this year we'll be in good shape," Stein said.
