Young Oregon staff will keep pedal down in recruiting
When Oregon reached national championship games in 2010 and 2014, it did so largely with a homegrown staff of veteran coaches. Head coaches Chip Kelly (2010) and Mark Helfrich (2014) both had been promoted from within, and assistants such as Gary Campbell (started in 1983), Don Pellum (1993), Steve Greatwood (2000) and Nick Aliotti (1999 to 2013) carried long tenures with the program.
But Oregon pivoted to a different staff model after firing Helfrich, bringing in coaches without ties to its program, and doubling down on recruiting. Cristobal showed the new approach could work well, and Oregon appears to be taking the same strategy with Lanning.
What first stands out about Lanning and his staff is their youth. Not only is Lanning young (35), but so are several of his key assistants, including offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham (31), defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi (40) and co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge (34).
None of the new Oregon coaches previously worked at the school. Several have Pac-12 ties, including Lupoi, offensive line coach Adrian Klemm and cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin. But only Martin (
Colorado) and co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Junior Adams (
Washington) joined Oregon directly from other Pac-12 programs.
Those who closely follow recruiting need no introduction to Oregon's coaches. Lupoi was just 29 when he
made ESPN.com's list of top 25 national recruiters in 2011, as defensive line coach at
Cal, his alma mater. He continued to build his recruiting profile at Washington before joining Nick Saban's staff at
Alabama.
Martin got his start as a high school coach near Los Angeles and has recruited the area for multiple Pac-12 schools (Washington, UCLA,
Arizona, Colorado). Klemm, an Inglewood, California, native, also is no stranger to the Southern California recruiting scene, as a UCLA assistant from 2012 to 2016. Several other assistants, including Adams and Drew Mehringer, are known mainly for their recruiting prowess.
Lanning, a former recruiting coordinator at
Arizona State and
Memphis, has quickly built his profile as an elite recruiter who has spent time in different areas of the country.
The new staff isn't without controversy, as
Klemm received a two-year show-cause order at UCLA in 2016, and the
NCAA investigated Lupoi during his time at Washington.
What seems clear is Oregon's commitment to keeping the pedal down in recruiting after Cristobal, who enhanced the possibilities for what the program could do on the trail.