Even in this wacky 2024 season filled with change across the board, the undefeated Ducks have still seen a great amount of consistency.
This past weekend, Oregon handled one of its oldest former Pac-12 rivals, as the Ducks routed the UCLA Bruins 34-13 to mark their first victory as members of the Big Ten. This upcoming weekend, the Ducks will play their first Big Ten game in Autzen Stadium, but this contest still includes its fair share of familiarity.
That comes in the coaching battle between Oregon’s head coach Dan Lanning and Michigan State’s head coach Jonathan Smith, who coached the Oregon State Beavers up until this year.
Smith served as the Beavers’ starting quarterback for three seasons from 1999-2001, after which he was named a graduate assistant in Corvallis. After winding his way through some of the nation’s most prestigious coaching staffs, Smith received his first head coaching position at his alma mater ahead of the 2018 season.
After reviving the middling Beavers — highlighted by a 10-win season in 2022 capped off by a comeback victory against Lanning’s Ducks — Smith and the Spartans saw their opportunity to achieve a similar transformation.
“I’ve always been very impressed with Jonathan, I just think that his teams are always playing really good football…they’re always tough teams, and they can win in a variety of ways,” Lanning said to GoDucks last season before the Ducks’ game against Oregon State.
With Smith came his tough form of football, characterized by the 31-straight rushing attempts that led to the Beavers’ comeback against the Ducks. In that game, it was running back Damien Martinez taking the charge, and in place of Martinez, the Spartans enlist the talent of Kay’ron Lynch-Adams, a transfer from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
In the first five games of the season, Lynch-Adams carried the ball 58 times for 306 yards and a touchdown in a split backfield with Nate Carter, who carried 53 times for 234 yards and a touchdown of his own.
Michigan State’s ground-game trio gets rounded out by Aidan Chiles, the starting quarterback, who has taken 33 carries for 86 yards and a team-leading three rushing touchdowns.
“It’s certainly unique to [Smith’s teams], there’s not many people that play that same brand of football, and his teams are hard-nosed, tough kids,” Lanning said before the matchup against Oregon State in 2023.
In their only two contests as head coaches, Lanning and Smith have split the series, and the home team took the victory each time. In 2022, the Beavers comeback and 268 yards on the ground led them to a 38-34 win. However, in 2023, the Ducks held Smith’s physical offense to just 68 rushing yards, forced OSU to pass and took an easy 31-7 victory.
With this being the first contest between Oregon and MSU since 2018, the sense of similarity to previous years ends with the head coaches. This season, the Spartans have endured blowouts from both sides in their five games up until this point, most recently enduring a 38-7 thrashing from No. 3 Ohio State.
While the two coaches ended up at different ends of the Big Ten spectrum this season, one can never doubt an opponent who knows what to expect, especially one who’s been embroiled in Oregon’s most bitter rivalry.
Each carries one win against the other into Friday night’s blockbuster, and each coach saw their game plan come to fruition en route to a resounding victory. Even with the Ducks and Spartans seemingly heading in separate directions, this specific point of intrigue may prove even more intriguing come gameday.
