Chris Hampton knows how to build from close-to-scratch.

As Oregon football’s safeties coach in 2025, the Ducks’ new defensive coordinator pieced together an entirely new secondary, built from a freshman, two redshirt-freshmen and two first-year transfers. Their road to the CFP semifinal round was led by that defense, which finished fifth in yards per game allowed, second in opponent pass yards per game and shut out No. 4 Texas Tech University in the Orange Bowl.

“Our secondary has gotten better every single year that he’s been here,” head coach Dan Lanning said. “Guys are playing at a high level.
You talk about guys performing beyond their ability, some of those guys were having their best season being a part of our program.”

The ceiling, though, may be higher.

“I think we can get better,” Hampton said at his first press conference on March 14. “I think we can obviously grow, right? We haven’t got to where we want to go — we’ve been good on defense. We want to be elite; we want to be the best. We haven’t been the best.”

In 2026, Hampton will be a defensive coordinator for the first time since he left the role at Tulane University to join the Ducks in 2023. He won’t have to build from scratch this time, in large part due to several of the NFL Draft-eligible defensive players’ decisions to return to Eugene. He’ll get those three underclassman defensive backs, plus his entire defensive line to become the best.

After Oregon exited the College Football Playoff in its 56-22 loss to No. 1 Indiana, Hampton got to work. Over the offseason, he met with freshman All-American cornerback Brandon Finney Jr. for a conversation about improvement. They didn’t talk much about 2025, Hampton said, but about where he can improve.

Finney, the defensive MVP of that Orange Bowl shutout with two interceptions, was a staple of Hampton’s back-end rebuild. Opposite him was redshirt-freshman Ify Obidegwu, who missed his freshman season with injury. Redshirt-freshman safety Aaron Flowers emerged from a talented group to partner transfer safety Dillon Thieneman.

While Thieneman and nickel Jadon Canady won’t be back in 2026, Finney, Obidegwu and Flowers will. One of Hampton’s philosophies, drawn from that conversation with Finney, whom he says is someone that can push too hard sometimes: “You’d rather say ‘Whoa’ instead of ‘Go.’”

On the front end, Oregon is returning all four starters from a defensive line that ranked 19th in yards per rush allowed and fifth in yards per play allowed. First, it was Bear Alexander, who announced his return before the Ducks had even played a CFP game. A’Mauri Washington, Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti followed.

“I think all those guys came back with the opportunity and the expectation to get better,” Hampton said. “They all want to grow. They all could have went pro, like you said, and they all decided to come back for another season. I think they all believe that we have unfinished business as a team, and then they all have individual goals to improve themselves as players.”

For Hampton, who will return to a playcalling role for the first time since leaving Tulane, the focus is on that growth for those players, and on the goal he can’t ignore.

“I want to be the best defense in the country. We all want to be the best defense in the country,” Hampton said. “We want to win a national championship. There’s no secret about that, right?”