For some schools, preparing their players for the next level is a cliché. For universities like Oregon, it’s a fact.
Oregon’s ascent to the elite of college football under head coach Dan Lanning has been rapid — and there’s no one reason to diagnose why.
Lanning and co. have been elite recruiters, landing classes near the top of the national rankings each year since his arrival.
Lanning’s ascent has been drastic, and the result of it has been the same no matter how players have come to Eugene — attending Oregon has helped shape players for the next level better than ever.
A program record eight Ducks were selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, and recently The Athletic’s Dane Brugler projected in a mock draft that 10 Ducks would be selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Records continue to be broken, and with the 2025 Ducks’ team lauded as one of the most talented in Oregon history, there’s no real reason to see why that should change anytime soon.
“We love seeing guys reach their goals and aspirations,” Lanning said after the draft in 2024. “We just talked about that. Your habits have to line up with that. But you could see a lot of guys’ habits for our team last year lined up for them to have that opportunity to get drafted.”
Those habits, combined with the elite coaching and next-level facilities that Oregon presents, have resulted in Eugene being one of the nation’s top destinations for development.
One of those draft prospects, Marcus Harper II — a former three-star lineman from Flossmoor, Illinois, stuck to Oregon despite a coaching change and embraced the coaching he received in Eugene. Now, his bet has paid off — with the lineman projected to either be a late-round selection or a sure-fire free agent signing in the draft.
“The coaching at Oregon is tremendous,” Harper said. “I always respected it; they are real with you and I’m a very transparent person.”
Helping identify undervalued prospects and develop them into some of the best players in the country has been a calling card of Lanning’s as much as the NIL checkbook and recruiting prowess.
What Lanning has done is even more remarkable when considering the implications of the current college football landscape. In a time when players are keen to quickly depart their schools in search of a bigger payday, Lanning has been able to keep his top contributors coming back year after year.
One of those stars, four-year contributor Terrance Ferguson, stayed at Oregon and has put himself in position to be a top-round pick.
“If you look at Lanning and what he’s done, every year we’ve had more and more people drafted,” Ferguson said to Bri Amaranthus of Sports Illustrated. “That’s not by luck or on accident. That’s the work that he’s put in with us in the classroom. Coach Lanning obviously has done a great job developing guys and bringing in new guys with the portal and getting a lot of elite talent to come to Eugene and make them better.”
There’s no foreseeable reason for this trend to slow down, and the Eugene to NFL pipeline is growing annually.
