Evanson: What now for an Oregon program still reeling from their Rose Bowl defeat?

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Now what?

That’s what’s running through University of Oregon football fans’ heads roughly a week removed from what could only be described as a rough ending to an otherwise great year.

The Ducks got pounded in the Rose Bowl. An exceptionally talented, prepared and well-coached Ohio State team took them out behind the woodshed and showed them firsthand what it takes to win what Oregon and their fans want so desperately — a national championship.

The Buckeyes did what they wanted, when they wanted, and for the most part on both sides of the ball, while the Ducks struggled mightily to do anything offensively, and defensively looked confused despite weeks of preparation time.

So, in the wake of what was one of the more disappointing performances in recent Oregon football history, what should be made of what was, is and will be to come for a program inexplicably picking up the pieces from what was for the better part of three months a run towards a national title?

The answer to that question ultimately lies in your relationship with the team.

If you’re not a fan, which in all likelihood means you regularly don purple or orange, you see the College Football Playoff defeat as another failed endeavor by a program that regularly talks the talk, but hasn’t yet got the walking part down.

It’s the BCS National Championship Game against Auburn in 2011; it’s the CFP National Championship Game against Ohio State in 2015; or even the season opener against Georgia in 2022, where the eventual national champion Bulldogs defeated the Ducks 49-3.

And head coach Dan Lanning? He’s in the crosshairs of local “haters” as well, for the narrative remains — at least amongst naysayers — that the rising coaching star has yet to prove he belongs on the sport’s biggest stage.

You could argue both sentiments are bunk, for Oregon has won their share of high-profile games including their regular season meeting with the Buckeyes and their recent Big Ten title game win over Penn State more than a month ago. Of which, unless I’m mistaken, Lanning was coaching in both.

But at the same time, there are questions revolving around what’s missing from a Ducks program that simply can’t get over the hump, which is what fans of the team are concerned with and opposing fans point to when chopping the U of O program down at the knees.

It’s easy to say they’re just not good enough, but my response to that would be, who is?

There’s a reason only one team gets to win on a year-to-year basis, and there are a litany of ones as to why those winners come from a very small and elite club.

Since teams were forced to win their national championship on the field opposed to it being gifted to them by way of a vote, only six teams not part of the current SEC have won a national title. Those teams are Florida State, Clemson, Michigan, USC, Miami, and of course Ohio State who’s arguably working on their third.

I wouldn’t exactly call that a list of also-ran programs, and I’d more likely call them historically great ones who in most cases too find themselves on the outside looking in when the confetti falls every January.

It’s hard to win a national championship. In fact, it’s really hard. You have to have the players, in most cases a pretty darn good coach, now financial backing, and if we’re being fair, a little bit of luck when it comes to injuries, and now sound judgement on behalf of a College Football Playoff Committee that habitually lacks such.

I’d argue Oregon has the financial backing, is close on the coaching front, and even closer when it comes to the players.

Injuries and sound judgement on behalf of the CFP Committee? That’s beyond their control, but neither were their friend when push came to shove this season.

The Ducks were the best team this regular season, but they weren’t the most talented and they were forced fed that reality on Jan. 1 against Ohio State. They were good but not great in areas that matter, and while that may very well have worked against everyone remaining in the playoff not wearing scarlet and grey, it mattered immensely against the ones that were wearing it and doing so at the peak of their powers.

Where does that leave the team and people in their camp? Still in a very good spot, but also in a place their haters love to see them — second best.

So, now what? Get better I suppose, but that’s not to say they aren’t already better than most.