The mighty Oregon Ducks. Nike designs, cool fight songs and a consistently really good football team.
The college football landscape will look extremely different in 2024 with a 12-team playoff, new rules and conference realignment that saw the PAC-12 disintegrate with four of its best schools joining the Big Ten Conference.
The Ducks made a long list of strong moves in the offseason picking up top players from the transfer portal, signing highly-touted recruits and kept their head coach from getting poached by SEC powerhouses. In their first year with the Big Ten, the Michigan Wolverines will be taking on Oregon in the Big House in the cold that could have big playoff implications.
Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at what’s been cooking on the West Coast, breaking down the Ducks’ offseason and what their expectations are for the 2024 season.
The Basics:
Game info: November 2, kickoff time TBD (Michigan Stadium, television network TBD)
2023 record: 12-2, 8-1
2024 projected wins: 10.5 (per FanDuel)
Roster Moves:
Key draft losses: QB Bo Nix, C Jackson Powers-Johnson, WR Troy Franklin, CB Khyree Jackson, DL Brandon Dorlus, S Evan Williams, RB Bucky Irving, LB Jamal Hill, DT Popo Aumavae (UDFA), DT Taki Taimani (UDFA), OL Steven Jones (UDFA), DL Casey Rogers (UDFA)
Key portal losses: WR Josh Delgado, S Kodi DeCambra, CB Cole Martin, RB Dante Dowdell, QB Ty Thompson, WR Ashton Cozart, CB Trikweze Bridges, TE Casey Kelly, DL Johnny Bowens III
Key portal additions: QB Dillon Gabriel, QB Dante Moore, DL Jamaree Caldwell, WR Evan Stewart, CB Jabbar Muhammad, CB Kam Alexander, DL Derrick Harmon, S Peyton Woodyard, S Kobe Savage, OT Matthew Bedford
State of the Program:
The Ducks came within one game of making it to the college football playoff, but ultimately fell to the Washington Huskies in the PAC-12 title game to end their season early. Nonetheless, there may not be a more complete team entering 2024 than Oregon.
Despite eight players getting drafted to the NFL and losing 20 players to the transfer portal, the Ducks reloaded, bringing in not one, but two starting-caliber quarterbacks in Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore, replacing top WR Troy Franklin with Evan Stewart, picking up Jabbar Muhammad from their rival, and brought in two starting-caliber safeties in Peyton Woodyard and Kobe Savage to replace Khyree Jackson and Evan Williams. The Ducks added a total of 14 players, which ranked No. 2 in the nation, trailing only Ole Miss, which added 19 players this offseason.
That is not all, however. Oregon also picked up commitments from a ton of the top high school players in the country such as five stars DE Elijah Rushing and WR Gatlin Bair, and four stars Aydin Breland, Jeremiah McClellan and JacQawn McRoy. By signing two five-star recruits and 16 four-star players, Oregon ranked fourth in the country in high school, and third overall.
Starting with their QB, Gabriel spent three seasons at UCF before taking on a new challenge at Oklahoma over the last two years. During his final season at Oklahoma in 2023, he had arguably the best season of his career yet. He finished with 3,660 yards, 30 touchdowns, six interceptions, a 69.3 percent completion percentage, 373 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. Now, Gabriel will use his final year of college eligibility playing for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks.
As for his targets, Troy Franklin was the main deep threat when Nix wanted to go up top, but the Duck receiving corps is okay without him. Texas A&M transfer Evan Stewart hasn’t cracked his full potential yet but has shown signs of promise, ranking second on the Aggies in 2023 in catches (38), touchdown receptions (4), average yards per game (64.3) and third in total yards (514). Tez Johnson caught ten touchdown passes and came close to getting 1,200 yards last season and Traeshon Holden is dangerous, too. All-Pac-12 TE Terrance Ferguson also caught 42 passes and six scores.
Defensively, the transfer combination of Derrick Harmon (Michigan State) and Jamaree Caldwell (Houston) should be interesting to watch. Behind them, Jabbar Muhammad might be the most important of the transfers as a No. 1 lockdown corner with 28 broken up passes, four picks and 117 tackles over the last three seasons. Starring at Washington last year, he should now be an All-Big Ten performer at Oregon.
The Ducks have a very complete team, but they will be tested right off the bat and will continue to need to step up every week of the season against the gauntlet that is the new Big Ten. After playing Oregon State, Ohio State, UCLA, Michigan and Washington, we will have a much better understanding of the talent this team has. We will just need to wait and see.
