Oregon assistant leaving program for other Pac-12 job
Oregon’s season ended at the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29. Now, the Ducks are getting ready to lose one of their assistant coaches.
Rod Chance served as Oregon’s cornerbacks coach for the last two years, but is leaving to take the same job at Colorado. It was Chance’s second stint with Oregon after working as a defensive analyst in 2018.
Chance played at Rhode Island and got his coaching start at Alpharetta High School in Georgia from 2009-12. He then returned to his alma mater for his first college coaching job at URI in 2012 before moving to Vanderbilt as a defensive quality control coach from 2013-15.
Southern Utah hired him as its defensive coordinator from 2016-17 and he headed to Oregon in 2018. Chance coached at Minnesota in 2019 and returned to the Ducks in 2020.
During his career, Chance has coached six NFL Draft picks, including 2021 second-round pick Jevon Holland. Now, he’s heading to Colorado, where he’ll face his now former team again.
Oregon went 10-4 this season and fell to Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl. Now that the season’s over, the Dan Lanning era is officially underway in Eugene after Mario Cristobal left for Miami. Bryan McClendon served as the Ducks’ interim head coach during the bowl game.
Oregon closing in on former Big Ten offensive coordinator, Texas assistant
New Oregon head coach Dan Lanning continues to aim high as he builds his staff, this time apparently looking at a young coach with over a decade of experience to lead a position group.
Per Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports, the Ducks are targeting Drew Mehringer as their next tight ends coach.
Mehringer, who turned 34 earlier this month, has already spent time at some of the nation’s top programs. He was a graduate assistant at Iowa State and Ohio State, an offensive coordinator at Rutgers, and a wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Texas, among others. This season, Mehringer was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at New Mexico.
He was named the national recruiter of the year by Rivals in 2019. Mehringer was at Texas that year, and they signed the No. 3 class in the nation according to the On3 Consensus Team Rankings. Five-star wideout Bru McCoy headlined the class, although he subsequently transferred to USC and has had a turbulent college career.
The Texas native played quarterback at Rice before an injury ended his career. He hails from Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadium.