Oregon targeting West Coast native and Big Ten coordinator for assistant position

Penn State special teams coordinator Joe Lorig may be coming home to the West Coast.

On Thursday, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported Lorig, who is in his third year in Happy Valley, is a target for new Oregon head coach Dan Lanning. Lorig is from Washington, and he attended Western Oregon University.

Lorig and Lanning coached at Memphis together. He served as the special teams and outside linebackers coach from 2016-2018, while Lanning was the inside linebackers coach from 2016-2017 before heading to Georgia.

The West Coast native coached a special teams unit at Memphis that finished in the top five in the FBS in kick return average twice under his guidance. On the defensive special teams side, the Tigers did not allow a single kickoff or punt return for a touchdown in his three years there.

The 48-year-old assistant’s most famous player is now-Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. Pollard tied the NCAA record with seven kickoffs returned for a touchdown in his career.

At Penn State, he has had mixed results. The unit currently ranks No. 51 in the country, with their coverage abilities significantly trumping their return abilities.

Lorig has also coached at his alma mater, Idaho State, UTEP, Central Washington, Arizona State and Utah State. He first coached with Penn State head coach James Franklin while Franklin was the receivers coach at Idaho State in 1999.

Oregon targeting other assistant with Big Ten ties

The report about Lorig is not the first out of Oregon on Thursday concerning a coach with Big Ten history.

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.