Oregon Faces A Gauntlet in 2026 - Can They Make it Through?

The Oregon Ducks will be considered an early contender for the National Championship next season. They have a lot going for them in 2026. They return one of the most talented offenses in the country, and possibly the best defensive line in college football. How good can this team be? We’re about to find out.

The Ducks will be running a gauntlet next season. The Big Ten released the 2026 schedule on January 27^th, and we got an early glimpse at what lays ahead for Dan Lanning and his team. It was pretty clear that next season will not be an easy one. The Ducks will face a number of obstacles that stand in the way of Oregon returning to the college football playoff.

How hard will it be for this team to make it through next season unscathed? Early analysis would indicate it will be very hard. There are some obvious pitfalls waiting for the Ducks, such as Ohio State at the Shoe, but there are also some challenges that are less obvious and we won’t know how difficult they will be until Oregon faces them.

The Less Obvious Obstacles Facing Oregon

You can look at Oregon’s schedule in 2026 and it’s easy to pick out the teams that will be tough. We will get into this later in the article, but it’s likely that Oregon could face several ranked opponents on their schedule. It’s not the obvious tough opponents, however, that are concerning. It’s the unknown of the teams with new head coaches that present a less obvious obstacle for the Ducks.

The team from Eugene will play five opponents with new head coaches in 2026, and three of them are right at the start of the season. The Ducks face Oklahoma State in week 2, Portland State in week 3, and UCLA in week 6. At the end of the season they get Michigan and Michigan State back-to-back in November.

I don’t think anyone is sweating Portland State, but Oklahoma State hired Eric Morris from North Texas to replace Mike Gundy. The Ducks were a major contributing factor to Gundy’s demise last season, but now they’re facing a coach that led North Texas to a 12-2 season in 2025, and he brought quarterback Drew Mestemaker with him. Mestemaker was highly coveted in the transfer portal after an exception season with the Mean Green in 2025.

How quickly can Morris turn around the Cowboys? Hard to say, but it’s not inconceivable that OSU will be much more difficult next season, and Oregon has to play them right off the bat in week 2. This game shouldn’t be the cupcake that it was in 2025.

Familiar Faces in New Places

Not only will Oklahoma State be more dangerous the second time around, but the Ducks will face a familiar opponent in Bob Chesney at UCLA. The last time Lanning and Oregon faced Chesney, he was coaching the James Madison Dukes in the playoff. Now he’s coaching the Bruins and he brought some of his star players with him.

UCLA has been a dumpster fire since they went 9-4 in 2022, and Chesney is bringing a winning pedigree to the old Blue Blood. He was 21-6 in two seasons at JMU, and 132-52 as a head coach. The Bruins have the 11^th best transfer class currently, which includes his star running back Wayne Knight from the Dukes. It’s not hard to imagine that UCLA will be much improved in 2026.

Lastly, we have Kyle Whittingham, who hasn’t been much of a problem for Lanning, but has a good track record of building up Utah. He’s now with the Michigan Wolverines, who the Ducks haven’t faced since 2024. Whittingham was 177-88 with the Utes, which has been his only stop as a head coach.

Can he turn things around for Michigan? They have a lot of talent, and he has to be an upgrade over Sherrone Moore. Either way, this should be a tougher game than the one at the Big House in 2024.

The Obvious Obstacle Facing Oregon

Now that we have discussed the less obvious challenges for next season, let’s look at the ones that jump right off the page.

The first thing that every Oregon fan would call out about 2026 is the game at Ohio State in early November. This is clearly the biggest threat to the Ducks having an unbeaten season next year. Can Dan Lanning and his team repeat what Mario Cristobal did in 2021? It’s not going to be easy.

The Buckeyes will also be one of the clear favorites next year, with Julian Sayin returning and Jeremiah Smith back for his third year. It will be very difficult to go into Columbus and come out with a win. If both teams are undefeated at this point, it will almost assuredly be the site for College Gameday and one of the biggest games of the year.

This game will likely be a full on brawl between these two teams, but what could make this game more difficult? The timing.

Scheduling Could Be the Ultimate Wildcard

We have already discussed the unknowns of some of the opponents and their new head coaches, as well as the marquee matchup against Ohio State, but it’s the timing that could wreak havoc on the Ducks schedule.

For the matchup against Ohio State, having the game in November could be a gift or a curse. Thinking positively, the team will have 8 games under their belt by the time they face the Buckeyes, and this should mean that they will have worked out any kinks and be a well-oiled machine by November 7^th.

On the flip side, as we saw in 2025, this could also mean injuries. This was around the same time that Oregon had key injuries to Dakorien Moore and Gary Bryant Jr. This could be heavily impacted by when Oregon has their bye.

The Ducks will not have a bye after week 5. They will play 8 straight games from October 10^th against the Bruins, all the way to November 28^th against the Washington Huskies. As we saw in 2024 against the Wisconsin Badgers, that kind of stretch without a rest can really take a toll on a team.

Ohio State is smack in the middle of that stretch, with Michigan the following week. That will be brutal.

Strength of Schedule Shouldn’t Be a Problem

Unlike last season, I don’t think strength of schedule is going to be an argument that Oregon has to endure. There are several obvious teams that will likely be ranked when the Ducks face them, such as USC, Ohio State, Michigan, and possibly the Huskies. We could also see Nebraska or Illinois sneak into the top 25.

Dan Lanning and his team will have to make it through some of these tough matchups, as well as that brutal stretch of 8 games to secure a spot in the playoff. One loss shouldn’t be a problem, two could be tricky, and three likely means you’re out. Can the Ducks make it through the gauntlet? If they do, they will have earned every bit of it. Nobody should be able to claim this is a cupcake schedule.