Oregon graduate assistant Jake Long to leave Ducks, join Alabama staff
A key Oregon defensive assistant is set for a return to his old stomping grounds.
On Saturday, Ducks’ graduate assistant Jake Long took to Twitter to announce that he is headed back to Alabama to join Nick Saban’s coaching staff.
Long is the third Oregon staffer to leave during this offseason, along with former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham and co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Powledge.
Long, who worked alongside Oregon head coach Dan Lanning with the Crimson Tide previously, joined the Ducks’ staff last offseason and played an integral role in 2022. Long primarily worked with the program’s inside linebackers under defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi.
A Vestavia Hills, Ala., native who played defensive line for the Crimson Tide through the 2016 season, Long served as a graduate assistant and analyst under Sabana before joining Lanning in Eugene.
Alabama has not yet named its next defensive coordinator after former DC Pete Golding left the program for the same role at Ole Miss earlier this month.
Under Lupoi and Long, Oregon’s linebackers delivered mixed results during the 2022 campaign.
Noah Sewell was projected by many to be in the All-American conversation before the year began, but delivered the worst season of his collegiate career and has departed for the 2023 NFL Draft. Former 5-star signee Justin Flowe failed to lock down a consistent role in the Ducks’ defense after a two-year injury layoff and opted to transfer to Arizona once the season ended.
Sophomore Jackson LaDuke, a former 3-star signee, also hit the transfer portal and has since committed to Nevada.
The Ducks’ most productive linebacker was true sophomore Jeffrey Bassa, a converted defensive back who played 647 snaps in his first season as a starter. Bassa made nine starts and finished second on the team with 62 tackles, but struggled as a run defender at times.
In the offseason, Oregon dipped into the portal to add former Iowa standout Jestin Jacobs and former Arizona State reserve Connor Soelle.
Oregon is set to return Keith Brown, Devon Jackson, and Harrison Taggart at linebacker as well. The Ducks have also signed Jerry Mixon a San Francisco, Calif., native who is the 676 overall prospect and No. 71 linebacker in the class of 2023 according to the On3 Consensus.
Transfer portal background information
The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.
The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.
Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.
The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.
A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.
The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.
