After one year of Tim DeRuyter, the Oregon defensive coordinator duties transfer to Tosh Lupoi, who spent the last three seasons bouncing around the NFL as the defensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns (2019), Atlanta Falcons (2020), and Jacksonville Jaguars (2021).
Now, he returns to the collegiate game, where he built his reputation over five years on staff at Alabama, including two seasons as co-defensive coordinator and 2018 as the DC under Nick Saban. He also overlapped there briefly with Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning in 2015, when Lupoi was the outside linebackers coach for the Crimson Tide and Lanning a graduate assistant working with the same position group.
The two have come quite a ways since then, both contributing to national championship seasons -- Lupoi in 2015 and 2017 with the Tide and Lanning, of course, this past season at Georgia.
“I am incredibly excited to have Tosh Lupoi joining us here at Oregon,” Lanning said in announcing the hire back in January. "We want to play championship-level defense on a consistent basis, and Coach Lupoi is one of the very best defensive minds in the country. I am looking forward to seeing him work with student-athletes again after spending the last few seasons in the NFL, an experience that will be very valuable for our program.”
Lanning established himself as one of the nation’s best run-stopping coaches as the defensive coordinator at Georgia, helping the Bulldogs yield the fewest rushing yards per game in the country in 2019 (74.64 YPG) and 2020 (72.30), as well as the second-fewest in 2021 (78.87).
Combining those resumes gives some idea of the desired identity of the Oregon defense moving forward.
It will be interesting to see how that blends with a unit that led the Pac-12 and ranked tied for fifth nationally in interceptions last season.
Let’s take a closer look at the Ducks’ new defensive staff and what they’re inheriting:
