For the last two years, former head coach Mario Cristobal and former offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead captained an Oregon Ducks offense that lacked pace and big-play ability.

Now, head coach Dan Lanning takes over and has emphasized his desire to play with tempo and pace. He’s handed the reins to offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to make that happen.

With spring practice set to start March 10, we take a closer look at the Ducks' new offensive staff as a whole and what we know about the coaches so far.

Dillingham spent the last two seasons as the OC at Florida State, where he helped quarterback Jordan Travis take leaping strides as a fourth-year sophomore in 2021, completing 62.9 percent of his passes for 1,539 yards, 15 touchdowns and 6 interceptions (after completing 55 percent of his passes with 6 TDs and 6 picks in more limited action the year before).

At Oregon, Dillingham will have a similar task of mentoring a young quarterback room of Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield, neither of whom have any significant experience holding the reigns of an offense.

To offset that inexperience, he brought in a familiar quarterback in transfer Bo Nix, whom Dillingham worked with as the OC and QBs coach at Auburn in 2019, when Nix set career-highs with 2,542 passing yards and 16 TDs (with 6 INTs) as a freshman.

All eyes will be on his decision of who will start at quarterback between those three.

The quarterback decision defines the entire offense. Whoever wins the competition must carry out Lanning’s vision of playing up-tempo football.

If Thompson or Butterfield emerges as the lead candidate to start, it allows the Ducks to align their growth throughout the offense. While this team is far from rebuild mode, allowing offensive stars to develop together can lead to years of success. Otherwise, Nix, who has two years of eligibility remaining if he chooses to use his bonus COVID year, could be a bridge to the future at the position.

As for what to truly expect from a Dillingham offense, though, there is still plenty to learn in general.

At Auburn, he worked under offensive-minded head coach Gus Malzahn, who was the primary play-caller at that time. At Florida State, Dillingham reunited with another offensive-minded head coach in Mike Norvell -- after previously serving as his OC in 2018 at Memphis and working with him in various capacities since 2014 at Arizona State. Norvell described their play-calling process at FSU as a "collaborative effort."

Dillingham (and Norvell) also stepped into a tough situation at Florida State, inheriting a team coming off back-to-back losing seasons, an offense that had ranked 59th nationally in 2019 (408.3 yards per game) and a bit of a mess at the QB position. Incumbent starter James Blackman was benched early in the 2020 season and eventually opted out of the final games to pursue a transfer. Last season, the Seminoles alternated between Travis and former UCF star McKenzie Milton while ranking 80th in total offense at 379.3 yards per game.

What will Dillingham's offense look like out of the shadow of Norvell and Malzahn? How much of the Florida State struggles went beyond the coaching?

Those answers should come into better focus soon this year.

Now paired with a defensive-minded head coach in Lanning, Dillingham will step more into the spotlight as a coordinator than he has been to this point, and that sets up as one of the more intriguing storylines for this Ducks team in 2022.

Meanwhile, Lanning's first Oregon offensive staff features a handful of intriguing hires in the Ducks welcome TEs coach Drew Mehringer, OL coach/run game coordinator Adrian Klemm, RBs coach Carlos Locklyn, and co-offensive coordinator/WRs coach Junior Adams.