Oregon-based columnist writes long tweet defending former Duck football coach Mark Helfrich

This is a really interesting conversation.

Every now and then, a commentator raises a very interesting subject. So much of what we write and talk about at Trojans Wire — and what commentators generally discuss about various sports — is familiar ground, rehashed constantly in slightly different forms. Whether it’s recruiting, the hot seat, the coaching carousel, or the Heisman Trophy, we often spend a lot of time revisiting the same topics over and over again over several months.

Sometimes, though, a truly fresh topic emerges. As sports evolve (or devolve, depending on your opinion), new fields of discussion and new battlegrounds of inquiry emerge. In college sports, the new landscape we have right now has been created by the liberalized transfer portal process, combined with NIL dynamics which have changed the game for various schools.

These new parameters in college sports are making us rethink normal assumptions about coaches and how good they are at their jobs. More precisely: Are coaches driving the bus in recruiting, or is this more about the NIL infrastructure at a program?

In other words: Is Dan Lanning beating Lincoln Riley in football recruiting, or is Oregon’s NIL operation beating USC’s in recruiting? These are new questions, and they’re worth investigating.

One Oregon-based commentator certainly thinks Dan Lanning — for all of his skills as a recruiter — is benefiting from resources and realities a former Oregon football coach, Mark Helfrich, did not have at his disposal.

Check out this long tweet from Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian and Oregon Live on Mark Helfrich. It’s worth thinking about:

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