News came out on Monday morning that the Oregon Ducks were losing offensive line coach Adrian Klemm, who was heading to the NFL and accepting a job with the New England Patriots. It is undoubtedly a great move for Klemm, and the right step in his career, but it also leaves Dan Lanning and the Ducks in a tough spot when it comes to filling out that spot on the coaching staff in an expedient fashion that has the team ready to roll when spring football comes around in a month.
Fortunately for Oregon, this coaching move comes after the recruiting cycle has closed, and well before the next transfer portal window opens. Once the Ducks do make a hire, they will have 15 practices to get everyone on the same page in the offensive trenches and head into the season hoping to boast one of the top lines in the nation once again.
So who will the Ducks end up hiring to fill Klemm’s shoes? That’s the million-dollar question. While media members can throw out names and put out lists of potential candidates, we’ve seen Lanning make a number of hires in the past that could easily be considered off the radar. Nobody had UTSA’s Will Stein, or Tulane’s Chris Hampton on their radar before Lanning hired them, and there’s a good chance that the OL coach will fit the same billing.
What we do know, though, is that Lanning likes to hire coaches who have a connection to the program, whether it be via a relationship with him or another coach on the staff. In order to try and find some candidates that fit that mold, I went back through Oregon’s offensive staff history and tried to find some OL coaching candidates who might make sense for the Ducks.
Here’s my list of potential coaches that Oregon could look at to take over as the next OL coach: