Tag: Joe Lorig

Joe Lorig discusses special teams improvement, and Oregon’s increased presence at the nickel

Joe Lorig discussed the need to improve on special teams, and how UO’s nickel spot is shaping up.

When Joe Lorig came to Oregon as the special teams’ coordinator a year ago, there was a lot to improve upon. He wasn’t shy about the need for the Ducks to improve quickly, either, saying that they needed close to a complete overhaul of the unit.

Unfortunately, the team was not able to see much improvement in Lorig’s first year at the helm. They ranked near the bottom of the nation in nearly all special teams’ statistics, and still have a lot to improve upon going forward.

On Tuesday, media members got the first chance to talk to Lorig this season, and we discussed how the Ducks can get better, and how the defense is shaping up with some new faces in the secondary.

Here are some of the most notable quotes from that media session:

Stock Report: Oregon’s defense, special teams cause Ducks to fall flat

Oregon’s special teams capped off an awful season with the worst game of the year. On the other hand, rivalries in Oregon have never looked better.

If the Oregon Ducks were an actual stock, then the people who were left holding their shares after Saturday’s game against the Oregon State Beavers would be in a world of hurt.

Not only were those stakeholders left holding onto a bunch of stock for a team that is likely going to the Holiday Bowl, or the Alamo Bowl, but you can guess that the same stakeholders were likely pretty ambitious early on in that third quarter, buying up as much stock as they could with it looking like the Ducks were headed to Las Vegas for a matchup with the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

According to columnist John Canzano, that was the case with at least one major Oregon booster.

Now, we’re left to pick up all of the pieces and see what happens next. There are a lot of unknowns for the Ducks, including what bowl game they will go to, and who the next offensive coordinator will be. While those two main questions won’t be answered for a bit, let’s take stock on this last game and see who impressed us, and more importantly, who disappointed on Saturday.

Here is our weekly stock report following the Oregon State debacle.

With endless options, Ducks to use ‘return by committee’ method for special teams work

Oregon has an endless list of guys capable of making plays in the return game. It sounds like they will all get a shot.

In the past couple of decades of Oregon Ducks football, there have been a few players to stand out in the special teams landscape thanks to their abilities to return punts and kicks.

Guys like Cliff Harris, or Keenan Howry, or DeAnthony Thomas, or LaMichael James come to mind, all possessing blazing speed and quick agility that makes them perfectly suited for the position. It’s always one of the things that fans want to know most about a team whose roster is in the building stage — who will be the kick and punt returners?

For the Ducks in 2022, that question doesn’t have a simple answer.

“I really think that will be by committee,” said Joe Lorig, the special team’s coordinator. “You know, I think we’ve got a bunch of guys that are really capable that I’m really excited about. So yeah, not because I’m trying to hide anything just because I think it’d be by committee. I really do.”

That’s a pretty large committee. Throughout fall camp, the following players have been seen rotating through kick and punt return drills, all taking relatively equal reps for the most part:

  • Christian Gonazlez (Kick Return)
  • Kris Hutson (Kick Return/Punt Return)
  • Seven McGee (Kick Return/Punt Return)
  • Sean Dollars (Kick Return)
  • Jordan James (Kick Return)
  • Bucky Irving (Kick Return)
  • Byron Cardwell (Kick Return)
  • Noah Whittington (Kick Return)
  • Chase Cota (Punt Return)
  • Josh Delgado (Punt Return)

The rotation of these players could be sporadic as well. Lorig clarified that he could foresee multiple players fielding kicks and punts in a single game, and it won’t always change on a week-by-week basis.

“Even within the game, whatever, who’s the most fresh? Who’s hot that day?” Lorig said. “You know, that kind of thing. I really feel like we have a number of guys in both those areas that are that can be pretty effective, depending on the situation.”

One has to wonder if that list will get trimmed down as the season goes on and the team finds a select number of players they feel comfortable with. To start, though, as a new coach on the staff, Lorig wanted to get a wide range of guys who could bring something to the table.

“I didn’t look at anything that anybody had done before,” Lorig said. “You just kind of know by the position that they play. And then talk to him. You know, do you guys want to return kicks, you wanna return punts?”

That question of ‘Do you want to return kicks?’ is often dangerous though, and Lorig may need to be careful of who is in earshot when he asks it. If a group of defensive linemen is nearby, the answer is going to be an emphatic yes.

“I’m pestered every day by all the defensive linemen, all the linebackers, everybody wants to be the kick returner and punt returner. So, yeah, most of them are just joking around but yeah, everybody wants to do it. But we’re gonna put people on the field that, number one we trust are gonna own the ball and put us in good situations and then number two that can make plays for us.”

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Joe Lorig details where Oregon’s kicker duties stand ahead of game week

Joe Lorig wasn’t quick to tip his hand on the kicker depth chart, but that position group seems to be making a ton of progress.

One of the biggest position battles that fans of the Oregon Ducks are focusing on during fall camp is at quarterback, and understandably so. However, the job of starting kicker is still very much up in the air, and looks to be a highly contested competition.

Camden Lewis is the incumbent, but the Ducks brought in a host of players through the transfer portal to compete with him this off-season. From Alex Bales to Andrew Boyle, there are some powerful legs in the Ducks’ special teams room during fall camp, all vying for the top spot on the depth chart.

With 10 days until the first game of the season, I asked special team coach Joe Lorig about where that competition currently stands, and when he might be able to announce the starters at each position.

“What’s today, Tuesday? Wednesday? Probably 10 days away,” Lorig said. “I’m gonna have as big of a sample size as I can before we make a decision. So more kicks, more opportunities.”

Lorig may not be too quick to show his cards when it comes to naming a starter, but he feels confident that whoever gets the ultimate top rung on the depth chart will be ready and reliable.

“I think they’re doing a great job you know, we’ve got a really healthy competition at kick-off and at field goal,” Lorig said. “So they’ve done exactly what I wanted. I wanted to bring in some guys that could actually compete and play at this level and there’s a couple other guys here that have experience and definitely a push them for sure.”

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5 developments Duck fans would love to see in Dan Lanning’s first year with Oregon

The Dan Lanning era of Oregon football is almost here. These are 5 developments and changes fans should hope come to fruition when the Ducks take the field.

The start of the college football season is getting close, and as September 3rd draws near, we can begin to envision what the season will look like for the Oregon Ducks.

Though they are all important, the 2022 season will hold some extra gravity for the Ducks, since it is the first time that Dan Lanning will be at the helm in Eugene. After several years of Mario Cristobal — an era that brought a lot of success on the field, but a number of frustrations when it came to the style of play — fans are hoping for a new start that will bring some of the flash and aggressiveness back to Oregon football.

What will that look like on the field, though? We tried to pinpoint a few areas where we could be focused on. Here are 5 developments that we want to see under Lanning’s first year with the Ducks:

Rich Rodriguez plucks Penn State analyst for Jacksonville State staff

Penn State loses analyst to coordinator job with Rich Rodriguez and Jacksonville State.

It seems like so long ago that Rich Rodriguez was the hottest name in college football, lifting up West Virginia to heights they never imagined. He rode that momentum all the way to a big payday from Michigan but the Big Ten quickly humbled him and his wave of momentum. He finds himself back in the Big Ten though, not to coach, but to get a coach for his new staff.

Rodriguez took over the job at Jacksonville State in November of last year. The FCS program has seen recent success and Rodriguez’s offense is a reason for further optimism. To help run his offense he decided the best man for the job was on [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag]’s staff, [autotag]Rod Smith[/autotag].

Rodriguez had a short term in the Big Ten coaching Michigan going 15-22 in three seasons before being fired. Michigan had themselves on quite the carousel after losing the once-hot commodity, it seems they are now more than happy with Michigan alum, Jim Harbaugh.

As for Rod Smith, he joined Penn State’s staff just this year after being an offensive analyst for Bronco Mendenhall’s staff at Virginia. Once Mendenhall resigned, Smith drove north and got a job with Franklin. In a short time frame, he turned that into an even bigger role now with Rodriguez.

Smith will be the new offensive coordinator for Jacksonville State in 2022  but Rodriguez didn’t just promote some offensive analyst. Smith is actually reuniting with Rodriguez. The two worked together at Glenville State, one of Rodriguez’s first head coaching jobs that helped him mold his offensive flair with a no-huddle offense.

His quarterback at Glenville State? Rod Smith.

Smith also served as an offensive coordinator for Rodriguez when Rodriguez was the head coach at Arizona. Smith was also a part of Rodriguez’s coaching staff at West Virginia and Michigan before that.

Even though he was only on staff for a short time, we can add another name to the James Franklin coaching tree. James Franklin has long had success being a pit stop of sorts for college coaches and Smith proved to be no exception.

Just this year, Franklin has had to replace two coordinators in [autotag]Brent Pry[/autotag] and [autotag]Joe Lorig[/autotag] on the defensive and special teams. He brought in coach looking for a rehab stint of sorts in Manny Diaz to be the defensive coordinator., It remains to be seen just how long Diaz will be sticking around.

The bottom line here is Franklin will always be sending coaches off to promotions and he will always find more than suitable replacements. This is a trait that should not be overlooked when analyzing how we view Franklin.

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Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig leaves Penn State for Oregon

Penn State searching for new special teams corodinator

Penn State head coach James Franklin is now officially searching for a new special teams coordinator. Joe Lorig is returning closer to his home to take on the role of special teams coordinator and nickels coach for the Oregon Ducks.

Lorig, a native of Washington and a graduate of West Oregon University, will be returning to a job that is much closer to home, which is part of the draw of the Oregon job for Lorig.

“Growing up in the Pacific Northwest and attending college in the state, the University of Oregon has always been my dream job,” Lorig said in a released statement via Oregon’s athletics department. Lorig is also reunited with Orgeon head coach Dan Lanning. Both coached together at Memphis.

“There’s a lot of things that factor into this, as you guys could imagine, some professional and some personal,” Franklin said in his postgame comments after the Outback Bowl when asked about the possibility of Lorig being pursued by Oregon. “I think you guys know I’ve been pretty adamant in the past about the type of moves, lateral moves, but there’s also some factors when it comes to where guys are from. Both Joe and his wife are from there, so that factors into this thing as well.”

This is the second staff member Franklin has lost this week for what can be perceived as a lateral move as far as positions go. Penn State’s director of football operations Michael Hazel, who had been a longtime staff member with Franklin dating back to their time together at Vanderbilt, left the Nittany Lions to join former defensive coordinator Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, where Pry is now the head coach.

The departure of Lorig means Penn State has an opening for special teams coordinator. Lorig also coached the outside linebackers so that role is currently vacant as well for the time being. However, the addition of Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator is plugging a hole at defensive coordinator and Diaz or some slight reshuffling of responsibilities on the remaining staff could fill the linebacker coaching position. But the role of special items coordinator could result in a fresh hire from outside the Penn State staff.

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Oregon Ducks to bring in Penn State’s Joe Lorig as new special teams coordinator

Penn State’s Joe Lorig, a Washington local, is set to become the new special teams coordinator for the Oregon Ducks.

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The day after their bowl game, the Oregon Ducks made a number of reported coaching moves, with several guys set to be hired on the new Dan Lanning staff.

One of those guys is former Penn State special teams coordinator Joe Lorig, who will join Oregon in the same position. Lorig has experience with Lanning after spending two seasons together on the Memphis Tigers staff.

Lorig is a pacific northwest native, having played and coached football at Western Oregon in Monmouth. While Lorig is a strong special teams coach, he will also have some help from new co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge, who has coached special teams at Baylor for the past few years.

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