Tag: Mark Helfrich

How Dan Lanning’s first two years compare to other Oregon Ducks head coaches

A look at how Oregon Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning’s resume through two years stacks up against past coaches in Eugene.

The second year of Dan Lanning’s tenure as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks has come to a close. He wrapped up his second year in emphatic fashion with a 45-6 win over the Liberty Flames in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on Monday. With the win, Oregon improved to 12-2 on the season, and Lanning picked up the second bowl game victory of his career.

While it’s impossible to perfectly compare coaches throughout the years because of the constantly changing landscape in the world of college football, what we’ve seen from Lanning so far has been impressive, to say the least, and has him up there with some of the best coaches that Oregon has seen over the last several decades.

Now that we have a two-year sample size to go off of, this felt like a great time to see how Lanning’s accolades from the past two years stack up compared to other coaches of the modern era who have come through the Ducks’ program, potentially look at what it might portend for the future.

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:

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich named color analyst for Ducks’ game vs. Texas Tech

There will be a familiar voice on the call for Oregon fans not traveling down to Lubbock this weekend.

For Oregon Duck fans not making the trip down to Lubbock, Texas for this weekend’s game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, there will be a familiar voice accompanying your viewing experience on television.

According to the University of Oregon’s website, former Ducks’ coach Mark Helfrich will be the FOX color analyst on the call, alongside play-by-play caller Mark Followill.

Helfrich spent his first year out of college football as an analyst for FOX before leaving to take a coaching job with the Chicago Bears. He came back to FOX in 2020 where he has been working as a color analyst since.

[lawrence-related id=47187]

Helfrich is a somewhat controversial figure in the world of Oregon sports. While he is an Oregon native who grew up in Coos Bay, Helfrich had one of the more successful coaching careers for the Ducks in recent memory, leading the team to a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff where the beat Florida State in the Rose Bowl, but lost to Ohio State in the national championship game in 2015.

Helfrich was fired by the Ducks in November of 2016 after a 4-8 record left the team at the lowest point fans had seen in years.

Despite the termination, Helfrich is largely still viewed as a positive figure in the world of Oregon sports. It will be enjoyable to hear his take on Dan Lanning and this new squad on Saturday afternoon.

The game between Oregon and Texas Tech kicks off at 4 p.m. PT on Saturday afternoon, televised by FOX.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Will Dan Lanning follow in past Oregon coaches’ footsteps with Year 2 success?

Dan Lanning is one of 5 Oregon coaches to win 10 games, and just the 3rd to do so in Year 1. Will Year 2 be just as impressive?

By almost any measure, Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning had a very successful first year in Eugene last season. He became just the fifth coach in Oregon history to notch 10 wins, and the third to do so in his first season with the team.

While there are certainly things that could have gone better — losing to rivals Oregon State and Washington in the same year is never something you want — it’s clear that Oregon fans should be encouraged and excited about what’s to come for the Ducks. Lanning has proved that he has an elite football mind, and his recruiting prowess has continued what Mario Cristobal started in Eugene, bringing some of the best players in the nation to the pacific northwest.

The question going forward will be to see how high the ceiling is in the future.

If you look back through the Oregon record books, Duck coaches have seen some great success in year two with the program. Both Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich made it to the national championship game, while Mario Cristobal won a Rose Bowl. So how will Dan Lanning’s second season with the Ducks stack up compared to his predecessors? It’s impossible to say, but he’s on a great trajectory at the very least.

In order to get a good breakdown, I went back through what I like to refer to as the “modern era” of Oregon coaches. While the Ducks have been around since 1894, a total of 39 head coaches came through the program, oftentimes only spending one or two seasons in Eugene. Until the legendary Len Casanova came along in 1951, no single coach had spent more than 5 seasons with the program. So that’s going to be where I start our modern era. Since 1951, there have been only 11 head coaches at Oregon.

So how did those coaches fare in their second year with the program? Let’s take a look:

Nebraska fires former Oregon OC Scott Frost after horrendous start

Former Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost was fired by Nebraska after an embarring home loss to Georgia Southern.

Sometimes you can’t come home again.

After an embarrassing loss to Georgia Southern at home, Nebraska informed head coach and former Oregon Duck offensive coordinator Scott Frost that his services will no longer be required.

This was to be expected after the Cornhuskers dropped the opener to Northwestern after some questionable coaching decisions and then the Cornhuskers had to surge in the second half to defeat North Dakota.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was a 45-42 loss to the Eagles last night in Lincoln. Frost’s five-year tenure ended with a 16-31 mark.

His career has been a rollercoaster to say the least. Frost was a contender to take the Oregon job after Chip Kelly left, but the Ducks turned to Mark Helfrich instead. Frost, who was the receivers coach, stayed on as offensive coordinator for two seasons before landing the Central Florida job where he flourished.

In his second season with the Knights, Frost led that team to a perfect 13-0 year which ended with a Peach Bowl win over Auburn. UCF finished No. 6 in the polls.

Moving on to his alma mater Nebraska seemed like the next logical step, but for one reason or another, it never clicked. Frost has proven is a brilliant offensive mind and will surely find another job as an offensive coordinator or a head coach job at a smaller institution.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f27mq9z7hjgk6vc6 player_id=none image=https://duckswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=29081]

Was Matt Nagy interested in Bill Lazor as offensive coordinator back in 2018?

The Bears have found their new offensive coordinator in Bill Lazor, who might’ve been a target of Matt Nagy’s from the start.

The Chicago Bears have found their new offensive coordinator in Bill Lazor, who might’ve been a target of Matt Nagy’s from the start.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson, Nagy was interested in bringing Lazor in as his offensive coordinator when he was named head coach of the Bears in 2018.

Lazor was with the Bengals from 2016-18, where he served as quarterbacks coach for a season before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2017. He helped coach Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, who could hit the free agent market this offseason.

With Lazor choosing to remain in Cincinnati in 2018, Nagy hired Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich as offensive coordinator. Helfrich was relieved of his duties shortly after the end of this disappointing season, where the Bears offense ranked near the bottom of nearly every statistical category.

While Lazor was out of the NFL this season, he served as a volunteer consultant for Penn State. And according to Dickerson, he took in some Bears practices during OTAs last spring.

Now, it looks like Nagy has his guy. And the two are going to be tasked with turning around a Bears offense that was downright abysmal last season.

[lawrence-related id=435693,435608,435607,435600,435581]

Pat Shurmur looking for offensive coordinator job – could it be with Bears?

Former Giants head coach Pat Shurmur is looking for an offensive coordinator position, and the Bears are a team that should be interested.

The Chicago Bears are currently without an offensive coordinator following the firing of Mark Helfrich. But it sounds like someone with ties to Matt Nagy that’s on the open market is looking for a job.

Former New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur, who was fired on Dec. 30, is looking to remain in coaching and wants a coordinator job, according to the New York Post.

While Shurmur’s name has been floated around as a possibility for offensive coordinator in Washington or Kansas City — should Eric Bieniemy get a head coaching gig — another team that could be interested are the Bears.

Shurmur’s reputation in grooming quarterbacks is impressive. Look no further than his work with Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones in 2019. While Jones endured rookie struggles, he passed for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Ultimately the Giants didn’t have enough pieces around the young quarterback, and Shurmur will be looking for a job elsewhere.

Someone that would benefit from the hiring of Shurmur would be Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, who will be entering his fourth season. Trubisky took several steps back in 2019, and his future is in question unless he can drastically turn things around in 2020.

But there’s also the possibility that Chicago isn’t an attractive option for an offensive coordinator, considering Nagy serves as play caller. Although the Andy Reid/Nagy connection is reason to believe that Shurmur would be someone the Bears would likely target.

Shurmur has previously served as offensive coordinator for the Rams, Eagles and Vikings. Two of those tenures have led to head coaching jobs, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be getting another head coaching job soon. But if he were able to perform miracles on Trubisky, that in itself would surely be reason for opportunity No. 3.

[lawrence-related id=435070,435124,435084,435120,435109,435017]

5 takeaways from Bears end-of-year press conference

Bears GM Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy expressed frustration for the team’s lack of success, but maintained belief to right the ship in 2020.

The Bears final press conference of the 2019 season came and went with many quick answers, a few bold statements and lots of praise for a team that underachieved in almost every way.

Speaking to the media for the first time since early September, general manager Ryan Pace, along with coach Matt Nagy, expressed frustration for the team’s lack of success, but maintained belief in their core players and the system in place to right the ship and steer the team back to the postseason.

With the rather short availability of roughly 30 minutes, Pace and Nagy gave their answers to the media’s tough questions. Here are my five biggest takeaways from what the Bears’ brass had to say.

1. Pace and Nagy are committed to Mitchell Trubisky – but only to an extent

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

When asked about quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and whether he’d be the starter going into 2020, Pace was quick to say yes. It’s not surprising, given he has one more guaranteed year under contract and they gain nothing by showing their hand and creating a quarterback controversy in late December.

But they did stress the need to bring in additional competition with quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray entering free agency. Pace also wouldn’t commit to picking up Trubisky’s fifth-year option, a decision that must be made this spring. Chances are the Bears find someone this offseason to push Trubisky, but the front office still sees promise in the now-veteran quarterback.

[lawrence-related id=434645,434663,434651,434625,434622,434609,432147]

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

Bears dismiss OC Mark Helfrich, OL coach Harry Hiestand, TE coach Kevin Gilbride

Following a season filled with disappointing offensive execution, the Bears dismissed Mark Helfrich, Harry Hiestand and Kevin Gilbride.

Following the offensive struggles this season, it was expected that there would be big changes made on the offensive side of the football.

Shortly after general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy met with the media for their end of the year press conference, the Bears made some changes to their offensive coaching staff.

The Bears are dismissing offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride and assistant special teams coach Brock Olivo the Bears announced Tuesday.

 

“We struggled in that area this year. That’s real,” Pace said during his presser. “I think we know it starts up front with those guys. That’s something we really got to look at from a personnel standpoint. From a schematic standpoint we’re going to look at it. That was real this year. That hurt us.”

The moves don’t really come as a big surprise considering the offense’s deficiencies this season. Specifically looking at the dismissal of Hiestand and Gilbride, who oversaw two of the most frustrating aspects of the offense this season with the offensive line and tight ends.

While Helfrich didn’t call plays for the Bears — that was Nagy — he was responsible for the install and execution of the offense. He also appears to be the fall guy for the offense’s struggles, and the Bears will look to fill the holes on Nagy’s coaching staff.

[lawrence-related id=434625,434622,434609,432147,434585,434568]

Are there changes coming to Bears’ offensive coaching staff in 2020?

Considering the struggles of the offense, Bears OC Mark Helfrich wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a coaching staff shakeup in the offseason.

When an NFL team goes from a 12-win season to .500 or worse the following year, that’s usually an indication that big changes are coming.

That’s what’s expected with the Chicago Bears, whose fall from grace was well-documented this season. General manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy should be safe, but the same can’t be said for some members of the coaching staff.

When offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich was asked if he was concerned that there would be a coaching shakeup on offense this offseason, he acknowledged that it was a possibility.

“When you’re in this business, stuff happens,” he said. “And that’s a possibility.”

The Bears’ failures in 2019 can be traced back to the offense, whose regression has been the single-most impactful element in Chicago’s decline this season. So if there are changes coming, it makes sense for them to happen on the offensive side of the ball.

Chicago’s offense has been one of the worst in the league this season — they rank 29th in yards per game (294.1) and 30th in points per game (17.3), ahead of only the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals.

That wasn’t supposed to happen. Not in Year 2 of Matt Nagy’s offense. Not with a young quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky that was supposed to take a step forward. Not with a group that just had to be “good enough” for their championship-caliber defense.

As Nagy has vowed to do whatever it takes to fix this ailing offense, that could lead to staffing turnover.

“That’s a part of my job as a head coach, is to make sure that I look at all silos,” Nagy said. “Whatever that is, I need to make sure that I do that. And it’s hard right now when you’re in the middle of everything, to be able to come to emotional decisions either way — players, coaches, etc. But that’s something that we handle when the time comes.”

[lawrence-related id=434193,434118,434135,434113,433972]