Tag: Matt Powledge

Dan Lanning: New safeties coach Chris Hampton ‘makes us a lot better’

Dan Lanning had a lot of positive things to say about former Tulane DC Chris Hampton, who was recently hired as Oregon’s safeties coach.

When the Oregon Ducks lost Matt Powledge to Baylor this offseason, Dan Lanning struck quickly by bringing Chris Hampton over from Tulane to take over as safeties coach.

Hampton has an extensive coaching resume for his age, and he had a big part in Tulane giving up just 23.9 points per game last year – 39th in the country – as well as 6.4 yards per pass allowed which ranked 15th.

Lanning spoke glowingly of Hampton while talking to media after national signing day, mentioning the rave reviews he heard about him during the hiring process, while complimenting Tulane’s defense.

“Whenever transition exists, you look for opportunities to enhance your program,” Lanning said. “And Chris was really a like minded individual I thought would mesh really well with our entire coaching staff. I think he’s a great coach, a phenomenal coach. Really a lifelong learner. He’s a guy that I’ve known from a somewhat distance over the years and been able to connect with from time to time and I just have a lot of admiration and respect for the job that he’s done. And the closer we got to the hire, the more apparent and clearer it became that this is going to be somebody that makes us a lot better.”

Oregon returns Steve Stephens, Jamal Hill, and Bryan Addison to an experienced safety room for the 2023 season, and Hampton’s expertise should help them thrive once again on the gridiron.

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Oregon officially announces hiring of Chris Hampton as safeties coach, co-DC

The Oregon Ducks officially announced Chris Hampton as the new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach in Eugene.

The coaching staff move was reported over a week ago, but the Oregon Ducks made it official on Wednesday morning, announcing the hiring of Chris Hampton as the new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach in Eugene.

Hampton will be replacing Matt Powledge, who took the defensive coordinator job for the Baylor Bears in late December of 2022.

Hampton comes to Eugene from Tulane, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2022. He spent four seasons (2016-19) as Tulane’s defensive backs coach before leaving to be the cornerback’s coach at Duke in 2020.

“I am excited to work for and represent the University of Oregon,” Hampton said, per an Oregon press release. “I am extremely thankful for the opportunity provided by Coach Lanning and the Oregon administration. I believe in what Coach Lanning and the rest of the staff are building in Eugene. I can’t wait to get to work with the student-athletes and help Oregon compete for championships.”

Tulane saw major improvement under Hamton, moving up 82 spots to No. 32 in the scoring defense (22.2 PPG) in 2022, and 55 spots up to No. 46 in total defense (360.4 YPG). The passing defense also went from No. 115 in 2020 prior to Hampton’s return to No. 37 in 2022 (208.1 YPG).

Before starting his coaching career, Hampton was a four-year letterman and two-year starter at safety for the South Carolina Gamecocks from 2004-2007. In his career, Hampton had 106 total tackles, 6.5 TFL, 2 sacks, 3 INT, and two PBU. He also won the team’s Harold White Award, given to the player with the highest GPA on the roster.

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5 things to know about Oregon’s newest defensive coach Chris Hampton

Get to know Chris Hampton, a former South Carolina safety who coached some impressive defensive backfields at Tulane over the years.

The Oregon Ducks reportedly made a new defensive hire on Sunday afternoon, with ESPN’s Pete Thamel reporting that former Tulane Green Wave defensive coordinator Chris Hampton will be heading to Eugene to take over as a position coach.

One could presume that he will be taking over the safeties position, acting as the replacement for Matt Powledge, who left Eugene this offseason to become the new defensive coordinator for the Baylor Bears.

While Chris Hampton may have been a relatively off-the-radar name for Oregon fans, it is an impressive hire and one that will likely be looked at with a lot of success down the road. Here are some things that you need to know about Hampton and what he brings to the Ducks:

Ducks co-Defensive Coordinator Matt Powledge leaves to helm defense at Baylor

Oregon loses co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge to Baylor as he takes over the Bears defense.

The world of college football moves fast and if you blink, you might miss it.

Reports were coming out at halftime of the Holiday Bowl that Oregon co-Defensive Coordinator Matt Powledge was a target for Baylor to become its DC.

Less than 12 hours later, the Bears made it official as they named Powledge to the position. He spent time as Baylor’s safeties and special teams coach before coming to Oregon, so the move makes sense for both parties involved. Baylor gets to bring someone in who’s familiar with their program and Powledge gets to run a defense on his own.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning hired both Tosh Lupoi and Powledge to run a Duck defense that definitely had its highs and lows. Fortunately for Oregon, it ended on a high as the Ducks held North Carolina’s quarterback Drake Maye in check in the bowl game.

Oregon will most likely hire a coach for the safeties, but it’s unclear if Lanning will just make Lupoi the one and only defensive coordinator or if he’ll hire someone to share the job as Powledge did.

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Oregon safeties coach Matt Powledge new target for Baylor DC

The Oregon Ducks could lose co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge to Baylor, who is looking to replace Ron Roberts at DC.

Oregon Ducks fans are preoccupied watching Bo Nix take on Drake Maye and the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Holiday Bowl, but it looks like the coaching staff may be close to enduring another change.

Matt Powledge, Oregon’s safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator, is now considered a target to be Baylor’s next defensive coordinator – according to a tweet from Bruce Feldman at The Athletic.

Oregon’s coaching staff already lost offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who took the head coaching job at Arizona State before getting replaced by Will Stein.

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda is looking to replace Ron Roberts, who exited after three years with the Bears. Baylor went 6-6 last year, and gave up over 370 yards per game in the Big 12.

Losing coaches is never fun – especially from position groups that are performing well – but it’s a sign Dan Lanning and company brought the right people in, and there’s little reason to doubt they will continue to do so.

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Length and versatility of Oregon secondary expected to be major asset for Ducks

The Oregon secondary may not be littered with veterans, but they have a lot of length and versatility going into 2022.

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A lot has been written about Oregon’s linebacker group and rightfully so. That position group should be one of the best in the country with Noah Sewell, Justin Flowe, Jeffrey Bassa, and Keith Brown with several other outstanding players.

They should be in opposing quarterbacks’ faces all season long. But according to co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge, on those rare occasions where those linebackers don’t penetrate the backfield, the Ducks secondary isn’t exactly a piece of cake to get past.

Oregon has so much talent in the secondary that’s it going to be difficult to find playing time for all that deserve it. Powledge thinks he’s found a system to remedy that problem.

“We’re trying to dual-train so we can get the five best players out there and at the same time we can build depth at multiple positions,” he said. “It’s been really good this spring. I think they’ve really taken ownership of some things. I think you’ll see a lot of growth from them this upcoming season.”

Growth might be the key word there as Oregon won’t throw out defenders who are significantly smaller than the receivers they’ll be facing. Bennett Williams is 6-foot-1, Trikweze Bridges is 6-3 and Bryan Addison is 6-4. It’s unusual to have defenders that big and it will present a different component other teams will have to deal with and it won’t be fun for them.

“That’s one of the things that’s really stood out with our secondary. You have Bennett (Williams). You have Trikweze (Bridges). You have Bryan (Addison). Those guys are long and can run and are athletic,” Powledge said. “They also have a great a mental aspect that they bring to the game. Their versatility is really going to help us right now.”

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Report: Dan Lanning adds defensive line coach Tony Tuioti to staff

New Oregon football coach Dan Lanning has reportedly coaxed defensive line coach Tony Tuioti away from Nebraska to join his staff in Eugene.

Oregon Ducks head football coach Dan Lanning is quickly forming his own coaching staff.

According to FootballScoop.com, and confirmed by 247Sports Erik Skopil, Lanning is adding Nebraska defensive line coach Tony Tuioti to his staff in Eugene. He has spent the last three seasons with the Cornhuskers and before that stop, Tuioti was at California for two years.

Lanning has hired Kenny Dillingham to be the Ducks offensive coordinator and Matt Powledge to be the co-defensive coordinator. Tuioti has also spent some time with the Cleveland Browns as a quality control coach.

As a college player, Tuioti was an all-Western Athletic Conference defensive lineman at Hawai’i in the 1990’s. He seemingly will replace current defensive line coach Joe Salave’a.

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Oregon’s recent coaching hires show huge gamble for the Ducks, with big upsides

Dan Lanning, Kenny Dillingham, and Matt Powledge have a combined age of 100 years. Their youth presents some exciting upside, but with a big risk.

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Within the past week, the Oregon Ducks have hired three coaches whose combined ages add up to 100 years old. Only one of those coaches has spent any time in the position that he was hired in. The other two are taking on new roles at new schools, with the eyes of the nation watching.

I’m talking about head coach Dan Lanning (35), offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham (31), and co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge (34), of course. After making Lanning the youngest head coach in Oregon history on Monday, the Ducks turned around and hired Dillingham from Florida State on Wednesday, followed by Powledge, from Baylor, just hours later.

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Dillingham is the coach who has experience in his current role. He was the OC at FSU working under Mike Norvell for the past two seasons, where he was regarded as a better coach than what the numbers showed. As a good player development coach and a solid recruiter, there’s a belief that he can help Oregon’s young roster grow.

Powledge is a different story. He has coached for 11 years, and was most recently the special teams and safeties coach for the Baylor Bears. He worked under Dave Aranda, who is a highly-respected defensive coach, and should be able to help the Ducks, who have a very talented roster on that side of the ball. It also helps that Lanning has been the leader of some of the best defenses that we’ve seen as of late with the Georgia Bulldogs.

Despite the positives, it’s hard to ignore the potential downsides to these hires. Many fans thought when a coach as young as Lanning was hired that it would only make sense if Rob Mullens then went out and surrounded him with veteran coaches who could help fill out the coaching staff and make a cohesive unit. Instead, the Ducks did the opposite, finding a trio of young up-and-coming coaches who have shown a lot of promise.

What happens if they don’t turn out to have all of the acumens that we believe they do? What happens if the prospect of being a head coach is overwhelming for Lanning, or if the jump from special teams to coordinator is too big for Powledge?

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We don’t expect this to be the case, but it’s a question that any fan should be asking. Is there a backup plan here?

The ceiling is very high for the Ducks. Lanning has been pegged by the college football world as one of the coordinators most likely to succeed as a head coach, and should he successfully take that next step and lead the Ducks to big victories, it will be viewed as a home-run hire for Oregon. The same way with Dillingham and Powledge, they could easily be pulled to the head coaching ranks a few years down the road if Pac-12 titles and potential trips to the College Football Playoff appear down the road for the Ducks.

If not, though, then these moves will be questioned aggressively by Oregon fans, and Rob Mullens will be pressed for answers. With mega-booster Phil Knight badly wanting a championship in Eugene over the next decade, this was a risky route to take for the Ducks. We’ll see how it pans out over the next couple of years.

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Report: Oregon Ducks expected to hire Baylor’s Matt Powledge as new co-defensive coordinator

The Ducks are making another hire on the coaching staff, bringing in Baylor’s Matt Powledge as their new co-defensive coordinator.

Soon after the Oregon Ducks made a new hire at the offensive coordinator position in Kenny Dillingham, there are now reports coming out that they are also going to bring in Baylor safeties and special teams coach Matt Powledge as the team’s co-defensive coordinator, according to Pete Thamel.

As with both Lanning and Dillingham, Powledge is a young coach who was named to the AFCA 35-under-35 list last season, made to identify some of the best young coaches in the nation.

Powledge spent that last year learning under defensive mastermind Dave Aranda with Baylor but has a good amount of coaching experience before that. He has coached for 11 years and spent two seasons at Louisiana (2018-19) working with new Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts. During that time the program made two consecutive Sun Belt Conference championship game appearances and won a school-record 11 games in 2019 including a 27-17 bowl victory over Miami (Ohio).

In his two seasons at UL, Powledge mentored six All-Sun Belt honorees. In 2019, Louisiana ranked first or second in the Sun Belt in kickoff return defense, kickoff returns and net punting. Additionally, the Cajuns ranked among the top 24 in the nation in each category.

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