Offensive Coordinator, Jan 2026 to Oct 25, 2026 | Promoted in January, relieved of his duties the morning after the Illinois loss. Dan Lanning: “a new direction is necessary to move our offense forward.”
The official Oregon Football post of the release, linking to goducks.com.
Dan Lanning said: "a new direction is necessary to move our offense forward." On Oct 26 Lanning named Jay Johnson, the first-year quarterbacks assistant, to lead the play-calling, “still a collaborative effort” (Ducks Wire, Oct 26, 2026). Read the Oregon Athletics release, the 2026 reckoning and the 2027 plan.
| Sources
Oregon Athletics release, Oct 25, 2026 (relieved of duties); GoDucks.com (official bio), 247Sports, SI Oregon, On3, Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Duck Sports Central. 2026 game stats: ESPN box scores, drive charts and play-by-play for Boise State (event 401858433), at Oklahoma State (401856782), Portland State (401858455) and at USC (401858469), cross-checked against the official GoDucks and USC Athletics box scores. UCLA (Oct 10, 2026): ESPN box score (event 401858484); Lookout Eugene-Springfield and On3 for Lanning's postgame remarks.
Week 8 at Illinois, Oct 24, 2026, his last game
Illinois 21, Oregon 10. Oregon outgained Illinois 426 to 314, went 4 of 15 on third down, missed three field goals and scored 10 points on 73 plays with Dylan Raiola starting (Oregon Athletics official box score). It was the third straight game under 20 points with Dante Moore out: 15 against UCLA, 17 against Nebraska, 10 at Illinois. The next morning Oregon relieved Mehringer of his duties.
Oct 25, 2026: Oregon relieved Mehringer of his duties as offensive coordinator on Sunday morning, the day after the 21-10 loss at Illinois and seven games into his first season calling plays. Dan Lanning’s statement: “Drew has been a valued member of this staff since 2022, and I am appreciative of everything he’s done for Oregon. He played a tremendous role in what this program has accomplished over the last several seasons. This was a decision I felt was in the best interest of our football program, as I believe a new direction is necessary to move our offense forward. I thank Drew for his efforts and wish him all the best.” (Oregon Athletics release, Oct 25, 2026; statement as quoted by CBS Sports and The Register-Guard, Oct 25, 2026). On Oct 26 Lanning named Jay Johnson, the first-year quarterbacks assistant, to lead the play-calling against Northwestern, “still a collaborative effort” (ESPN and Ducks Wire, Oct 26, 2026). The rest of this page is the record of his season.
Drew Mehringer was promoted to offensive coordinator in January 2026 after Will Stein left for the Kentucky head coaching job. Mehringer joined Lanning's original staff on January 4, 2022 as tight ends coach, was elevated to co-offensive coordinator in 2025, and took over the full play-calling duties this season. He came to Eugene from Texas, where he was Tom Herman's wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator (2017-2019). Dante Moore calls him 'our scientist.' Players describe him as deeply intelligent, technically demanding, but calm under pressure. The promotion kept the system intact. Same playbook. Same terminology. Same relationships with the players. Different voice in the headset. Through USC on Sept 26, that voice had a real body of work: 34 points and 497 yards against Boise State, a fourth quarter at Oklahoma State he would want back, and 41 points and 504 yards at USC with Dylan Raiola taking every snap after the second quarter.
Background
Hometown
Mansfield, Texas. Played QB at Rice before a career-ending injury. Stayed on as student assistant for 3 years.
Education
B.A. Political Science (Rice, 2010). Master's in Sports Management (Ohio State, 2013).
Before Oregon
Texas WR coach + passing game coordinator under Tom Herman (2017-2019). #2 national recruiter ranking per 247Sports (2019). Rivals Recruiter of the Year. Pulled 5-star commits like Bru McCoy and Jordan Whittington. Then co-offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic (2020) before joining Oregon.
Same scheme Stein ran. Same RPO concepts. Same terminology. Players did not have to learn a new language.
2026
Drew Mehringer Spring Practice Press Conference
Mehringer on the offense, the QB room, and building his system in year one as OC.
Via GoDucks
Why This Matters
Oregon averaged 36.9 points a game in 2025 and 34.9 in 2024 with Stein calling plays, so Mehringer inherited a high bar. The spring question was never whether he could run the offense. It was whether he could call it when the game is on the line. The first four games gave a real answer, and it was two out of three. Against Boise State, 54 seconds after the Broncos tied it 27-27, Dante Moore hit Dakorien Moore for a 62-yard touchdown that stood up as the winner. At USC, tied 27-27 with 12:41 left, Oregon answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive, then a 49-yard one that ran from 7:09 to 2:03 and ended the night. At Oklahoma State, Oregon led 31-30 after Evan Stewart's 38-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and the last three possessions gained 11 yards: a punt, a turnover on downs and a fumble. Against the three FBS opponents Oregon has scored 106 points, 35.3 a game, and no Oregon quarterback has thrown an interception all season. The part that has not arrived is the ground game. Against those same three FBS teams Oregon has run 88 times for 347 yards, 3.9 a carry. At USC the backs had 31 carries for 129 yards, 6 of Oregon's 32 non-kneel runs went for zero or a loss, and short-yardage runs went 1 for 3, including a 3rd and 2 from the USC 2 that ended in a field goal. The first two games said the same thing another way: Oregon went 0 for 6 on fourth down against Boise State and Oklahoma State, four of those tries at 4th and 2 or shorter, and all six were pass plays. Our read: a play caller who throws on 4th and 1 twice in two weeks is telling you what he trusts, and until the run game earns more of that trust, close games will keep landing on the quarterback's arm.
The Person
Moore describes Mehringer as having 'an incredible balance in being firm but not making the guys tense.' In an offensive meeting, Mehringer called out Evan Stewart directly: 'Hey, we all know what your goals are, we need to see those goals reflected in the way you work today.' Stewart responded. That is the tone: demanding, specific, but never personal. He cares about 'giving these guys the best service possible' without wasting their time. At Texas, he was the Big 12's top recruiter (2019) and Rivals' national Recruiter of the Year. He did not get that by being quiet. He got it by being real.
Spring 2026 Notes
Spring practice 2026 confirmed what the promotion promised: continuity with upside. Mehringer asked the quarterbacks what plays they preferred in the playbook. Moore called Mehringer 'very smart' and credited him for adjusting when the QBs felt uncomfortable with a concept. Moore made an unrehearsed pre-snap check during practice #6, a sign of real offensive autonomy emerging. QB coach Koa Ka'ai called the room 'mature beyond its years.' Lookout Eugene-Springfield profiled Mehringer as 'the existentialist in the coordinator's room,' a coach whose philosophy is shaped by survival, perspective, and relationships. His tight end coaching produced 287 receptions, 3,454 yards, and 38 touchdowns across 56 games. The question coming out of spring was whether that attention to detail would scale to the full playbook. The clearest evidence so far came at USC, where the quarterback room Ka'ai praised in April got tested mid-game: after the change in the second quarter, Oregon ran 48 plays for 359 yards and scored 38 points without taking a sack or turning it over.
The Key Relationship
In spring this section was about Mehringer and Dante Moore, and that partnership produced: through four games Moore is 69 of 99 for 926 yards, 9 touchdowns and no interceptions. Moore was hurt at USC with 10:06 left in the first half and did not return (the injury tracker has every official word). We are hoping for the best for Dante. What that night showed is that the relationship that matters is with the whole quarterback room, and the spring habits Moore described, asking the quarterbacks what they like and adjusting when a concept does not fit, are exactly what a coordinator leans on when a different quarterback walks into the huddle in the second quarter of a road game. Dylan Raiola went 19 of 25 for 289 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and was 5 of 6 on third-down throws, including the 29-yard touchdown to Dakorien Moore that broke a 27-27 tie. Our read: Mehringer built the second half around what Raiola does well, quick throws that let playmakers run, and Dierre Hill Jr. turned two short passes into 90 yards and two touchdowns set up. That is play-calling fit to the player, which is the whole case for the scientist nickname.
What has Drew Mehringer's side of the ball shown you so far?
