Why the Ducks really are that good, better than anyone outside the building knew

Insane talent, relentless work habits, structure, leadership and development-- in this environment, a team thrives. Uncommon unity, discipline born of a desire to be great, fierce connection, shared purpose, a zeal to prepare and grow: A team with these can achieve anything.

Dan Lanning writes his goals on his bathroom mirror. His players have embraced them all. For four recruiting cycles he stacked talent with the goal of winning a national championship, and in the culture he's created, it's coming of age very quickly.

The wins over Montana State and Oklahoma State weren't flukes. The wire-to-wire excellence, the blitzkrieg of high-level execution, with eight players scoring and 80 players taking snaps, it was a bellweather, a warning, the first wave of the storm.

Oregon is going to destroy lesser opponents in 2025. This team has the potential to be 1945 Army, 1971 Nebraska, 2001 Miami, 2019 LSU good. The reason is they not only have a roster full of talented players, there's a singlemindedness and synergy in this group that's extraordinary.

What's unfolding before our eyes is the result of a vision, but the realization of it is accelerating. The primary reason is that in this exceptional football culture, young players are coming of age quickly, in numbers.

Fans, pundits and even Skip Bayless could see that Matayo Uiagalelei and Iapani Laloulu were going to be good. What's surprising is how quickly Brandon Finney, Ify Obidegwu, Jerry Mixon, Blake Purchase, Ashton Porter, Aydin Breeland, Dierre Hill, Malik Benson and Jayden Limar are rising up to meet them.

Reporters asked Lanning this week why Brandon Finney had emerged so quickly, the first freshman cornerback to start at Oregon since Thomas Graham. He and Ify Obidegwu are the first pair of first-year cornerbacks (Obidegwu is a redshirt freshman) to start in Eugene since Troy Hill and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, in 2011, before that Jairus Byrd and Walter Thurmond in 2006, four players who went on the NFL.

Lanning said to Erik Skopil of 247Sports and the rest of the press crew, "He probably takes the work necessary to be good as serious as anybody. This guy grinds."



"As far as how much time does it take to be great, he puts in the time. He's one of the first in the building every morning. He's watching extra film. He's early to practice to get a warm up. He's gonna do the extra, and because he does the extra and then executes at a high level, it's allowed him to be successful out there."

Here's Lanning talking about Noah Whittington: “He’s the best teammate, he’s an unbelievable teammate. He was coming off an injury last year and I don’t know that people get to see what we get to see every single day in practice. This guy’s got juice, he’s never had a bad day."

Lanning called Jayden Limar, "the embodiment of what our team is."

The team gave Limar an award after practice, Lanning said. “I think he played 15 snaps on special teams, 24 snaps on offense. One of his best plays of the day was a block that he had on an inside run play. We’re running down on kickoff, dynamic piece of our PBR (punt block return) team and our KOR (kickoff return) unit, like, he's done a lot of things right.”

This team is different.

The unselfishness and the willingness to do the little things, to prepare like champions, runs all through the roster. Last week Jeremiah McClellan caught a 51-yard pass from Luke Moga. In the first game he blocked two punts.

Great players like Tom Brady, Walter Payton, Kobe Bryant become great because they have the will to prepare like journeymen, and push their teammates to that standard. That will is all over this team.

Big Ten Network's Yogi Roth noticed. "When you meet them, you're going to meet them square in the face."

A lot can happen in a football season. The 2007 dream season was destroyed by injuries. A terrific group in 2019 lost a game to Stanford they had no business losing, restrictor plate offense and three major penalties in The Cardinal's last drive. But this group has the coaching, the talent and culture to beat everyone on their schedule, and teams that are unprepared or deficient in talent are going to get destroyed.

It's a group on a mission, and they all understand the mission.

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