Will Stein keeps showing everything Oregon football is missing this season

This offseason, Oregon lost both its offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs with Will Stein leaving for Kentucky and Tosh Lupoi returning to his alma mater Cal. When a coordinator is at your school, it's easy to picture things getting better as you focus more on the warts they have rather than what makes them great.

Most Oregon fans pictured Tosh Lupoi as the bigger loss of the two coordinators, as many harped on some of Stein's flaws as a play caller. From the start of Oregon's season, and through each of their head coaching tenures, it's clear many in Eugene didn't give Will Stein enough credit.

Will Stein keeps showing everything Oregon fans wish the Ducks had

On Saturday Night as Oregon fans were still licking their wounds after a disappointing loss to UCLA, Will Stein was working magic. Will Stein's team found themselves in a battle with No. 10 LSU with the Tigers holding a lead late in the 4th quarter. Even as his kicker missed a pair of chip shot field goals, Will Stein still found a way to get his team into field goal range a third time in 5 minutes to force overtime.

Lane Kiffin and LSU had the ball first in overtime, and almost instantly scored, but that meant the game lied in Stein's hands. The Wildcats quickly answered the touchdown, and just like we saw last weekend, he kept his offense on the field to decide the game on a 2 point conversion. The Wildcat magic worked again as Kenny Minchey walked into the endzone untouched, send the team to a 5-1 record.

Takeaway Oregon's blowout win over Portland State and Kentucky's blowout of Youngstown State the Wildcats are averaging 2.35 points per game more than the Ducks. Considering the fact that the defense has created 3 touchdowns for the offense, and the Ducks numbers should look far worse.

Will Stein took over a Kentucky team with far less talent than Oregon's, and has found a way to create points for his team while Oregon's offense has been a rollercoaster. When the NFL Draft takes place, Oregon's going to have playmakers like Dante Moore, Jamari Johnson, and Evan Stewart coming off the board well before any Kentucky player, and it shows how much of a downgrade Drew Mehringer has been.

Kentucky has found ways to coach around the fact that this coaching staff hasn't been able to fully build the roster to their system, while Oregon has found ways to do less with more talent. Oregon has found a way to lose two games where they've had a clear talent advantage, and all you can chalk it up to is coaching.

Early in the offseason, it was easy to write off the concerns about the coordinator switches, but now that the games are being played, it's clear Oregon has a far inferior offensive mind. The Ducks still can't get the run game to click, the explosive plays aren't being made, and the staff can't gameplan around an offensive line that has struggled.

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