Key Quotes From Oregon Offensive Coordinator Will Stein on Saturday

Stein helped UTSA field a high-scoring offense in 2022 and hopes to do the same in Eugene.

Saturday was an exciting day for Oregon Football. It was our first chance to hear from new offensive coordinator Will Stein.

Stein joins Dan Lanning's staff after serving as the co-offensive coordinator as UTSA during the 2022 season. There are big expectations for him in Eugene as the Roadrunners ranked No. 9 nationally in total offense (486.1 YPG), No. 12 in scoring offense (38.7 PPG) and No. 12 in passing offense (308.6 YPG). 

While Stein was on staff they scored more than 30 points in 12 of their 13 games.

Below you'll find some notable quotes from Stein following Oregon's fifth spring practice. 

Stein's offensive philosophy 

"I am a product of great coaching. From my time at Trinity High School in Louisville, Kentucky under Bob Beatty. Played for Jeff Brohm, played for Matt Wells, Mike Grove, Shawn Watson, Bobby Petrino, Charlie Strong, Tom Herman. Hank Carter at Lake Travis High School.

"Offensively, our job is to get our best players the ball as many times as possible. Plays are highly overrated. It's about the players. Here at Oregon we have unbelievable players. Really excited to work with them. We're based out of pro-style offense but with spread principles, RPOs, run-action pass, play action pass. I like to think we're multiple with our personnel groupings, in our formations. We want to be an attacking offense that throws the ball down the field."

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Stein didn't expect to leave UTSA

"The universe works in mysterious ways. I just did my job to the best of my ability at UTSA. That's where my feet were. I was not looking to leave. I was presented with an opportunity to interview for this job with coach Lanning. I like to think I did a pretty good job to land this position."

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Stein's thoughts on Bo Nix

"I always thought he was such a great player from afar. Obviously his time at Auburn might not have been what everybody else expected it to be, but I know he appreciates every thing that happened there because it's where he is now. It brought him to Oregon. Getting on the phone with him initially, I was a little mind-blown by just his intensity in what he was looking for from a coach, and offensive standpoint. He asked questions that were extremely mature and well thought out. He's made me better as a coach. He puts me in a position to really think as a coach, which I really appreciate."

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Blending Nix's experience with his offensive mindset

"The 2022 Oregon offense is very similar to the style of offense that I'm accustomed to. Coming in here, meeting with Bo, really feeling out with him what he likes offensively. That's a bad way to put it. What he likes in the passing game, running game, what he's comfortable with. And then making sure he knows what I'm comfortable with. Blending it together with ultimately with coach Lanning's philosophy of running the football and being physically tough, playing clean, dictating tempo and blending it all together. We have a great coaching staff from Junior Adams, A'Lique Terry, Drew Mehringer, Carlos Locklyn, our support staff. We have a lot of smart guys in our room. Don't try to out-think ourselves, and put our players in a really good position to make plays."

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Leaving his mark on the offense

"First of all you have to recognize that there's some really good players here and they had a lot of success. So how do we build on that? I think we just fine tune the details, tweak where we need to tweak and then let our kids go play. My big thing is like set them free. Let's not overcomplicate this game. It's always been about players. We have great players here. Put 'em in really good position to make plays and let our quarterback go have a lot of fun."

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