ROUNDTABLE: Who Oregon Football Should Pursue to be the Next Head Coach

Our team of writers gets together to weigh in on Oregon's coaching search.

Max Torres (@mtorressports)

Lane Kiffin: Ole Miss Head Coach

I'm listing Kiffin here because Oregon needs to bring in someone with proven experience running a high-level offense and Kiffin has that. His offense at Ole Miss has the Rebels humming and preparing for a Sugar Bowl matchup against Baylor.

Ole Miss ranks No. 18 in the country in scoring offense at 35.9 points per game and No. 21 in passing offense at 282.4 passing yards per game. Numbers are nice of course, but he's also proven he can get the most out of an offense, including the quarterback. Look at what Matt Corral has done this year and it's tough to not get excited.

All of the best teams in college football have explosive passing attacks and Oregon's offense has been sorely lacking that following Justin Herbert's departure. This roster is overflowing with talent, especially on offense at the skill positions, and it's begging to be cut loose. 

Kiffin is a decent recruiter, finishing with the No. 34 class in 2020 and No. 17 in 2021. However, his name and the product he's put on the field will drum up excitement and attract elite skill talent. 

That said, I understand this is a risky hire given his past, but sometimes you need to take risks. I'd wager he learned a thing or two about running a successful program from his time with Nick Saban at Alabama, where he was named a Broyles Award finalist.

I think this is a stretch, and he's not a long-term hire, but even so. All aboard the Lane train.

Nick Battey (@Nickbat22)

Dave Aranda-Baylor Head Coach

While he hasn’t been rumored much over the last few days for the Oregon head coach vacancy, Dave Aranda would be my go-to choice for Oregon. Aranda has had great defenses everywhere he’s been, especially at Wisconsin and LSU where he was the defensive coordinator for both places.

He won a national title at LSU in 2019 before becoming Baylor’s head coach in 2020. His first year was tough in the COVID season, but he turned the team around in 2021 finishing 11-2 en route to a Big 12 championship with a stifling defense and good offense under Broyles Award finalist Jeff Grimes.

For those of you who want someone who has West Coast ties, Aranda checks that box as well. He was born in southern California and went to school at Cal Lutheran. At the college level, he’s also been a defensive coordinator at Hawaii and Utah State.

While Aranda is a clear top candidate, he’s got a great situation and I’m unsure if he'd leave Baylor at this time, especially when it was reported that a contract extension for him is in the work. But, if Oregon could snag him that would be a home run hire in my opinion and keep Oregon’s momentum right on track.

Dylan Reubenking (@drksportsnews)

Chip Kelly-UCLA Head Coach

Fans have been quite divided over the idea of Chip Kelly returning to Eugene to be the head coach of Oregon since the Mario Cristobal rumors began to spread. Kelly's contract at UCLA is up after next season, and he hasn't brought the same success to the Bruins as he once had with the Ducks.

This season was do-or-die for the Bruins and Chip Kelly, as they were returning a lot of experienced players who were looking for one winning season in their college career. Kelly was trying to save his job after going 10-21 through his first three seasons, and after an 8-4 regular season that saw the Bruins clinch bowl eligibility for the first time in his tenure, it’s safe to assume that he earned himself at least one more year as UCLA’s coach.

But why should Oregon go back to Kelly? After all, his record in four years is still just 18-25. He isn’t known for being an elite recruiter — something the Ducks will need to prioritize in their next head coach given the momentum that Cristobal and his staff had built.

Kelly and Oregon is a better fit than Kelly and any other program, or even NFL team. His spread offenses and read-option offenses changed the game and forced opposing defensive coordinators to extend their playbooks, and Oregon still dropped 50 a game. The defenses under Kelly, while not elite, were almost always good enough to keep teams from getting into a shootout with the high-flying Ducks.

This Oregon team has a ton of offensive talent that has not been used correctly. Kelly can utilize the skill position players to their full potential and keep them happy in the offense. Also, developing a young redshirt quarterback taking over for a veteran is something that Kelly has proven he can do.

Would this hire be a bit of a settlement for Oregon? Sure. It can probably do better, but Kelly has taken this program to its highest highs before. Who says he couldn’t do it again with even more talent on his roster?

Dylan Mickanen (@DylanMickanen)

Lane Kiffin-Ole Miss Head Coach

When Mark Helfrich was fired as head coach in 2016, my top candidate was Lane Kiffin. Instead the Ducks hired Willie Taggart and Kiffin left for FAU.

Five years later, Oregon finds itself with a head coaching vacancy and the home run hire of the Lane Train is staring them in the face. Kiffin has coached at high level programs, the NFL, as an OC for Nick Saban, and coached Ole Miss to its first 10-win season ever in year two. Imagine what he can do with Oregons current roster and a down Pac-12.

Yes his USC tenure didn’t go great but the Trojans had sanctions which included a loss of 30 scholarships over three seasons. Even with that stipulation, he signed the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class in his first cycle as head coach. At Ole Miss, he signed the nation’s No. 17 class in 2021.

Kiffin can help sustain the recruiting momentum with the program while drastically improving the in-game coaching. Make it happen. 

John Rustik (@J_Rustik)

Kalani Sitake-BYU Head coach

What Sitake has done at BYU has been nothing short of impressive. Throughout his six years with the Cougars, he's built up quite a respectable program in Provo. He was the head coach of a team that went 11-1 and developed quarterback Zach Wilson into a first round NFL talent.

With the Ducks preparing to play their young quarterback in Ty Thompson, having a coach that has already coached an NFL caliber quarterback would be a great thing for an Oregon team looking to develop their own quarterback.

More recently, this season he led the Cougars to a perfect 5-0 record against Pac-12 schools with victories against Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Washington State and USC. They are currently ranked No 13 in the college football playoff rankings. With his success in making BYU a top-15 team, it would be awesome to imagine what he could do with the resources the University of Oregon would give him.

Getting Sitake would be incredibly difficult. It would be hard to separate Sitake from BYU, where he played his college ball. While it’s likely his loyalty is to BYU, he would be a great steal for the Ducks.

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