Saturday isn't just another game for the Oregon Ducks. A couple of milestones are attached as the boys in green and white travel down to Stillwater to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
For starters, Dan Lanning has something on the line this week against the Cowboys. With a victory, the Ducks' 40-year-old head coach will celebrate his 50th career win at Oregon, which would put him in an elite club in program history.
That milestone may not come with a banner or a trophy, but it puts him in rarefied air in Eugene; the last Oregon coach to cross 50 wins was Mike Bellotti, back in 2001, his seventh year at the helm.
Since Bellotti, coaches like Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich, Willie Taggart, and Mario Cristobal have all fallen short of the mark that Lanning
is about to hit in his fifth season. In Oregon history, only three other coaches have crossed the 50-win mark: Bellotti, Rich Brooks, and Len Casanova.
Chip Kelly notably had 46 wins in four seasons as the Ducks' head coach.
Oregon has won a lot of games since Lanning took over in December of 2021, but it's entertaining to look back over the years and remember how things started in Week 1 against the Georgia Bulldogs — a 49-3 career-opening loss for Lanning. A lot has changed since then, from the preparation to the average result.
"Light years of changes, I don't think I could pick one thing," Lanning said on Wednesday, looking back at his time in Eugene. "You're drinking out of a fire hose at first. Like I said, I don't think we even did the warm-up right in our first game. I think the band's taking the field and we're still trying to kick an extra point. Obviously, the first game result was pretty poor. So we're a little bit different team since then, for sure. Certainly, I'm a lot different."
Lanning's potential 50th victory is not the only thing on the line Saturday, though.
The Ducks will put their nation-leading road winning streak on the line for the first time this year. Last year, in their win over the Washington Huskies, Oregon extended its true road winning streak to 12 games, which is by far the longest stretch in the nation. The Ohio State Buckeyeshold the second-longest streak at seven games.
The last time Oregon lost on the road, ironically, was against the Huskies in 2023, with a 33-30 defeat after a missed Camden Lewis field goal at the final whistle.
Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Dan Lanning can join Oregon coaching legends with 50th career win
