Entering the season as the No. 2-ranked team in the country, the Oregon Ducks had dreams of a national championship. Many analysts and fans predicted the Ducks to finally get over the hump and take home the program's first title, and the pressure was certainly on.
For as much as the Ducks focused on setting goals for themselves and blocking out the outside noise, that's easier said than done. As the Ducks took an offseason trip to Tokyo, Dante Moore appeared on the cover of a video game, and Dan Lanning has continued to take media tours after wins, the external perception infiltrated the internal process.
"Honestly, I feel as a team we are too focused on the outcome," wide receiver Evan Stewart said after Saturday's loss to UCLA. "I feel like
we really need to hone in on the details and get better, truly. Not worrying about what anybody else thinks outside of the building and just honing in with each other and really buying into each other every day, and the craft that we do every single day."
Stewart's honesty was refreshing. At times, the Ducks have looked like a team that expects to dominate, but hasn't followed through with sharp execution on the field. The Ducks take shots at other teams and take long-winded victory laps after wins with their "Ducks vs. Them" cinematic recaps, but the program is silent when the ball rolls the other way. Teitum Tuioti noted after Oregon's loss to Oklahoma State that he felt like some players were reading the positive press too much.
Dakorien Moore echoed Stewart's sentiment on Tuesday, acknowledging how Oregon's mindset and offense need to shift this week, and it sounds like the Ducks are starting to take the proper steps toward change.
"We are very outcome-driven," Moore said. "I feel like we do need to be process-driven, and that's something as leaders that we've all been harping to the team."
This isn't an isolated issue, and Lanning admitted the wave of noise from outside the program has impacted the team in some ways, and it's impossible for a college-aged player to avoid it in this day and age, where all of the news and attention is readily presented on the device in their pockets.
"It's hard. I think it's easier for me as a 40-year-old to ignore the noise. I think that's hard as an 18- to 22-year-old to ignore it, especially when your phone pops off, notifications, your name gets mentioned again, and it's something I think that'll be more and more important as we continue to coach here," Lanning said on Monday. "That's only going to get harder in today's age. So you educate, you do the best you can, but to acknowledge that that doesn't always happen, that's a reality. What I think our players-they've probably learned some hard lessons this year because of that. I can't take everybody's phone when they show up in the building. They can't check out with me. There are a lot of voices that they're going to hear."
Dylan Raiola was unanimously praised for his performance against USC, leading the Ducks both on the field and on the sideline after Dante Moore left the game in an ambulance. He undoubtedly saw all of the praise, and positive press can be a drug of confidence. Expectations continued to build for two weeks in anticipation of his first start against UCLA, and when the moment arrived, Raiola turned the ball over three times, was booed by the Autzen crowd, and subsequently benched.
Raiola gets the attention as the quarterback, but he was far from the only issue with Oregon's offense. Still, Raiola's performance was criticized and mocked by fans and even nationally recognized analysts. For as much as a positive press clip on social media can boost one's confidence, it can be torn down just as quickly.
Some of the Ducks haven't let the noise interfere with their play this season, like sophomores Dakorien Moore and Brandon Finney Jr., who transitioned to the nickel after the first few games of the season and have found success. As a young leader on a veteran-laden roster, Moore and Finney's approaches toward the outside narratives are ones the rest of the Ducks should adopt quickly.
"I find it hard to really find what people say online truly affect me," Finney said on Tuesday. "Why would I let your opinion affect me or my thoughts on my performance, or my thoughts on our performance? People are going to be there when you're doing good. When you're doing bad, they're going to leave you."
"Me personally, I would say that I am kind of into the media," Moore said. "Being that I have a lot of fan stuff, I'm very interactive with my fans. But when it comes to game days, I'm all locked in, focused, phone on hard D&D (do not disturb), not really talking to anybody, in my own zone. I'd say that I handle it pretty well."
As the Ducks move forward, the hope is that they can look past the attention and respond appropriately against Nebraska, Raiola's former team. Raiola set an example on Saturday by showing tremendous poise and accountability when speaking to the media after the loss, and that's all Lanning wants to see from the rest of his team this week in practice: composure.
"The question is: what do they do ultimately when they hear that, and how does that affect them?" Lanning said. "That's our job as much as we can. Attack that, but ultimately you have to be mature enough to realize that, again, it doesn't impact the reality of what we have to do and how you have to improve."
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Dan Lanning says Oregon learned 'hard lessons' from outside noise
