While Hampton isn’t first amongst DC’s, so far he has elevated the defense in 2026. I know there were some early struggles, but I put more blame on the offense for not being able to keep the ball, the defense was on the field for 87 snaps against Oklahoma State, and that’s unreal with the game not going into OT. Oregon’s offense relying on explosion plays and not being able to keep a drive going put the defense in a bad situation, but no doubt early in the season the defense underperformed. But since the bye week, the defense has been lights out.
Meanwhile Mehringer is the lowest ranked amongst all new coordinators, both offensive and defensive. I still don’t think it’s all his fault, for example Stein left just in time before he got to realize Terry wasn’t coaching anyone up, in fact he was coaching players down, and relied on transfers to cover up his deficiencies. But to experience such a drop off it does show that Drew is in over his head and not ready for this job.
Crazy how Dan had a slam dunk DC hire and a horrible OC hire. Hopefully Dan can retain his defensive coaching staff and bring in a top notch OC who can take full control of the offense.
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