The text came from an employee on Monday morning, as ordinary as any, and it completely surprised Corrine Coxey, owner of Salud Raw Food restaurant in Bend.

“Woody Harrelson is here, and he’s raving about your food,” the text read.

Harrelson, a “Cheers” actor and devoted vegan who ordered “rawkin’ tacos” and other items with his wife, Laura Louie, returned to the restaurant Tuesday and promised to come again. He said they were visiting family in the area. Headlines followed.

“I’m just very honored they came in and raved about it,” Coxey said. “Woody has been a vegan for 30 years and you know he’s eaten at the best places around the world so it was a real compliment.”

Coxey opened her raw food restaurant, which uses no stoves or ovens to prepare healthy, organic, plant-based dishes, in 2013. This year has been the slowest ever, she said, to the point she has often wondered whether she’d have to close. The TV and movie star’s arrival has been a “blessing” for business, she said.

“All of this publicity couldn’t have come at a better time as it’s been pretty bleak lately,” she said by text. “The local news here did a story on the 6 o’clock news tonight. We were twice as busy as we would have been today!”

She hopes he returns, too, not just for the sake of her bottom line: “He and his wife were very sweet and humble.”

— Beth Slovic is an editor on the public safety and breaking news team. Reach her at 503-221-8551 or bslovic@oregonian.com.

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EUGENE — It was the clinch that appeared to be, then wasn’t, then was again.

In a reversal, the Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday that Oregon football (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) has in fact earned a spot in the conference’s championship game. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussion, Big Ten athletic directors met virtually Tuesday to discuss the conference’s tiebreakers, and whether Oregon had clinched.

While the conference previously claimed the Ducks needed Ohio State and Penn State to lose this coming weekend in order to secure their spot this week, it may have misinterpreted its own tiebreaking procedures. Oregon appears to have clinched a spot with Saturday’s win at Wisconsin.

“Following a comprehensive evaluation of all possible scenarios over the final two weeks of regular-season play across the conference’s 18 teams, there are no conditions whereby the Ducks do not finish No. 1 or No. 2,” the Big Ten said in a release.

The conference did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Prior to Saturday’s game against the Badgers, the conference told The Oregonian/OregonLive and officials from the Oregon athletic department that even a victory would not secure the Ducks a spot in the Dec. 7 game in Indianapolis. That was the operating assumption as recently as Monday, when The Oregonian/OregonLive reported a follow-up story based on the conference’s interpretation of its tiebreaking procedures.

The Oregonian’s original interpretation of the tiebreaker rules was that Oregon needed only to beat Wisconsin to clinch. That appears to have been true.

While the Ducks’ trip to Indianapolis is finally locked in, their opponent remains a mystery. Indiana, Ohio State and Penn State all still have a path to meet the Ducks at Lucas Oil Stadium.

— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.

For Oregon Duck fans that were gripping their seats and tracking flight logs to Tuscaloosa, Alabama while unfounded rumors of coach Dan Lanning’s departure ran amok last year; be ready to experience some deja vu.

With the No. 1 Oregon Ducks currently standing at the top of the College Football rankings with an 11-0 record and a likely bid to the Big Ten Conference Championship, there’s a lot of praise coming Lanning’s way as well as a lot of expected rumors towards a potential departure to the NFL.

In the midst of rumors circulating that Lanning is becoming a prospect for a coaching job in the pros, former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky joined “The Next Round Live” podcast to share his own praise for the coach.

“He’s authentic. I think he’s got a no-stone-unturned youth, a Nick Saban youth to him,” Orlovsky said. “Nick Saban is notorious for; there is nothing that is small. Everything is big. I think Lanning has that quality to him.”

Lanning coached under the legendary coach Saban early in his career in 2015 when he was a graduate assistant at Alabama. During that season, Lanning helped the Crimson Tide win yet another National Championship for their dynasty against the Clemson Tigers. After a tenure at Memphis, Lanning went on to coach outside linebackers and eventually become the defensive coordinator under Georgia coach Kirby Smart; another coach Orlovsky lauded kind words to.

“It’s funny, when they beat Ohio State and did that 12-man on-the-field penalty, I said, ‘It’s very clear that we have two elite coaches in college football. Kirby Smart being one and Dan Lanning probably being the second. And people are like, ‘You’re an idiot, this and that,” Orlovsky said.

Lanning’s calling card on the field has been seen this season through gutsy plays and team-involved gestures. The 12-man penalty vs. Ohio State, Dillon Gabriel’s NCAA record breaking touchdown throw to offensive lineman Gernorris Wilson during the Maryland game, his “Gladiator” inspired timeout for his athletes to watch Michigan’s stadium clear out (“Are you not entertained?”), and the most recent ploy for the Ducks to crash Wisconsin’s “Jump Around” fourth quarter celebration are all stimulated by Lanning himself. Several of these strategies and play calls have social media sports enthusiasts calling Lanning a “mad man” for his inspired coaching choices.

Despite claiming detractors, to the former 12-year NFL veteran, there’s something very clear about Lanning, who just received a $200,000 contract bonus from the Ducks for beating the Badgers 16-13.

“It’s very clear that Dan Lanning, at worst, is the second-best College Football coach in the country right now,” Orlovsky said.

And with so much positive attention coming the way of Lanning and the Ducks, so do the ever-evolving rumors of a potential Lanning departure. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler brought up Lanning’s name last week when discussing NFL buzz-worthy topics.

“The once-popular trend of plucking college head coaches for NFL jobs has slowed in recent years,” Fowler said. “All but one of the 32 sitting head coaches (Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh, formerly Michigan) came directly from an NFL job. Recent NFL failures of Urban Meyer and Matt Rhule haven’t helped the collegiate pipeline. But a league exec I trust brought up an interesting name to me this week: Oregon’s Dan Lanning. ‘He’s got some Dan Campbell to him,’ the exec said. While Campbell is in his own class right now, Lanning knows how to command a room, and the Ducks are 32-5 since he took over.”

It seems Oregon has constantly fielded coach departure rumors for the better part of a decade at this point. From the “blink and you’ll miss it” coaching tenure of Willie Taggart, who left the Ducks after one year for Florida State in 2018, and former coach Mario Cristobal’s unceremonious goodbye to join the Miami Hurricanes in 2022; Duck fans have a history of feeling anxious about their coaches.

However, it seems Lanning might possess a different perspective. Last year, when rumors flew about the young coach departing for the seat retired by Saban at Alabama, Lanning shared a statement that has since become a brand for the program.

“The reality is, the grass is not always greener; in fact the grass is damn green in Eugene,” Lanning said. “I want to be in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me…This is a destination, not just for me but for elite players.”

Lanning appears to be on a quest to prove he can win a championship without the prestige of an SEC or tenured program. His bold moves and gutsy play calling are welcome in a program like Oregon that embraces innovation. Lanning’s continued efforts on the recruiting trail, intentions to include more alumni in the program, and deep family involvement in Oregon culture like the “Heroes” uniforms designed by the Lanning family all indicate deeper roots than a temporary tenure.

As rumors will no doubt continue to swirl around the sports world as Oregon continues their opening season in the Big Ten, it’s a safe bet to think Lanning will stick where the grass is green until other notice.

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