Oregon
The Broncos waited and waited, then made a franchise-sized bet on Oregon QB Bo Nix: “I just appreciate the value that they had in me”
So many months, meetings and miles later, the Broncos’ first-round plan proved so simple it translates into two letters.
Bo.
Denver set its course for the future and coach Sean Payton put his quarterback evaluation chops on the line in a major way Thursday night by selecting Oregon quarterback Bo Nix at No. 12.
Nix, a six-year college player who started 61 games and put up prodigious numbers the past two years running the Ducks offense, all along felt like a clean fit from a scheme standpoint. He was not, however, considered a particularly good value in the first half of the first round.
In recent years, however, quarterbacks have been picked earlier and earlier. Never faster and more furiously than this night.
USC’s Caleb Williams, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and North Carolina’s Drake Maye went in succession the first three picks. None of Washington, Chicago and New England, respectively, could be convinced to move off those opportunities.
Atlanta dropped the stunner and picked Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 two months after giving Kirk Cousins $100 million guaranteed. Then Minnesota moved up one spot to No. 10 to ensure it got the fifth quarterback of the night in Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.
All the while, the Broncos were not concerned.
They waited out free agency. They waited out weeks of trade talks before acquiring Zach Wilson from the New York Jets on Monday for minimal cost. What’s a few more picks and a quintet of quarterbacks?
Payton said at the NFL scouting combine that his team would ace the quarterback evaluation process and other teams wouldn’t. Then he stood pat at No. 12 and had no qualms about taking the sixth quarterback of the night.
“It means a lot,” Nix said. “I can’t thank them enough for taking me, and for putting their belief in me. Like I said, there’s a lot in the future that’s going to need to be done — a lot of work to be done, a lot of growing and a lot of getting better. I just appreciate the value that they had in me.”
They left premium options for teams behind. They could have had Georgia tight end Brock Bowers. They could have had their pick of defensive players. The first didn’t come off the board until Indianapolis took UCLA pass-rusher Laiatu Latu at No. 15, the longest stretch of all offense to start a draft in NFL history.
Instead, they did what so much of the top half of the draft order did: took a swing at the game’s most important position.
The Broncos did extensive work on Nix throughout the process, just as they did with the other quarterbacks in the class. They didn’t have a loud presence at his pro day in March, but Sean Payton and company were in Eugene and held a lengthy private workout and meeting with him the next day.
“We talked a lot of football and we talked a lot about (Payton’s) scheme and what he’s done for so many years and how he’s been so successful,” Nix said. “It was a blast talking football, to be honest with you. It was a blast being in there with him and the other coaches. They brought a lot of guys out there to the private (meeting) and I was just very honored to have them around.”
The way the board fell provides a clean and compelling way to measure Denver’s process. Because Nix was the last of the six off the board, the Broncos will have either outfoxed and out-scouted a dozen other teams or it will look like they forced the issue and took a quarterback because they felt they had to take one.
The ramifications of that are equally clear and every bit as compelling: If Nix solves the eight-year quarterback conundrum this franchise has suffered through, this will be a defining night. The pick took no additional draft capital and leaves Payton and general manager George Paton with seven selections moving forward into the next two days to attack other areas of need. There are many.
If not, the wisdom of selecting a player most didn’t have among the draft’s premier talents will be questioned up and down for years. Could the Broncos have landed Nix later? Is he that much better than Spencer Rattler? How many touchdowns did Bowers catch for Las Vegas against Denver this year?
That’s the nature of making this bet. Payton put his first-rounder where his mouth was.
First-rounders have to produce regardless of position, but especially when it’s a quarterback and especially when a team hasn’t made one since 2021.
If Nix learns to operate Payton’s offensive system the way he did Oregon’s, the Broncos will benefit for years to come. If he ends up performing like a typical sixth quarterback taken in a draft, Denver will likely continue to lag far behind in a division that features two of the game’s best quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert.
No pressure.
QB Bo Nix, Oregon
Round/pick: 1st/No. 12
Age: 24
Height/weight: 6-foot-2/217 pounds
College: Oregon
Hometown: Pinson, Ala.
Notable: Nix is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in this year’s draft class, playing in 61 career games and recording 15,352 passing yards, 113 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. A four-star recruit out of high school and ranked the best dual-threat quarterback in the 2019 class by 247sports, Nix spent three seasons at Auburn before transferring to Oregon and becoming a college football superstar. He totaled 8,101 passing yards, 74 touchdowns and 10 picks in two seasons with the Ducks, posting a 22-5 record.
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Despite a strong start and competitive effort for much of the night, Oregon State men’s basketball fell apart down the stretch of a 82-76 loss to University of Portland on Saturday night at Chiles Center.
A corner three-pointer by Mikah Ballew buried the Beavers (9-10, 2-4 WCC), putting Portland up 78-70 with just 1:10 remaining.
The Pilots (9-10, 2-4 WCC) had four players in double figures: Cameron Williams with 23, Jermaine Webb Balsinger and Joel Foxwell with 18 apiece, and Ballew with 16.
The Beavers were led by Olavi Suutela with 19 points and Johan Munch with 14. Dez White, Josiah Lake II and Yaak Yaak each had 10, and OSU out-shot the Pilots — 47% to 43% — but untimely turnovers and missed shots hurt them in the second half.
OSU came out hot, taking a 18-8 lead early in the first half including 12 points from Suutela. It got up to 24-15 before the Pilots mounted a response.
Turnovers and miscommunication by the Beavers on offense led to a 8-0 run by Portland. OSU clung to its lead for a while, but Portland took its first at 31-30 late in the first half.
The Pilots carried a 39-38 lead into the break.
Coming out of the half, after some back and forth, the Beavers went on an 11-1 run — fueled by the scoring and defensive effort of Suutela, and inside play of Noah Amenhauser — to take a 54-45 advantage at the 13:11 mark.
Turnovers reared their ugly head once again for the Beavers, though, and a pair of jumpers by Joel Foxwell cut the OSU lead down to 56-53.
Portland retook the lead, 57-56, with 10 minutes remaining. With an increased energy on both ends of the floor and OSU missing open shots, the Pilots led 66-63 with six minutes remaining and never relinquished it.
Portland’s defense smothered OSU in the halfcourt, and Wayne Tinkle’s side couldn’t find an easy basket, settling often for one-on-one opportunities rather than consistent and meaningful ball movement. Portland led, 71-68, with 3:19 to go.
Trailing by nine, Lake II hit a three-pointer to cut it to six with five seconds left. Too little, too late for the Beavers as they slipped back below .500.
Next game: Oregon State (9-10, 2-4 WCC) vs. LMU (11-7, 2-3 WCC)
- When: Wednesday, Jan. 14
- Time: 7:00 pm PT
- Where: Gill Coliseum, Corvallis
- Stream: ESPN+
ATLANTA – The Oregon Ducks’ 56‑22 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl ended their national championship dreams, leaving heartbreak in its wake.
The defeat brought flashbacks to last year’s season-ending 41‑21 Rose Bowl loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who went on to win the National Championship. Overreactions are rolling in as frustrations boil. While Oregon’s chances at winning its first-ever National Championship may be over, the sky isn’t falling in Eugene.
Indiana beat Oregon in all three phases, and the Ducks looked clearly inferior to their Big Ten foe. Still, amid the humbling loss, Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his team demonstrated leadership and resilience. Lanning didn’t bash his players or dwell on errors… instead, he led in the locker room, turning this lopsided loss into a potential turning point – a learning experience- that this core group of Ducks can utilize next season.
The comment section can be a rough place the day after the game. Some of the once-Oregon mighty turned quickly on the coaching staff and even some of the players.
Emotional responses are natural after back-to-back lopsided playoff losses, but Oregon’s program under Lanning remains strong. The facts speak volumes.
The 39-year-old has compiled a 48‑8 record, notching double-digit wins in each of his first four seasons. He ranks fourth all-time in wins among Ducks head coaches and has guided Oregon to consecutive College Football Playoff appearances, a Big Ten Championship, and victories in the Orange, Fiesta, and Holiday Bowls. Oregon is the only FBS team to win 13 games in each of the past two seasons, tying the program record set in 2025, 2024, and 2014.
Dan Lanning enters his fifth season as head coach at Oregon. It took Dabo Swinney nine seasons to win his first national title at Clemson before becoming a perennial contender. Kirby Smart captured his first championship in his sixth season at Georgia.
Lanning’s loyalty to Oregon has been clear amid the constant coaching carousel – something Ducks fans shouldn’t be quick to forget.
Dan Lanning’s Leadership Under Pressure
There are two moments that illustrate Lanning’s leadership from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The game couldn’t have started any worse for Oregon quarterback Dante Moore. On the very first play, Moore threw a pick-six. As Indiana teammates ran to congratulate cornerback D’Angelo Ponds on his big play, Lanning didn’t flinch. The coach found his quarterback, and immediately picked him up. Lanning spoke to Moore for a good 20 seconds after the turnover delivering a message amid a stadium full of Hoosiers fans in a frenzy. Lanning provided the calm in the chaos.
The next drive, Moore seemed to regain his composure, leading the Ducks on a 14-play drive and throwing a 19-yard touchdown to tight end Jamari Johnson.
It was a brief highlight but an important one that shows the true colors of Lanning when the chips are down.
Another moment came after the loss. In his postgame press conference, Lanning was asked what Moore can learn from the lopsided loss. Lanning took the opportunity to shield Moore from singling him out. He instead focused on how the entire team can learn from the experience.
“I think every man can learn from adversity,” Lanning said. “I just told that whole locker room, right, this is going to be about how you respond in life. This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. Right? That’s going to happen in life, right, and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, ‘Hey, how do you respond to that?’ Some people crawl into a hole, right, don’t face the music.”
“Some people say, ‘Okay, let’s figure it out. Let me challenge myself so I can be better. Let me be an example of how you handle moments like this.’ I think there is a way to handle that. Dante has been exceptional. Bryce, these guys have been exceptional, stewards of what we wanted to look like all year long. And it’s gone right for us 13 times. Didn’t go right tonight. And you can’t let that overshadow,” Lanning said.
MORE: What Dan Lanning Said After Oregon’s Loss to Indiana
MORE: Instant Takeaways From Oregon’s Playoff Loss to Indiana
MORE: Dante Moore NFL Outlook Comes Into Focus After Peach Bowl Loss
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Turning The Defeat Into A Life Lesson
Oregon’s team is led by mostly underclassmen. Moore is 20 years old, and freshmen like Dakorien Moore, Jordon Davison, Brandon Finney, Aaron Flowers, and Dierre Hill Jr. play prominent roles. The Ducks’ youth was evident, yet it also presents an opportunity: Oregon ranks second nationally behind North Texas in touchdowns scored by both true freshmen (26) and all freshmen (29). This season, 35 true or redshirt freshmen have taken the field.
On the other side, Indiana fielded a much older team, with an average age around 23 years old. If the Ducks’ inexperience was their Achilles heel this season in the playoff, they certainly got a lifetime of experience in 60 minutes vs. Indiana and coach Curt Cignetti.
Lanning did his part by helping his team process the loss without letting it define them.
“Every one of us has unbelievable disappointment. Learn from it. But there’s a lot of lessons to be learned for everybody in life, and we’ll learn the hard lessons here. And you know what, most people will never be in the position where they get to learn that lesson that we get to learn on. These guys were in that position,” Lanning said.
Experience Matters In The Playoff
A trend is emerging in the College Football Playoff: the most experienced quarterbacks often find the most success. This year’s National Championship game will feature Miami quarterback Carson Beck and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. Beck, 23, has played 54 college games over six seasons. Mendoza, 22, has played 35 games over three seasons.
Moore has played 29 games, but this was his first season as a full-time starter. If he returns to Oregon for 2026 instead of taking his talents to the NFL, he will join the ranks of the more experienced quarterbacks in college football.
The Ducks are losing integral players to the program in linebacker Bryce Boettcher, running back Noah Whittington, kicker Atticus Sappington, receiver Gary Bryant Jr., offensive linemen Isaiah World, Alex Harkey, Matthew Bedford and Emmanuel Pregnon… to name a few. Lanning made sure to highlight the contributions of the seniors after their final game as a Duck when he described the hardest part of being in the locker room after the loss.
“You hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight. I’m going to judge those guys on the kind of fathers they become someday, the kind of husbands they become someday. But in this moment, you feel like a failure, right, for them, and they’re not. They’re not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They’ve had a lot of success. They’ve changed some people’s lives, but right now, that moment is going to hurt,” Lanning said.
“And the hard part, you know, you got guys like Bryce (Boettcher) that they don’t get to be a Duck anymore. They will be a Duck forever, but he does not get to go wear that uniform and go play a game for us again. I really wanted that for them, really wanted them to be able to enjoy that and experience that, and they don’t get to,” Lanning continued.
The Ducks fell short of their National Championship goal, but the guidance of Lanning and the lessons learned by Oregon’s young core set the stage for next season.
ATLANTA — For the second time in as many seasons, Oregon entered the College Football Playoff with high expectations and exited with a pillar to post thrashing from a conference foe.
In similar fashion to last year’s Rose Bowl rout by Ohio State, No. 1 Indiana had its way with No. 5 Oregon in a CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl Friday night. By the end of the 56-22 mauling, led by Fernando Mendoza’s five touchdowns, neither the scoreboard nor the box score reflected how lopsided things truly were.
Three Ducks turnovers, including a pick-six by Dante Moore on the opening play of the game, led to 21 first-half points for the Hoosiers (15-0), who led 35-7 at halftime.
“This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “We just got our butt kicked. That’s going to happen in life and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, hey, how do you respond to that.
“Some people crawl into a hole, don’t face the music. Some people say, okay, let’s figure it out. Let me challenge myself so I can be better. Let me be an example of how you handle moments like this. I think there is a way to handle that.”
One could say the Ducks (13-2) should have learned a similar lesson from the Rose Bowl, but with so many new starters from a year ago that’s not entirely accurate.
This UO team ranked in the top 10 in many statistics all season and was at times even more dominant than last year’s team. But against the best competition its weaknesses showed more than its strength. The Hoosiers (15-0) capitalized on many of those to advance to face Miami in the CFP Championship on Jan. 19.
“They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can’t win football games if you’re causing turnovers,” said Moore, who was 24 of 39 for 285 yards with two touchdowns but lost 28 yards rushing due to three fumbles. “Something of course I need to work at.”
Moore lost two fumbles, one on a strip sack and another when running back Dierre Hill Jr. ran into the tip of the ball on Moore’s wind up.
“First play, I still like the play, but it sucked the result,” offensive coordinator Will Stein said. “We had the fumble off the elbow, like, crazy. … We were stopping ourselves, but they’re a really good defense. They are really good and they create takeaways and they don’t mess up.”
Mendoza was 17 of 20 for 177 yards and the five scores, which went to four different IU players.
Named offensive MVP, Mendoza set a Peach Bowl completion percentage record and threw the most touchdowns against Oregon since Cal’s Davis Webb had five in 2016.
“He understands what he’s doing,” Lanning said. “He has great weapons to be able to take advantage of.”
Indiana was 11 of 14 on third down, including nine of its first 10, underscoring one of Oregon’s defensive weaknesses against better teams.
Defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi called it a “really poor finish” to an “awesome season.”
It’s difficult to take a long view after another promising campaign ends in such brutally demoralizing fashion, though several players tried.
“This is a great program,” said running back Noah Whittington, who was limited due to turf toe. “It’s going to continue to grow. Eventually we’re going to get the job done. Unfortunately it wasn’t today, but down the road we’re going to get ‘em.”
Yet for a second year in a row, albeit once again with several top skill players out due to injury, Oregon was embarrassed on a national stage.
“In this moment,” Lanning said, “you feel like a failure and they’re not. They’re not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. … I also think you can’t discredit that we played well. We’ve played well at times even here in the postseason.”
Lanning proclaimed Oregon’s season motto “double down,” an expected value proposition in blackjack, which adopted because the program’s process is sound, even if last year’s Rose Bowl ending was not.
In many cases, it worked. But not always, like Friday night. It doesn’t mean that Lanning’s methods won’t pay off in the long run. It does mean the 2025 season ends without the ultimate reward, and in this case, far worse: another playoff blowout loss, which even if it proves again to be against the eventual national champion is still an offseason’s worth of misery to endure.
Adding insult to injury is Mario Cristobal, in his fourth year at Miami, bringing the Hurricanes back to the national championship game for the first time in 23 years.
But Oregon still earned a seat back at the CFP table. Whether Lanning is willing to double down in the same spot, or consider greater changes with two outgoing coordinators, could determine if the Ducks play differently next year.
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