Junior Adams’ Departure Creates A Big Hole For Dan Lanning To Fill On Ducks Staff
By SPENCER McLAUGHLIN
Contributor, 750 The Game
We have a tendency as human beings to glorify the past. Nostalgia is a very strong emotion that allows us to forget how bad or hard past times in our lives were. When it comes to college football, I’ve found plenty of fans are the opposite. When a player or coach moves on, it’s easier to find his faults and convince yourself he wasn’t as good as you once thought.
It’s hard to do that with Junior Adams for Oregon.
The (now) former WR coach arrived in 2022 with Dan Lanning and co. and immediately got to work elevating that position group to levels it had never been before. He’s taking off after 3 seasons in Eugene to become the Dallas Cowboys’ WR coach. His track record at Oregon and before his time with the Ducks is rather impeccable.
At Washington he coached/recruited guys like Puka Nacua and Rome Odunze. He was Cooper Kupp’s WR coach in college, who might soon be traded from the LA Rams (future Cowboy?). At Oregon he oversaw the first EVER pair of 1,000-yard receivers in the same season when Troy Franklin and Tez Johnson both went over that threshold in 2023. Oregon Football hadn’t seen a 1,000-yard receiver since Dillon Mitchell accomplished the feat in 2018, with Justin Herbert having few other reliable options to throw to.
The recruiting for the Ducks has also soared for the WR room in recent years, beyond anything we’ve seen before. The top wideout recruits typically wind up at schools like Ohio State, LSU, and Alabama. Back in the day it was USC, too. Fast forward to 2025 and it’s Oregon bringing in the #1 wide receiver in the 2025 cycle, landing Dakorien Moore from Duncanville, TX. RB coach Ra’Shaad Samples deserves credit for that one too, but Adams’ recruiting prowess is well documented.
Last year, 4-star WR Jeremiah McClellan flipped from Ohio State to the Ducks. Adams got 5-star WR Jurrion Dickey to commit to Oregon in the 2023 cycle after initially being recruited to Eugene by Mario Cristobal’s staff. Bottom line, he’s been one of the best position group coaches Dan Lanning has had in the last few years.
Recruiting is a holistic effort that involves a chief of staff (Marshall Malchow) in addition to recruiting coordinators and various staff members. The Ducks’ stellar run of high school recruiting isn’t going to suddenly crater with Adam’s departure, even though he was a stellar recruiter himself. Can whoever the next WR coach is see the same results? Has the foundation been built such that it’s a plug-and-play role almost anyone can succeed in?
Only time will tell how those questions can get answered.
Lanning has faced this sort of situation previously though, and is unquestionably 2/2 on making similar hires.
Adrian Klemm left Oregon for the NFL, and 27-year old A’lique Terry has been wildly successful since Klemm’s departure. Each of the last 2 Oregon offensive line units have been finalists for the Joe Moore Award, given to the nation’s top OL group.
Last year Carlos Locklyn left for Ohio State, and Ra’Shaad Samples looks like a homerun hire. The RB room has added Makhi Hughes from Tulane, the top-graded RB available according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). He’s serving as Oregon’s RB Coach as someone who many believe will one day be a head coach in college football.
The downside of success is that it draws a lot of attention to your coaching staff. Maybe Junior Adams wants to be a head coach one day, and this is something to boost his profile even further. Maybe he didn’t enjoy recruiting even though he was clearly great at it.
Oregon fans shouldn’t be in full-fledged panic mode over this departure, save that energy for Oregon Basketball’s 5-game losing skid. But make no mistake about it, this is a serious void that Oregon needs to fill to maintain the level of production they’ve had on and off the field from their wide receivers.
Spencer McLaughlin is an Oregon Ducks football contributor to 750 The Game. He also hosts the “Locked On Oregon Ducks” and “Locked On College Football” podcasts and has work featured throughout the season here.