Drew Mehringer Tells the Truth About Seeing Former Oregon Stars in the NFL Draft

The Oregon Ducks promoted tight ends coach Drew Mehringer to offensive coordinator this offseason following former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein’s move to head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.

Mehringer spoke to reporters after spring practice, and he touched on the feelings of seeing his former players move on to the NFL Draft.

What Drew Mehringer Said

Oregon Ducks Offensive Coordinator Drew Mehringer Tight Ends Coach Spring Practice Will Stein Kentucky Wildcats Big Ten — Oregon tight ends coach Drew Mehringer works with players during practice with the Ducks Wednesday, Aug. 14 2024 at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene, Ore. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Seeing Former Players Get Selected in NFL Draft

"I think as a position coach, I hate to use the word sell, but you paint a picture of what you anticipate their journey here looking like in recruiting. And even when we got here and it was, Terrance Ferguson had already been here for a year. Patrick Herbert had been here for a few years. If you stay the course. Like, those who stay will be champions."

"So, for me, the culmination of that he put in the work, I put in the work, and now we're getting to see the results, at the beginning of a new chapter. But for everybody that's a parent, all of a sudden, the second that you become a parent, yes, it's really cool when you have victories in your life, but when your kids or your players have victories, it just means so much more to you."

"I don't know why that is, but you care. And so for Kenyon to be where he's at, for Terrance to be where he's at, for Patrick Herbert, who went through all these things, to be where they're at and feel like I delivered on my promise, that is huge for me. That means the absolute world. So, what's it going to be like? I'm really excited, extremely humbled, and super proud of all those guys, and very excited for Kenyon and his next step."

"I feel like I'm fielding phone calls from all kinds of NFL teams. I got a text message from a reporter, do you know who's going to draft him? I'm like, dude, I don't know. I'm worried about four verticals over here, bud. So, I'm unbelievably proud, humbled that guys, players like that have been, put their trust in me, and I've helped deliver on, they got to put the work in."

"But you help grow them, and you have that relationship. Kenyon's girlfriend is my babysitter, you know, so like, there's like a whole family affair here thing with this going on, right? And so, and everything that he went through this season from people passing in his life that meant something, and everything, like, really proud of him. Super, super proud."

Things He's Learned As Offensive Coordinator

"I think that once you start playing with a real play clock, because you play your first few practices and play clock's really not going on out there, and when you start playing with a play clock, the sense of urgency, it's like the difference between playing chess and speed chess, you know?"

"So, yeah, I think that the willingness to grow and teach yourself how to think faster and get in and out of situations in your brain and also understanding who's on the field and who's not, that part's always challenging."

Potential of Offensive Weapons

"There's certainly a lot of good players, and I think that the biggest thing for us as an offense is it's got to start up front, right? There are a bunch of skill guys, right? But the offensive line has to play at a high level and has for us since I've been here."

"And one of the reasons that we've had success, our ability to be able to run the ball and stay ahead of the chain. So I think it starts there, and I think that we got good leadership in Poncho. So we have to continue to develop that and cultivate that, right, to allow those guys to go make plays for us."

Team's Knowledge, Installing New Things

"It's a funny balance and a funny question of, yes, we could continue to install, right, but as you put in more new things, you have to sacrifice something."

"That's generally details, technique, fundamentals, and so I do think that we are ahead mentally of where we were, and we've got to refine, especially with some of the guys that are new faces around this organization, the details and fundamentals of how we execute it, not just a deluge of scheme here."

The "Oregon Offense"

"So I think the guy with the ball, you have to see the game through his lens. You can use this square peg, round hole discussion here, and I think for us, what are we trying to do? We're trying to put our players in the best positions possible, but make sure that they see the game the same way that we do, and really, do we see the game the same way that they do? And if there needs to be growth, it can happen on both sides."

"So I do think the collaborative effort is one of the things I talked about with Bo Nix. I was like, if you were in this situation right now at quarterback, what would you want? This is my plan, and he was very complimentary on that idea, and I think it's been good."

"We've tweaked a few things and given Dante some things that I think help him see things, and so I think I'll probably do that every year because every iteration of the offense will be a little bit different just because personnel changes."

What He's Looking For in the Spring Game

"We've had two scrimmages. I was better the second time than I was the first time, and I think that's having some self-awareness and evaluating the same way, evaluating myself, our staff, the same way that we do players. Was this good? Why or why not? And not just evaluating the result but evaluating the process of how we got there so we made tweaks and we were better in the second scrimmage."

"From the players, I think that we're looking to see, can we play sound, clean, fundamental football? Are we trying to see who can come out and kind of set the foundation for us to come into the fall? Are any depth charts set? No, but I do think that you're looking to see where guys are growing, what their potential is, and what they need to attack moving into the offseason. On top of, are we trying to trick the defense, the defense trying to trick us? No, none of that, just go out and play good football."

Growth From Offense, Limiting Turnovers

"We had a couple ball-in-jeopardy type of throws in this past scrimmage, but in the first scrimmage, we had very loose ball security, I thought, from all of our skilled players, which was a lot better in the second scrimmage. It's still the old adage of explosive plays and turnovers are the two key and defining statistics for winning football games, so that part's been better."

"We got to make a couple better decisions in the quarterback room, but you don't want to coach aggression out of people either. You just want to make sure that we're playing calculated and that we have our opportunities. We take them, but we don't put the ball in jeopardy and give the opponent a chance to win."

Benefits on Monarc Machines, Technology

"So, there's a lot of added technology nowadays to practice. Helmet, if you're out of practice, you'll see sometimes the quarterbacks have little GoPros and things like that, which is great because you can hear communication at the line of scrimmage. I can hear what the center is saying. I can hear how the quarterback's communicating."

"The Monarc, especially, I think that when we got it, it felt just like a fancy jugs machine, and credit to Coach Lanning. He really pushed the idea of the utilization of that machine, and I think that we see dividends from that, and it's the variety of throws that it can do, I think, helps. I made the point today, like, we had a drop pass in the scrimmage, and I was like, that wasn't one thrown right at you. There was one that was thrown outside the framework of your body."

"So, what do you think you should be doing on the Monarc? The cool thing about the Monarc, too, is you don't have to, you can be by yourself, right? But a lot of those guys, then the culture that we're trying to create is, like, if you're going, bring somebody else with you. And so, if you're a tight end, how many balls are you going to catch?"

"If you're a running back, how many balls are you going to catch in a practice? You need to supplement that somewhere else. And not just ones right at you, but more difficult ones and get reps at that because we all get better at the things we practice."

Balance of Calling Spring Game

"I think that, by and large, right, most of the plays that get run, somebody has some version of that play. Especially with PFF and all this other stuff. You can watch any game that you want to, you can watch any offense, whether it's in college, in the NFL, it doesn't matter. So, does everybody run inside zone, right?"

"Not everybody runs outside zone, but a lot of people run outside zone. Does everybody run counter? Yeah, somebody's got some version of that. Does everybody run four verticals or snack seven flat?"

"Like, yeah, so I think that, again, going back to the concept of the spring game, who can go out there and just play quality football for us. And why do you call those kinds of plays? They're all-purpose plays. They're generally pretty good. And is there maybe a perfect call? Yeah, but that's not what you're trying to get to."

Offensive Line Competition

"I think there's a lot of competition. There's been some guys that have been here that are traveling out to bid. They're looking for their opportunity. And I think there's some young guys in there that have shown, hey, these guys can do some things. So I don't think they will know the answer to that probably until the middle of August of what we think the five are going to be."

"You go back even to, Josh Connerly's freshman year, he was the sixth, you know, and he's pretty good. So I think that we'll see. I think the competition in that room and the competition at any position is healthy. And if you're not actively cultivating competition, then I think people, human nature, you take a seat back or step back right now."

"You're not pushing the same way that you do. So I think the way that Coach Lanning has practice set up does that. And it lets you know, you're going to get a ton of reps and we're going to see what you can and cannot do and I think at this point, too, where you need to grow and what we need to work on."

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