Drew Mehringer Gets Candid On Wide Receiver Evan Stewart's Return From Injury

The 2026 Oregon Ducks football season is set to feature familar faces in new roles. Among members of Dan Lanning's coaching staff changing titles is offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer.

Mehringer has been with the program since Lanning arrived, previously serving as the tight ends coach. In the first week of Mehringer's first spring season as offensive coordinator he spoke to the media. The offensive coordinator talked about new players in the offense, as well as wide receiver Evan Stewart's return to the field.

What Offensive Coordintaor Drew Mehringer Said

oregon ducks dan lanning drew mehringer evan stewart injury wide receiver offensive coordinator tight ends offensive line — Oregon Tight Ends coach Drew Mehringer during practice 2022. Eug 031222 Oregon Fb 07 | Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

How Evan Stewart Is Approaching His Comeback From Injury:

"Stewie looks, looks good. This is the hardest I think I've ever seen Stewie work. I've had a bunch of conversations with him about the goals that he has and where he wants to go and what he's capable of doing.”

“I think it's not a secret he can run, but there's a lot of guys who can run who don't make it in the NFL. That's ultimately his dream, and that's everybody that's in that locker room over there's dream. What's the difference-maker for him? For him, I think it's going to be that change in his approach. I think we're seeing that, and it's pretty cool to watch."

"He's one of the guys today in our unit meeting that I called out specifically and said 'Hey, we all know what your goals are, we need to see those goals reflected in the way you work today'. I thought he did that.”

"It's exciting when you're most talented players work that hard. That's a sign to me of a good culture, and the culture that coach Lanning has put here at Oregon that guys like Dante (Moore), Poncho (Laloulu), Evan, Matayo (Uiagalelei, Teitum (Tuioti) and A'Mauri (Washington), all those guys are working really hard."

“They're setting new examples leading from the front. They're not like 'I'm got four years in, I'm good. You guys go do it'. They're leading from the front. We saw winter conditioning, and Wilson did a great job forcing those guys to lead, even when they didn't want to.”

“I think we're seeing some of that from Stewie, and if he continues that down the road, I'm excited to see what he does this year."

On Wide Receiver Gaitlin Bair Entering the Program:

“Gatlin is really fast. That's not a secret. He's got the track times to prove it. I think that there's definitely some rust that has to get knocked off for him. Anybody in your guys’ job, if you stop doing it for two years with live bullets out there, I'd be, like, maybe not the best article I've ever written.

“Gatlin’s got size. He's got speed. He's got really great work ethic. He's tough. He's strong. So, there's some very exciting things that we see from Gatlin.”

“He's still like, although two years older than most of the freshmen. Still learning, right? And I don't know the ins and outs of the offense that he ran at Burley high school two years ago, two and a half years ago. But there's, there's a lot of information that we carry in in our offense. He's learning that getting lined up, and formation manipulation and all that kind of stuff, motions.”

“And so, I think when some of that stuff settles down, I think we'll have a better idea of where he's at right now. But he shows a lot of it, very exciting things. He didn't forget how to run. He can definitely do that.”

“It's a 100-meter game. It’s a stop-and-start game that happens predominantly under 15 yards for most plays. So, there's some of that stuff too that he's grown developing on. Like, how many times has he in the last two seasons on a mission run man-to-man day grounds? Probably not a ton.”

“He's probably run some, right? But, certainly, there's some pretty good DBs that he's seeing. Probably a little bit better than the ones he saw in Burley. At least hopefully. And I think that we'll, we'll have a better idea of where he's at, but a lot of some of the information is just going to sink in for him a little bit right now.”

“I think he's like every single freshman that we have. It's a lot more volume of terminology than they're accustomed to, and speed of practice is much faster, but he's very exciting. Very, very exciting. I'm really excited to see where he goes, because he's definitely got the one too. He's definitely got the ability, and it'll be fun to see where he is down the stretch of spring.”

Finding a Balance Between Making His Mark on the Offense And Keeping it in the Conversation as One of the Nation’s Best:

“I think that's an interesting question. It's kind of like people ask you, 'What's your favorite play?' Whatever we need to do in that particular moment, do we? I think that one of the great things that we had with Will (Stein) here previously is we saw the game very similarly. Not completely similar, or not completely alike, but very similarly.”

“And I was asked a question last fall camp, and it was what do we think the offense is going to look like? And I think would tell you the saying, every offense every year is going to be a little bit different, and regardless of who's calling plays, or it's just the faces that are on the offense are going to be a little bit different, and the skills that you have on there.”

“There's going to be some guys that are a year older and a little bit better. There's going to be some new guys that show up. There's going to be some young guys that need to play for you. What can they do, and how can we put them in a position to be successful? I think we're at a point right now, early in spring, where we're seeing where those pieces are going to fit and who's going to develop, and what they're going to be able to do for us.”

“What are we going to be completely like in the fall? I think that still remains to be seen. I don't think that anybody going into spring ball last year would have said that we would have been in this much two-back personnel as we were, but our running back room ended up being a real positive for us. And the two freshmen running backs for us played really, really well for us down the stretch, and we had a talented wideout room last year.”

“We got another talented wideout room this year. But some guys got banged up, so we played in a little bit more 12 personnel. And even you think about this time right now, last year, Jamari Johnson was not practicing because he was coming off a broken leg. I think a lot of that still remains to be seen. And we're molding the pieces and putting them together.”

“So is it my stamp, like thing like, this is never going to be Drew Mehringer’s offense or anything like that. This is always going to be our offense. There's a lot of voices. There's a lot of really smart coaches that are in this building, not just myself or any one particular person.”

“We have a very talented offensive staff, and I've learned more football from Dan Lanning, Chris Hampton and those guys. I think that there's always pieces that you can take and learn from right and how can we use those pieces and that information to grow and get better and allow our playmakers to go make some plays for us.”

If Spring Football Feels Different as a Coordinator:

“It's definitely more responsibilities. Making sure that things are organized and making sure that the staff is on the same page. Ultimately, that falls on me, at least for the offensive staff. It is, at times, a little bit weird.”

“Just being the like today, we had like a ball security circuit. Normally you're the guy running the drill, and now you're the person keeping the drill organized. So that was kind of weird. You've seen Talladega Nights. At times. It's like, I don't know what to do with my hands.”

“So, yeah, that part was different. But I think the feeling that I think is cool. It's kind of like coach Lanning says, pinch yourself a little bit. It's pretty cool. And when you feel like you're at a place working for a head coach that you absolutely love, that you wouldn't trade for anybody else in the country, and working for the players that we have, I think that you want to serve them the best way possible.”

“And so, it makes you work really, really hard, because you care about those guys and want to make sure that we're very organized and we don't waste our time. A big believer in trying not to disrespect people's time.”

“It's cool, a little bit surreal at times. The first practice was a little surreal. But at the end of the day, it's just like we had to go out there and get the job done, and let's get to work, and find ways to help coach and develop these guys.”

On the New Tight Ends:

“Markus (Dixon), obviously, has been in college for a little while, like he kind of, he comes from a good program, and he's a bigger, older kid, right? So, he's a 255-pound kid. He's really smart, he's tough.”

“We watch tight ends all the time. And there's like you watch the tight ends that make it got to be those things, what I mean, you got to be smart, you got to be tough. Even the guys that are the quote-unquote pass catchers, right? Like, I mean, Kenyon Sadiq just broke the 40 record in the combine. And one of the trademarks for him is he's a fantastic blocker.”

“So, in terms of the two young guys, I think that high school football is different. I think that Kendre (Harrison), for example, is learning a lot. We're doing a lot more things, and practice is happening a lot faster than it was for him only a few months ago. And then Andrew (Olesh) is coming off of a redshirt year at Penn State, where he's learning, too. For him, this feels maybe not like this in the first year.”

“But that's a lot of new information, and it's like learning a new language, but you're doing it full speed, and with somebody on the other side of the ball trying to knock your head off. We could all go take Chinese right now, but try and spit out the answers. Well, there's a 285-pound guy standing across from you trying to so I think that there's a little bit of there's some learning curves, and I think still very early, but I think they show promise. Both of those guys run really well.”

“They catch the ball very well. I don't think that they're afraid. I think they're tough. So how much are they going to play at the moment? I mean, we still got a long way to go before we get to September 5, we'll see how they develop.”

How Koa Ka’ai Is Leading the Quarterbacks:

“Koa is a stud. I've been the fortunate to be around some good young coaches. So, a guy that was working here for a little while that had worked with me a few different stops, Jordan Salkin, who's now the assistant quarterbacks coach, I think he's assistant quarterbacks coach for the Cincinnati Bengals.”

“You get calls from people, whether they're media or agents or whatever, and like, ‘Who's the next young guy?’ That we don't know yet. And I thought Jordan was one of those guys, and I think Koa is one of those guys. Koa is really, really intelligent.”

“Koa is a very, very hard worker. And I think he has an incredible balance. And I think he has an incredible balance in being firm but not making the guys tense. And you want that with the quarterback. You want them to have structure, like you can't just be, ‘Hey, just get out here and let's figure it out on the move, willy nilly.’”

“And the ball kind of goes wherever you need a guy that's going to be like, ‘Nope, here's the structure.’ Let's be disciplined in the way that we think, the way that we operate. Let's be firm. He's not afraid of coaching some of these guys. They're five stars, studs. Going to be high round draft picks, potentially the number two pick in the draft.”

“And they get afraid to coach them. And Koa is not. Koa is very engaged with them. But part of the reason he can do that is he has a great relationship with those guys. And so, I think even Dan would tell you that we saw this, I guess, with the New England Patriots toward the end of the Belichick era.”

“And Nick Caley, the current offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, is a good example of that. If you're smart and you work hard and you're willing to put in the time, you'll learn anything that you need to go learn. And Nick Caley was a DBs coach. They got flipped over the tight ends coach, and a few years later, he's calling plays for the Houston Texans.”

“And did Koa play quarterback? No, he played defensive end and tight end here. And then he started with the wideouts. Then got moved into the quarterbacks. And what did you see from him? You just saw a guy that came to work every single day. He doesn't have an ego. Doesn't mean he's not afraid to voice his opinion. He doesn't. He's not a pushover at all, but works really, really hard, provides a lot of value, thinks very critically about the game and is looking for ways to improve not only himself, but us as an offense.”

“And like I said, he has great relationships with those guys in the room. And when you even talking to Dante, when we were talking about the changes that were going to be happening, Dante was all in on that. Love Koa, and from my seat, that makes me feel a lot better move when you're maybe around those guys.”

“Like today, I sat in the offensive line meeting and listened to the best offensive line coach in the country, coach those guys. And it was fantastic. But you're not worried about what's being told to the guy that has the ball, and the guy that has the ball is very, very important on the decisions that he makes.”

“Koa has done an unbelievable job. I think he's just scratching the surface on where he's going to go. I think we have several guys on our staff that I think are going to be superstar, coaches, and I think he's one of them.”

What the Offensive Line Group Looks Like:

“I don't think it's any secret that our league has done an unbelievable job with those guys. I mean, three times in a row, Joe Moore semifinalists. And it's not because it's just five guys that are out there, right?”

“You look, and we start the USC game, and Fox Crader starts that left tackle for us. And how many snaps did Fox play up until that point? Not a ton. And how does he play in that game? He plays pretty well. So, I think that we're at a point where we have a lot of good young players in that position that have grown and developed and worked hard, and they're ready to take a step.”

“Whose that going to be? I'm not sure yet. We'll see. It's going to be very competitive at that position. Ryan Switzer told me a quote that he had from Mike Tomlin right when he was vying for the slot receiver position when he was in Pittsburgh. And there's two dogs and one bone. There's still got to be continuity. There's still got to be power of the unit, so to speak.”

“Within there, they all got to support each other. But they got to push. And those five are, but I do think that we do have a lot of good young players, and I think guys that are coming on, guys that we haven't seen as much on game day, but that have grown and developed and are ready for their opportunities.”

How He Prepared for This Role the Past Few Years:

“There's a book called Leaders Eat Last, and it's the way the military actually lines up to eat in the mess hall. And they line up from the young guys first, all the way to the most senior officers. And the point is that the guy behind you should be pushing you or helping you grow. And I think the point is for the person that's in front, right here, in the front of the line, right here, is that you should be trying to do the best job that you can at the job that you currently have.”

“But while also mentally preparing to grow into another role as well. So, there's not anybody on our offensive staff right now, or staff period, that I don't think that's not trying to do that, like it's trying to grow and learn and expand. How do you do that? I think it's like anything else, probably the same with your job as well. Like, if I was in that role, like, what would I do here? How would I organize this?”

“But at the end of the day, it's not necessarily about my opinion in that particular moment. My opinion may be merited, or wanted or warranted here. And I should give it, but ultimately, we're going to do everything that Will, Dan, in that particular moment, decide that they think is best for us to move forward. That leader, but you have to think to yourself, would you do it the same way? Would you have prepared this or game plan the same way, or organized practice the same way?”

“And as long as you're thinking critically and you're present and focused, I think that anybody can grow. I tell people all the time, I don't think that there's as many dumb people in the world as we think. I think there's a lot of people that are lazy thinkers. So, they just choose not to use their brain as much, and so we are all victim and guilty of this right to some degree.”

“We talked about a lifetime and dead time. Dead time is what you're doing when you're just kind of letting life happen to you. And can you use more of your time as a lifetime rather than dead time? Right? To go and prepare yourself or whatever it is, whatever your goal might be. So I've tried to do that as much as humanly possible.”

“Do I fail at it quite a bit? Yeah. Is it perfect out there? It was like, no. And I think that ultimately my motivation here, like at least at the beginning of this year, has been to make it as easy on Dan and the rest of the offensive staff and the players as humanly possible. And try and be prepared. Is it perfect? No, I screwed up some today, so we're all going to do that. Are you willing to grow and continue to get better?”

How He’s Handles Getting Everyone Reps:

“Our team, we practice essentially two teams, whereas we're split and we two-spot. And so those guys, they play a different bunch of and some of that is so we can get everybody on the team reps, which I think is super healthy for our organization, because you just don't know if you're a one-spot team, how much would we have seen of Dierre Hill last year? Probably not as much.”

“Not to feel good that hey, this guy's going to go in and break off several explosive runs at the Penn State game. That's a tough one to see, unless you've seen him practice and do it. I think that those guys, all of those games, plenty of opportunities as a wideout, too. There's sometimes probably a couple less opportunities because you're running all over the place.”

“But it's been really good for them, and it's given us a chance to see what all of those guys can do for us. Dante made a point to me today. He was, he's like, there's some of these guys that I have rapport with. But I'm going to focus on, hey, if I can get the ball to guys that I haven't really had connections with – maybe they're new here – like looking at some of the freshmen, or Iverson Hooks.”

“Want to see if I can start to build rapport with those guys as well. We know kind of going into fall camp down the road, what else they can do, and how well we fit and things like that together. It's a bit of a challenge, but Ross (Douglas) and those guys do a really good job of managing that.”

“And I don't think that there's anybody that plays any position, maybe aside from quarterback, that the more you do, the more value that you have. And we preach that. We were working some walk-through stuff, and I looked over, and Poncho is playing left tackle. And it's just you just don't know, maybe he has to play left tackle this year.”

“And there's some skill sets that exist at tackle that may not exist at center. But what did it do? It gave Koloi (Keli) a chance to play center right now with Poncho out there talking to our freshman left guard. It's great to see. It's just value. Is Poncho gonna play tackle for us this year? More than likely not. But it's cool to see it's allowing some of those young guys to grow.”