Oregon Ducks' Will Stein Reveals Expectations For Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers

The Oregon Ducks will feature a new-look offense in 2025. Offensive coordinator Will Stein is tasked with incorporating a new starting quarterback and multiple new offensive line starters into the fold.

Stein met with the media on Friday for the first time this preseason.

What Stein Said After Day 3 Of Fall Camp:

Oregon Ducks Dan Lanning Will Stein Evan Stewart Kyle Kasper Dante Moore Offensive Line Offensive Coordinator Wide Receiver — New Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Will Stein leads a drill on the first practice of spring for Oregon football as the Ducks prepare for the 2023 season. Eug 031623 Uo Spring Fb 15 | Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

On The Impact Of Losing Wide Receiver Evan Stewart:

“Anytime you lose anybody in your squad, it's tough. Losing Evan was definitely tough but next man up mentality,” Stein said. “I mean, we've been here before. I've been here before my career, whether it's as a player, as a coach, people get hurt in this game. It's unfortunate. We wish it wouldn't have happened, but it did.”

“So, it's about guys stepping up, doing their job, learning, growing. That’s what this fall camp is all about. Trying to feel early on who that guy is going to be. Think we got a good group of kids, inexperienced but talented. So, it'll be interesting to see who comes out of camp to really take that spot,” he continued.

How Wide Receiver Kyler Kasper Has Bounced Back:

“Kyler, he's been a little bit injury prone or plagued, I would say, early in his career, but super talented, has a willingness to learn and can really make big plays down the field. So, we need him to play big. We do. He's somebody I'm looking forward to this season, getting out there and making an impact for us. But like you said, the best ability that you can have on offense and in football is availability. So, he needs to be available, like he's done, and take care of his body, which he's done a phenomenal job of, and I'm excited about where you can get to and his ability, like I said, to make plays down the field.”

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What Traits He Wants To See From The Offensive Line:

“Elite communication. When you when you lose Josh Conerly, Ajani Cornelius, Marcus Harper, like, that's a lot of experience. So those guys knew all the calls like the back of their hand. They've seen every look from our defense. They've seen looks in this conference. So, when you lose guys like that I think that's the first thing that falters. But what do we need? Poncho (Iapani Laloulu) to be that guy. And that's something that I felt from him this summer is taking that next step in his leadership. He's an upperclassman now, so his ability to lead, not just by example, but by his vocalness, is huge,” Stein said.

“And then physicality, I think what we added was very physical people. Isaiah World, Emmanuel Pregnon, Alex Harkey, like these guys are big, physical players, and really have done a nice job so far learning our offense, learning our calls. Coach (Alique) Terry and the law firm, they do the best job I've ever been around in terms of teaching how to play offensive line and develop those guys so far so good,” he concluded.

What Makes Him Confident In The Receiving Core:

“I think it's more than just the wideouts. I really like our offense as a whole, the talent that we have, it's just the experience factor. You lose Tez (Johnson) you lose Traeshon (Holden). The year prior you lose Troy (Franklin). That's a lot of it, lot of catches, a lot of experience. So, the talent is there, but talent only takes you so far. These kids need to get real life game reps, and Montana State's going to be one hell of an opponent. And then every single day. I mean, what we get to go against on defense is as good as you're going to find throughout the country. Our defense added tons of length in the back end that you know really looks like a different defense. Just to be real, they are young as well, but the competition has been great so far,” Stein said.

He continued, “But to answer your question, just need them to practice with a purpose, learn how to play this game at this level, and then we don't just have to rely on just our wideouts. We have phenomenal tight end core experience there, with Kenyon Sadiq, Jamari Johnson has college experience in Louisville, Roger Saleapaga is somebody I'm really excited about. And our running back room is deep, and does have experience too, with Noah (Whittington), with Jaden (Limar), with Jay (Harris), (Da’Juan Riggs), just to name a few. So, we have other positions that we're going to rely on this year, maybe more than just out of 11 personnel, like we have in the past with Tez and crew. But that's exciting. It's an exciting challenge for us as coaches.”

How The Secondary Has Changed Things For The Offense:

“I told our offense today how blessed we are to get to go against Dan Lanning, Tosh Lupoi, Chris Hampton, Brian Michalowski, Rashad Wadood, Tony Tuioti, Kamran Araghi, like these coaches on defense, it's the best I've ever been around. It's not even close. So, what they give us on a daily basis, schematically, is hard enough, and then when you add extremely talented players in the back end, guys like Matayo (Uiagalelei) Teitum (Tuioti), Amari Washington, Bryce Boettcher, it's a defense. It's really fun to watch fly around. And I'm very happy and thankful that I got Tosh and Dan and Chris and all those guys on that side of the ball that coach those kids up and develop them like they have. And it's really fun. It's been great competition.”

What Is The Expectation For The Offense:

“It is different now, like I've told the guys reps start to get cut in certain spots, the depth chart starts to form. We're early in camp, so it's still a green and yellow team and mixed groups, but as we get closer, there's going to be a one group, there's going to be a two and then we start getting into scout team looks and game week preps and guys really settle into their roles. So right now, it's still early on in camp. It's about fundamentals and technique, flying around, extreme effort, great attitude and toughness like we've never seen," Stein said.

“But as we move forward, what I'm looking for is just elite execution, like that's one thing when you think about where I want to be Week 1 is, I don't want to wait till Week 3 or after bye to hit on all cylinders. I want to start fast and just to get that confidence early with a young group. So that's vital for me. We're still in installation phase early in this camp. But as we get in the next week and the following week, it'll really pretty even itself out. Figure out what we're really good at schematically, what personal groups we love the most, and really try to build into that first week.”

Quarterback Dante Moore’s Progress:

“I just think he's really tried to take a leadership role, and it's hard when you haven't played here. We know he's played at UCLA, but now he's been here for a full season and a full spring, so he's really tried to take that next step, and knowing his guys like you mentioned, going with receivers, being a leader, that's really what I've seen the most," said Stein. "But the biggest growth for him is just take what the defense gives you, like you take what the defense gives you, they'll give you the game every single time.”

“We've won a lot of games here with that mindset at quarterback, that doesn't mean that we don't throw to win. We don't take chances down the field, but being extremely efficient offense is huge, because we stay on the field. We keep our defense fresh. We convert first to first downs, score touchdowns in the red area, and then we got our chances to take a shot and create explosive that's what we do. So, I think Dante is really buying into that mindset, understanding that playing quarterback at this level takes winning football every single down. It's not every other, it's not every third play. It's got to be every single down for us to be the office that we want to be,” Stein said about Moore.

How Moving Practice Fields Has Changed Things For Them:

“Gotta be adaptable. We had to adapt to NIL and transfer portal, we gotta adapt to one practice field. You kind of find your spots as an individual, as a quarterback unit, and defense on one half, we're on the other half, and when we spot it, we're splitting the field. I think coach Lanning’s done a phenomenal job with him and Matt Noyer and in Marshall (Malchow), just really figuring out logistically, how to manage practice. And it's been smooth, and we did it in spring. If it was the first time this fall camp, it might be a little bit just hard to manage currently, because we would have to figure it out, but we figured it out and feel fine about it.”

How He Plans On Overcoming Lack Of Experience On Roster:

“It's hard. The best way to learn how to play football is play football. Put the ball down, 11 on 11. Fans in the stands, clock, referees, and you only get so many opportunities to do that, especially in college football, where really can't lose. I guess you can lose a game or two now to get in the playoffs, but you still really can't. We're not the NFL, where you can have a loss early in the season, so you got to really take every single day and play like a game. You have to every situation that you get as a player and a coach has to be game-like; if you're taking a rep in an individual drill, you got to simulate the game. You got to visualize the game,” Stein said.

“We do so much situational football here that we feel like we're in great shape once we get to game day. But it takes time. It takes an actual live performance to see where we're at, but I feel like we have experience in spots, just not necessarily together, so that's where we got to get to. Guys have played football at this level, especially up front, but not much together. So that's going to be the challenge for us as a coaching staff, to make sure that we're super clean and our game prep in our personnel and our formations, that we can have clean football plays early on this year to give us momentum as we go through on each week.”

If The Challenges The Offense Faced Starting 2024 Impacts This Season:

“It's kind of that previous question we were trying to figure out our identity, and when you try to just not that we're just trying to replicate the ‘23 season, but you kind of run some of the same schemes that you love and you feel really confident in but maybe it's not the year for that scheme, maybe it's not the year for the lineup that you thought it was going to be. So, we had to make tweaks early on, and not just our personnel who was out on the field. But our process as a coaching staff. We changed how we really game planned early in the week to be the most efficient and the cut down on calls,” Stein said.

“Less is more at times in football. Everybody loves scheme. See Dan Casey and on X, there's new football plays every single second that you're on that app, every second. That's why I got off of it. I'm not on that. No Instagram. I cut all that off. Bunch of rat poison on there. But when you're on stuff like that, when there's availability of scheme, man, sometimes you put too much stuff in, because there's a lot of cool plays out there."

"You want to score touchdowns, but it's still about blocking and tackling. How can you do the routine routinely? That's what you got to do as an offense. And that's what we fixed last year. Early on, I felt like then we caught momentum and got Dillon (Gabriel) in a good groove. So that's the key this year, is just getting in that groove earlier, rather than the third week," he continued.

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, a former Oregon quarterback, left, and Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, right, take a picture with Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Will Stein during the Oregon football’s Pro Day Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Moshofsky Center in Eugene, Ore. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If He’s Been In Touch With Miami Northwestern Head Coach Teddy Bridgewater:

“I don't know the rules down there. I know Teddy's one of the best dudes I've ever been around. He's all about kids, and it's a shame when people make rules for adults and not kids at times when you're helping out kids, but I’m sure it'll all sort itself out. And it stinks for him and those kids, but just a phenomenal person," said Stein.

What’s Surprised Him About The Connection Between Quarterbacks And Wide Receivers:

“I don't know if much is like surprised me. I think I've been pleased with our quarterbacks taking the reins, even though nobody's declared a starter, I felt that they took another step in their development this summer in the wideouts. We have a monarch machine that shoots footballs like jugs like a rapid fire, and they were on that all summer,” Stein said.

“And I think it's a credit to coach (Ross) Douglas what he's done so far here with his development of that position. And he's from Northeast Ohio. He's a blue-collar and he'll get after you a little bit. I think that's good for a young group that somebody is demanding a lot from them, because ultimately, they need that, they need that. We need that. We need that group to be a big aspect to this offense like it's been here in the past. But they don't have to do it alone. That's a good thing. We got lots of talent. Can we come together? Can we be tough? Can we run the ball when it matters? Can we sustain box and when we got opportunities to throw the ball in the field? Can we throw and catch the ball and so we can do those simple things? We'll give ourselves a chance.”