UO release By: Rob Moseley - EUGENE, Ore. — At the western edge of Oregon's athletics facilities north of campus rises the football program's new indoor practice facility, the skeleton of which looms over passing cars and pedestrians. Construction continues on the project, just as it does on the football program that will eventually inhabit it.  Work on the 2026 football team began with winter conditioning and progressed through spring practice. Summer workouts further cemented the program's culture, and Wednesday the Ducks will look to build on that foundation when fall practices begin in the shadow of the new indoor facility.  Over the coming months, the new facility will look more and more like a finished product. The Ducks want to follow a similar timeline, building on College Football Playoff appearances the past two years by peaking come January under head coach Dan Lanning.  The fifth-year UO coach and many of his players met with local media Monday at The Club in Autzen Stadium. The occasion was Oregon's annual preseason media day, and there was no shortage of storylines to emerge from the event.  1. After the last two seasons, there's no denying the dominant narrative around the Ducks entering this season. In both 2024 and 2025, they reached the College Football Playoff only to lose in a rematch with a Big Ten rival.  In 2024, that came in the quarterfinals against Ohio State. In 2025, the Ducks fell to Indiana in the semifinals. Both went on to win the national title after defeating Oregon, but that doesn't ease the frustration of those defeats. Or keep the Ducks from looking to grow from them.  "We've learned a lot from adversity in our time here," Lanning said Monday. "We haven't experienced a lot of adversity, but when we've had it, we've learned a lot from it."  As part of the program's offseason growth, Lanning said the Ducks looked to the NFL — where intra-division rematches are standard — for keys to game-planning for rematches.  "I won't hop into great detail on it," Lanning said, "but there's certainly some things I think we've learned from it and can use."  2. If you're looking to build a national championship contender in college football, having a veteran quarterback is a great place to start. And the 2026 Ducks will have that in senior Dante Moore, who enters his third year with the program and his second as the projected starter behind center.  It's been a whirlwind offseason for Moore. He's attended video-game covershoots and World Cup matches, travelled to Japan with a handful of teammates for a football camp, explored the outdoors around Oregon — including its coastal golf courses — and took the stage with country singer Zach Bryan at a concert in Autzen Stadium.  Now, it's time to do what he knows best — directing the Oregon offense as practice opens Wednesday.  "There's so many things that happened, and at the end of the day, I'm just blessed to have the opportunity to do that," Moore said. "It was a great summer, I enjoyed it. But now it's football time."  3. Another critical piece for contending teams is dominant play at the line of scrimmage. The Ducks are positioned to feature that on both sides of the ball in 2026, though external expectations are higher on one side in particular.  That would be the defensive line, where the return of A'Mauri Washington, Bear Alexander, Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti has some analysts calling Oregon's D line the best in the country. For those players, Wednesday's start of practice brings a chance to prove it where it matters — on the field.  "They can say whatever they want to say about it, man," Washington said. "We could be the best, we could be the worst. We're gonna come out here and work every day like we're supposed to."  The offensive line, meanwhile, will be rebuilt around veteran center Iapani Laloulu. Among those looking to win a rotation spot when practice begins will be tackle Fox Crader, who knows what position coach A'lique Terry will be looking for as of Wednesday.  "The best five are gonna play," Crader said. "That's his motto. That's what we live by. So we try to keep our egos aside and just put the team first, and the best is gonna play. So it's gonna show in practice."  4. At one point Monday, Lanning was asked to identify a single word to describe his team. He chose "hungry," and while that attitude is pervasive up and down the roster, it's particularly so with receiver Evan Stewart.  After catching 48 passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns in 2024, Stewart missed last season due to injury. He's back healthy heading into 2026 — healthy and hungry.  That hunger fueled Stewart in his recovery process, and he now has a chance to show his progress. A point of emphasis was explosiveness off the line, and Stewart said work there has been paying off.  "I definitely feel more explosive," he said Monday. "And the thing was, I was always a top-end burner, so it was surprising for me, catching myself getting real explosive in acceleration — just because I always wanted to have that. Because I felt if I had both, it would make it better. Now I feel like I've got both."  5. The two-time College Football Playoff participants looked to the two-time World Series champions and their MVP for some influence this offseason.  During a retreat with team leaders, Lanning had the Ducks construct a "vision board" outlining their goals for 2026, and concrete steps they could take to reach them. The inspiration was the "Harada Method," named for a Japanese track and field coach whose technique for outlining repeatable habits was adopted by a young Shohei Ohtani when the Los Angeles Dodgers star was still in high school.  Lanning said he came across the "Harada Method" in discussion with colleagues about leadership techniques. Then he began incorporating it with his team.  "It started a little bit with our leadership group when we did our leadership retreat; went through it, kind of built out some of our vision boards," Lanning said. "Some of our players have done the same thing individually. But yeah, kind of grew from there."  UO release By: Rob Moseley - EUGENE, Ore. — At the western edge of Oregon's athletics facilities north of campus rises the football program's new indoor practice facility, the skeleton of which looms over passing cars and pedestrians. Construction continues on the project, just as it does on the football program that will eventually inhabit it.  Work on the 2026 football team began with winter conditioning and progressed through spring practice. Summer workouts further cemented the program's culture, and Wednesday the Ducks will look to build on that foundation when fall practices begin in the shadow of the new indoor facility.  Over the coming months, the new facility will look more and more like a finished product. The Ducks want to follow a similar timeline, building on College Football Playoff appearances the past two years by peaking come January under head coach Dan Lanning.  The fifth-year UO coach and many of his players met with local media Monday at The Club in Autzen Stadium. The occasion was Oregon's annual preseason media day, and there was no shortage of storylines to emerge from the event.  1. After the last two seasons, there's no denying the dominant narrative around the Ducks entering this season. In both 2024 and 2025, they reached the College Football Playoff only to lose in a rematch with a Big Ten rival.  In 2024, that came in the quarterfinals against Ohio State. In 2025, the Ducks fell to Indiana in the semifinals. Both went on to win the national title after defeating Oregon, but that doesn't ease the frustration of those defeats. Or keep the Ducks from looking to grow from them.  "We've learned a lot from adversity in our time here," Lanning said Monday. "We haven't experienced a lot of adversity, but when we've had it, we've learned a lot from it."  As part of the program's offseason growth, Lanning said the Ducks looked to the NFL — where intra-division rematches are standard — for keys to game-planning for rematches.  "I won't hop into great detail on it," Lanning said, "but there's certainly some things I think we've learned from it and can use."  2. If you're looking to build a national championship contender in college football, having a veteran quarterback is a great place to start. And the 2026 Ducks will have that in senior Dante Moore, who enters his third year with the program and his second as the projected starter behind center.  It's been a whirlwind offseason for Moore. He's attended video-game covershoots and World Cup matches, travelled to Japan with a handful of teammates for a football camp, explored the outdoors around Oregon — including its coastal golf courses — and took the stage with country singer Zach Bryan at a concert in Autzen Stadium.  Now, it's time to do what he knows best — directing the Oregon offense as practice opens Wednesday.  "There's so many things that happened, and at the end of the day, I'm just blessed to have the opportunity to do that," Moore said. "It was a great summer, I enjoyed it. But now it's football time."  3. Another critical piece for contending teams is dominant play at the line of scrimmage. The Ducks are positioned to feature that on both sides of the ball in 2026, though external expectations are higher on one side in particular.  That would be the defensive line, where the return of A'Mauri Washington, Bear Alexander, Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti has some analysts calling Oregon's D line the best in the country. For those players, Wednesday's start of practice brings a chance to prove it where it matters — on the field.  "They can say whatever they want to say about it, man," Washington said. "We could be the best, we could be the worst. We're gonna come out here and work every day like we're supposed to."  The offensive line, meanwhile, will be rebuilt around veteran center Iapani Laloulu. Among those looking to win a rotation spot when practice begins will be tackle Fox Crader, who knows what position coach A'lique Terry will be looking for as of Wednesday.  "The best five are gonna play," Crader said. "That's his motto. That's what we live by. So we try to keep our egos aside and just put the team first, and the best is gonna play. So it's gonna show in practice."  4. At one point Monday, Lanning was asked to identify a single word to describe his team. He chose "hungry," and while that attitude is pervasive up and down the roster, it's particularly so with receiver Evan Stewart.  After catching 48 passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns in 2024, Stewart missed last season due to injury. He's back healthy heading into 2026 — healthy and hungry.  That hunger fueled Stewart in his recovery process, and he now has a chance to show his progress. A point of emphasis was explosiveness off the line, and Stewart said work there has been paying off.  "I definitely feel more explosive," he said Monday. "And the thing was, I was always a top-end burner, so it was surprising for me, catching myself getting real explosive in acceleration — just because I always wanted to have that. Because I felt if I had both, it would make it better. Now I feel like I've got both."  5. The two-time College Football Playoff participants looked to the two-time World Series champions and their MVP for some influence this offseason.  During a retreat with team leaders, Lanning had the Ducks construct a "vision board" outlining their goals for 2026, and concrete steps they could take to reach them. The inspiration was the "Harada Method," named for a Japanese track and field coach whose technique for outlining repeatable habits was adopted by a young Shohei Ohtani when the Los Angeles Dodgers star was still in high school.  Lanning said he came across the "Harada Method" in discussion with colleagues about leadership techniques. Then he began incorporating it with his team.  "It started a little bit with our leadership group when we did our leadership retreat; went through it, kind of built out some of our vision boards," Lanning said. "Some of our players have done the same thing individually. But yeah, kind of grew from there."