Oregon Coach Dan Lanning's Postseason Demons Are The ONLY Thing Standing Between Them and a National Title

Yo, listen up, Seattle! You know that feeling when you've been waiting forever, scratching your head, wondering if it'll ever happen? We've seen it with the Knicks finally snapping their 53-year NBA drought, and before that, the Cubs and the Blues. Generations of fans just waiting for that ultimate prize. Well, buckle up, because the college football season is on the horizon, and there are a couple of teams out there with their own decades-long championship droughts that could be ending in 2026. Forget the pipe dreams, we're talking about real contenders, and one guy, in particular, has some serious demons to exorcise if his team is going to hoist that trophy.

The Fighting Irish Are Ready to End a 38-Year Wait

First up, Notre Dame. Can you even imagine going 38 years without a national title if you're a blue-blood program like them? Their last championship was way back in 1988. Since then, they've only sniffed the title game twice, in 2012 and 2024, and finished in the AP top-three a meager two other times in '89 and '93. But get this, last season, they were controversially the first team left out of the CFP. They're coming back with a vengeance! Head coach Marcus Freeman's squad returns the most production in the entire country, boasts the best defense in college football, and has C.J. Carr entering his second year as starting quarterback. Their schedule? A total breeze until Week 7 when they hit Provo to face BYU. After that, Miami in Week 9 and SMU in Week 11 are their only remaining roadblocks, both at home in South Bend. The catch? Freeman has to get his squad rolling earlier. His overall record since 2022 is 43-11, which is great, but he's a dismal 3-5 in the first two games of the season, with losses to Marshall and Northern Illinois in that span. If he can get them firing out of the gates against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, Notre Dame could finally

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end that drought.

Can Dan Lanning Finally Get Over the Hump?

Then there's Oregon, and this one hits a little different because they've *never* won a national championship. Seriously, never. They didn't even crack the top-five until 2001, when they got absolutely screwed out of a title appearance for No. 4 Nebraska and had to settle for kicking the hell out of No. 3 Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl. Since then, they've reached the national championship twice, in 2010 and 2014, and finished top-three in the AP in 2012 and 2024. Head coach Dan Lanning? He's been a winning machine in Eugene. Only one season since he took over has he won less than 12 games and finished outside the top-six. They return the 11th-most production in the country, and they've got a Heisman-frontrunning quarterback in Dante Moore. If they can split their tough road games against USC and Ohio State, they're sitting pretty with every other major challenge at home. The problem, the *big* problem? Lanning's struggles when the lights are brightest are getting hard to ignore. In 2023, they lost a win-and-you're-in Pac-12 Championship rematch against Washington as a 10-point favorite. The following year, they ran through the Big Ten undefeated, snagged the conference title, then got absolutely schlacked by 20 points in a Rose Bowl rematch against Ohio State. It never even felt close. And last season, their only regular season blemish was a 10-point home loss to Indiana, only for the Hoosiers to embarrass them by 23 in the Peach Bowl. As Bill Connelly perfectly put it, "It's a record built to both impress and massively frustrate." So, you see the stakes, right? These aren't just any college football games. These are legacy-defining seasons for these teams. Can Marcus Freeman fix his early-season woes? And more importantly, can Dan Lanning finally break free from those postseason demons and get Oregon its first-ever national championship? We're about to find out, and honestly, this season can't start soon enough!

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.