EUGENE, Ore. — Chris Hampton is not walking into his first spring as Oregon’s defensive coordinator looking to reinvent the wheel. He is, however, looking for more.
After helping oversee one of the most productive defensive stretches in program history as Oregon’s co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, Hampton now takes full control of a unit that has been consistently strong under Dan Lanning, but one he believes is still capable of reaching another level.
“I think we can get better,” Hampton said after the Ducks’ second of 15 spring football practices. “We can obviously grow. We haven’t got to where we want to go. We’ve been good on defense. We want to be elite. We want to be the best. We haven’t been the best. We’ve been pretty good.”
That mindset will shape Oregon’s defensive outlook this spring as the Ducks begin the 2026 spring football period with a roster that is both proven and still very much under construction.
Up front, Oregon returns what looks like one of the most talented defensive fronts in college football with future NFL pieces in defensive linemen A’Mauri Washington and Bear Alexander, plus edge rushers Teitum Tuioti and Matayo Uiagalelei. All four could have gone to the NFL, but elected to return to get better and further develop. At linebacker, Jerry Mixon is back to anchor the middle of the defense after a breakout junior season in 2025. In the secondary, former standout freshmen Brandon Finney, Ify Obidegwu and Aaron Flowers enter their second seasons in the program with much bigger expectations as projected sophomore starters.
That group gives Hampton a foundation that should allow Oregon to remain one of the better defenses in the Big Ten and nationally. But the challenge this spring is not simply returning stars. It is replacing a significant amount of production, leadership and depth that walked out the door.
All-American safety Dillon Thieneman declared for the NFL Draft. Veteran linebacker Bryce Boettcher graduated. A number of other impactful seniors are gone as well. Then the Ducks saw their reserve depth take a major hit through the transfer portal when Ashton Porter, Terrance Green, Tionne Gray and Blake Purchase all left in search of starting opportunities elsewhere.
That combination means Oregon may return premium frontline talent, but Hampton is still tasked with reshaping major pieces of the rotation.
“Every year is new,” Hampton said. “Especially in today’s age of college football with the transfer portal, you have to be able to adapt and adjust. So that’s each and every year. And if you can’t adjust right now, you’re gonna die as a coach, because your team may change year to year.”
That reality has become central to modern roster building, and Hampton made it clear Oregon is treating this spring as a full reset rather than assuming returning players can simply pick up where last year ended.
“This year, we’ve got a lot of guys coming back, but we lost a lot of guys as well,” Hampton said. “We’ve got a lot of youth that we’ve got to develop. So it’s just starting over each and every year, starting to go square one, ground one, not assuming that anyone knows anything, and teaching the basics and the fundamentals, and then growing from there.”
That developmental focus is especially important because the Ducks are no longer building this defense around veteran holdovers alone. They are counting on younger players to take on featured roles much sooner.
That is particularly true in the secondary, where Hampton has helped Oregon become one of the nation’s premier pass defenses since his arrival in Eugene. Since joining the Ducks in 2023, Oregon ranks seventh nationally in scoring defense at 17.9 points per game and eighth in passing defense at 185.9 yards per game. The Ducks are also No. 10 nationally in opponent completion percentage during that span and seventh in opponent passer rating.
In 2025, Oregon’s pass defense became one of the best in the country. The Ducks led all FBS teams in pass breakups with 73, ranked second in passes defended with 88, fourth in passing defense at 157.9 yards per game, fourth in opponent completion percentage at 53.3 percent and eighth in opponent passer rating. Oregon also allowed 17.9 points per game in 2025, marking the third straight season the Ducks held opponents under 20 points per game for the first time since 1978-80.
Those numbers help explain why Hampton earned this promotion and why Lanning trusted him with an even bigger role.
Hampton just completed his third season on staff, serving as co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach after arriving from Tulane, where he engineered a dramatic turnaround as defensive coordinator. In Eugene, he helped mentor Thieneman into a second-team All-American, first-team All-Big Ten selection and Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist in 2025, and also coached Jabbar Muhammad to second-team all-conference honors in 2024.
Now the challenge is turning another talented roster into an even more complete one.
For Hampton, that is less about scheme changes or putting a personal signature on the unit and more about maximizing what Oregon has.
“So putting my stamp on it is really not about me, in my opinion,” Hampton said. “It’s just about tapping into the players and putting the players in position and evaluating our talent, and how can I utilize our talent and put guys in the right position to make plays? How can we make the complex simple, do the things that put our best players on the field to do what they do good and go make plays?”
That may end up being the defining question for Oregon’s defense this spring.
The Ducks clearly have high-end pieces to build around, especially on the defensive line and in the secondary. But replacing proven veterans, rebuilding depth and accelerating the development of young players will determine whether this group stays “pretty good” or takes the step Hampton is demanding.
The expectation inside Oregon is not simply to field another solid defense. It is to build one that can carry championship-level expectations.