INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Lanning stood outside Oregon’s locker room Saturday night, hugging and slapping hands with every player, coach and staff member leaving the confetti-filled field at Lucas Oil Stadium.
When Oregon was preparing for its first season in the Big Ten, Lanning had challenged his team to become the “keystone species,” a new organism that can define its ecosystem. The Ducks were joining a conference that included defending national champion Michigan and historic powers Ohio State and Penn State.
They ended up taking down all three, with Penn State being the final foe to fall Saturday in the Big Ten championship. Led by quarterback Dillon Gabriel and wide receiver Tez Johnson, No. 1 Oregon outlasted No. 3 Penn State 45-37 to secure its first Big Ten title in its first season in the conference.
“It’s just going in a new environment, just kind of messing up that environment, being the alpha in that environment,” tight end Terrance Ferguson said of Lanning’s keystone species theory. “There’s been some alphas in the Big Ten, and we just came in and put our hat on that. All year, that’s been preached to us, and we just put in the work to make it happen.”
The Ducks remained the nation’s only undefeated team at 13-0, tying a single-season team record for victories, and secured a first-round bye in the first 12-team College Football Playoff. They will return to the CFP for the first time since the format launched in 2014, when they lost to Ohio State in the national championship game. Oregon is slotted for the Rose Bowl and will face the winner of the first-round game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds.
In late July, Ferguson joined Gabriel, linebacker Jeffrey Bassa and Lanning on the same field at Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten media day. The Ducks were one of four West Coast additions to the league, and the one seemingly built to contend right away.
But a new conference brought new obstacles, from travel to opponents to doubts about their legitimacy. Ferguson remembers frequent questions about whether Oregon and other Pac-12 imports could handle the physicality of the Big Ten.
“Everyone sees the West Coast, soft, Pac-12, but I’m glad that we showed everyone that we’re not that,” Ferguson said.
Lanning said, “Motivation is overrated.” But he said he was proud of his team taking the final step in fulfilling the keystone species pledge, which he described as “an opportunity to invade a new environment and somewhere maybe you didn’t belong and … take over that environment.”
Oregon’s Big Ten title win reflected the elements that are most commonly associated with the program, namely speed and explosiveness on offense. Johnson won championship game MVP honors after recording 11 receptions for 181 yards and a touchdown, while Gabriel had four touchdown passes and no interceptions in his final performance before Heisman Trophy voting concludes.
Johnson, a senior wideout, was adopted by the family of former Oregon and current Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix but played Saturday before his biological relatives for the first time.
“I told them, ‘This is the first game y’all coming to, I’ll give y’all a show, I promise you that,'” Johnson said. “I don’t know if words can explain it. My mom, just seeing the tears in her eyes, being able to watch me play on a stage like this. My family had never seen it before. … It’s something you dream about.”
A year earlier, Johnson and his teammates watched their archrival Washington celebrate a Pac-12 championship in Las Vegas. It marked the Huskies’ second win over Oregon in 2023 and one that vaulted them into the CFP. Washington, along with USC and UCLA, struggled in their first season in the Big Ten, as none finished the regular season with a winning record.
Oregon charted a different path, overcoming a shaky start against Idaho and Boise State to outlast Ohio State 32-31 on Oct. 12, then record definitive wins against Illinois, Michigan and others.
“We were meant to be here,” Bassa said. “We’re at the top of the conference and we dominated this conference and we took over the conference.”
Penn State outgained Oregon 518-466 in yardage, but the Ducks led throughout and secured the win on Nikko Reed’s diving interception at the Oregon 16-yard line with 1:54 left. Oregon twice picked off Penn State quarterback Drew Allar and received key contributions from tight ends Ferguson and Kenyon Sadiq, who hurdled Penn State defender Jalen Kimber for the game’s first touchdown.
“Just ready for their moment, each of them,” Gabriel said. “And I’m proud of them. They just maximized the moment.”
After the win, Oregon players posed on the field with newspaper covers that read “From West to Best.” Gabriel briefly emerged from the locker room holding a cigar and politely asked reporters not to photograph him.
But the celebration wasn’t over the top.
“We’re not done yet,” defensive back Dontae Manning said. “We’re not done yet.”
