Feb. 18, 2026 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
Oregon Ducks special teams coordinator and Western alum, Joe Lorig, recently completed his fourth season with the team which saw the team go 11-1, picking up a victory in the Orange Bowl and making a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal. While he’s entering just his fifth season with the Ducks, his coaching career experience ranges nearly 30 years.
It started right here in Monmouth in 1997, when Lorig became the Wolves’ safeties coach after a playing career that saw him start at Walla Walla Community College before transferring to Western. When asked about his time at Western and what brought him there, Lorig emphasized the criminal justice program, being close to home and the football program. “I was recruited by a coach that became a mentor of mine, Blaine Bennett, I think he was the offensive coordinator at the time and then Arne Ferguson, who’s currently the head coach was also involved in that.”
On the note of coach Ferguson, who of course coached Lorig and coached with him, Lorig commended Ferguson not only as a coach but as a human being. “He’s very genuine, cares more about people than just the player. He’s important enough to me that he was in my wedding, so he’s a pretty important person in my life and again, really just what separates him is being able to do the football side of things and the business side of what football brings but also the personal side.”
Lorig continues to keep up with Western athletics, saying, “I follow it every week.” Crediting the program for the relationships he was able to build, he continued, “The program is very, very important to me and I’m not talking about wins and losses necessarily. I’m talking about how they influence and mold young people.”
Lorig joining the University of Oregon coaching staff in 2022 signified a return home. Having grown up in Washington, then of course spending time in Monmouth, Lorig’s career took him to the eastern side of the United States with stops at Memphis and Penn State in a time period that spanned from 2016 to 2021. When asked about what it means to return to the Pacific Northwest, Lorig said, “It means everything. That’s why we came back. I would have never left Penn State. I left Penn State because of two things. One, the University of Oregon. Two, Dan Lanning. Those are the two reasons. But I’m no different than anybody else. I’m just a person. So to be here around family, my three kids … Jordan, Tyler and Emma, my wife’s from Klamath Falls, Oregon — a lot of people don’t know that. So this is literally her home and I consider Oregon my home, even though I grew up in Washington. I really formed at Western Oregon, in Oregon.”
Lorig mentioned that his mother is now able to attend every game, whereas when he was at Penn State, she could only attend two games a season. He continued, saying, “When I get up in the morning and I put on the O, it’s different than when I put on Penn State. It just means more to me. And it doesn’t mean that it didn’t mean a lot at Penn State, it did, I worked really hard and I cared a lot, but here, when I put on the O and I walk out, I grew up watching the Civil War, I grew up watching the Apple Cup. I know what those games mean. I cried when Kenny Wheaton returned the pick because I was a Washington fan. I grew up a Washington fan, I literally remember that play and I cried. So it just means more to me which I think is pretty cool.”
The Ducks enter the 2026 season with their eyes on the football program’s first national title. They’ll open the regular season in Eugene Sep. 5 against the Boise State Broncos, but fans can catch an early look at the team April 25 during the annual spring game held in Autzen Stadium.
The coaching staff are determined to take the next step to their ultimate goal — “Coach Lanning works tirelessly, we’re doing everything that we can to make the University of Oregon proud, the state of Oregon, the fans of Oregon proud. Anything that we possibly can, we are doing. We work tirelessly and endlessly. We know the standard that needs to be upheld and we work really, really hard and take a lot of pride, take it very personally, to uphold that standard.”
The Ducks also return a significant number of starters next year. Many, such as quarterback Dante Moore, passed up the 2026 NFL draft despite being projected to be drafted early. Lorig feels that’s a testament to the culture Dan Lanning has set at Oregon, and along with Lanning, takes a lot of pride in the fact they’ve never had a starter leave via transfer portal. “So people talk about the portal and all these things, but the guys that portal out of here are guys that aren’t going to play typically. So the starters stay … Dante Moore coming back is, you know, he’s no more important than anybody else, but it’s just one prime example because he left a lot of money on the table. That tells you what this culture must be like, the belief that he has in this team, the belief that he has in this staff, the belief that he has in this school. I think that’s an obvious testament for sure.”
Coach Lorig reiterated his appreciation for Western and what it means to him, saying, “I think that Western Oregon is a really special place. I think coach Ferguson and his staff do a great job. It’s a place that really forms a lot of people’s lives. Certain people go to certain schools. I tell that to guys a lot in recruiting. A certain type of person goes to Oregon, a certain type of person goes to Washington, not better or worse, they’re both good football programs and they’re both good schools, just different schools attract different people. And I know I haven’t been there in a long time, obviously, as a student, but I know the type of people that Western Oregon attracts are typically the people that are going to really set the foundation of this state. That they’re going to be teachers, they’re going to be police officers, they’re going to be social workers and so just people that are looking at going there or people that are there really embracing that place because it’s a really special place. It’s a great community, the location of it’s awesome. You’re just close enough to Salem and Portland but you’re not so caught up in the hustle bustle. There’s a lot of continuity together there because there’s not a whole bunch of other stuff in the town, so you tend to hang out with each other more. We hung out more at each other’s apartments and houses and stuff because there wasn’t a big, huge city to go other places. So I think that naturally creates a pretty cool environment to make a really unique, fun, close knit, tight knit college experience that again, really forged me and many of my friends’ lives to be where we are today. I’m proud to be a Wolf.”
Contact the author at howlsports@mail.wou.edu
