One of the first things Dan Lanning did after the Ducks hired him was to get on a Zoom call with former Oregon players such as Akili Smith and Joey Harrington.
Over and over again, Lanning has made it a priority to keep in touch with the legends of the program. De’Anthony Thomas, LaMichael James, Arik Armstead, and Haloti Ngata are slated to be honorary coaches of the Oregon spring game as offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.
Those four players won’t be the only Oregon legends in attendance, though.
That list grew on Tuesday night when the Ducks announced former defensive stars Walter Thurmond III and Alex Molden will also be at the game.
Thurmond played for the Ducks from 2006-2009 before he was a fourth-round draft pick by the Seattle Seahawks and he helped them win their one and only Super Bowl. As a Duck, Thurmond picked off 12 passes and returned three of them for a touchdown.
Molden (1992-95) is one of the best defensive backs in Oregon history and was a leader of the famed Gang Green defense that led the 1994 Ducks to their first Pac-10 championship in 46 years. He went on to be a first-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints where he played eight seasons in the NFL. Molden also played for the San Diego Chargers and Detroit Lions.
While the addition of these two former players may not seem like a big deal, it means a lot when you consider the history that Oregon has, and how connected Duck fans are to that history. The program has seen a lot of turnover in the past decade, but with Lanning’s embrace of the history, and his effort to connect with players from the past has gone a long way to ingratiate him into the fanbase and earn respect from a generation of fans who may not desire the constant change.
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