'Maybe we were just made to live in Oregon'
Rod Chance has moved to Oregon for the third time in his career. This time he's wearing orange.
Rod Chance tried to keep his distance from the game.
Heck, after a grinding career that included stops at Southern Utah, Oregon, Minnesota, Oregon (again) and then Colorado, maybe some time off would do the soul well.
A 1-11 season in Boulder can do that to a man.
So the former Oregon cornerbacks coach didn’t work in 2023.
“I got to focus on doing just a really good job of being a husband,” said Chance, Oregon State’s new secondary coach. “Just being a family man and really taking advantage of that time — I don’t think I’ll ever get that again. It was a good time, to be honest.
“It helps when you get paid. That’s why you sign good contracts to protect yourself.”
There was a period where it appeared Chance’s career was protecting itself just fine. After jumping from Southern Utah to Oregon as a defensive analyst in 2018, Chance got his first FBS job coaching cornerbacks in Minnesota in 2019 and returned to Eugene to coach the CBs in 2020.
That year threw quite the curve.
Chance returned to Eugene intending to coach one of the most experienced secondaries in the country, then watched as starting cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. and safety Jevon Holland opted out of the pandemic-shortened season. Still, the Ducks won that year’s Pac-12 Championship game, with Chance coaching first-year starter Mykael Wright to the conference’s first team and senior Deommodore Lenoir to the Pac-12’s second team.
Chance and the Ducks returned to the conference championship game the next year. Mario Cristobal left for Miami after they lost, and Chance ended up in Colorado a month later after the Alamo Bowl.
A year later, he found himself on Thursday night Zoom calls with other out-of-work coaches from across the country.