By JAMES MADDEN
Longtime Oregon head coach Dana Altman is retiring, less than four weeks before he was set to kickstart his 17th season with the program, per release. The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman first reported the development Wednesday.
Altman addressed the team prior to his retirement and gave them several reasons for his retirement, including his health, sources told ZAGSBLOG.
“I have had to make two really tough decisions in my coaching career,” Altman said in a press release. “The first was leaving Creighton, a place my family and I dearly loved, to come to Oregon. This is the second. I’ve loved every minute of coaching here, and stepping away is difficult and truly painful.”
Altman, who’s won 792 games throughout his 37-year coaching career, also spent time as the head coach at Marshall, Kansas State and Creighton.
With Altman retiring less than four weeks before the season begins, the Ducks will appoint former DePaul head coach and longtime Oregon assistant Tony Stubblefield to interim head coach, the program announced Wednesday.
Stubblefield was also the interim head coach at New Mexico State during the 2004-05 season, where he finished 2-12.
Across four seasons as a head coach, three of which he was with DePaul, Stubblefield is 30-66 and went 9-38 in three seasons in Big East play.
With Altman’s retirement, the transfer portal will officially open for 15 days on Oct. 12 for Oregon players, who will now have the option to remain with the program or play elsewhere.
Altman’s retirement marks a third straight fall where a prominent head coach has retired about a month before the season.
Legendary Virginia head coach Tony Bennett did so in 2024 and legendary Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl did so in 2025. As both coaches gave longtime assistants the opportunity to win the head coaching job, Virginia didn’t retain Bennett’s successor Ron Sanchez and Auburn’s Steven Pearl is now entering his second season with the Tigers.
With the portal now opening for Oregon players, the Ducks’ current roster reads as follows.
Fred Payne
Tyrone Riley
Jasper Johnson
Tajh Ariza
Andrew Meadow
Taylor Bol Bowen
Dwayne Aristode
Pharoah Compton
Sean Stewart
Malique Ewin
Seven Spurlock
Jerry Easter
Wei Lin
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