Beaver offense needed help, so Gundy dialed up Danny

A dozen years after he left town, Danny Langsdorf has returned to Corvallis, this time as a senior analyst/quality control for Oregon State football (courtesy OSU sports communications)

CORVALLIS — Trent Bray is Oregon State’s head football coach, but he leaves the offense primarily to coordinator Ryan Gunderson.

After the 2024 season, when Gunderson got the OK to hire someone to fill a senior analyst/quality control position, the man who got the job was no surprise.

Danny Langsdorf was OSU’s offensive coordinator from 2005-13. Gunderson was a quarterback for the Beavers during Langsdorf’s first three seasons, then worked as a grad assistant under Langsdorf for two years. After Gunderson spent five years in the Beavers’ player personnel department, he and Langsdorf were together for two years at Nebraska with head coach Mike Riley — Langsdorf as O-coordinator, Gunderson as director of player personnel.

Beyond that, Gunderson lived with Langsdorf and his wife, Michele, for a year and a half while Ryan was a GA. “Then they started having kids and kicked me out of the house,” Gunderson says with a laugh.

When Ryan married Hilary O’Brien — who had served as administrative assistant/assistant operations director for Riley — Langsdorf’s sons, Dawson and Carter, were ring-bearers at the wedding.

“Danny and I are really close,” Gunderson says.

Langsdorf has also had a long-term relationship with Bray, who was a senior linebacker during Danny’s first season at OSU. Bray worked as a defensive coach for Riley with the Beavers and Cornhuskers. So there was plenty of familiarity with Langsdorf. But he wasn’t hired out of friendship.

“I needed somebody who thinks in a similar way that I think, but can also give me ideas and challenge me,” Gundy says. “Also, someone who is going to be comfortable enough to say, ‘That is messed up — don’t do that,’ or ‘I think you should rethink that.’ That relationship was already there as far as honest conversations can be had.”

Langsdorf had spent three years in Philadelphia as Temple’s O-coordinator under Stan Drayton. When Drayton got fired at the end of the 2024 season, Langsdorf was out of a job. By January, he was back in Corvallis, working for the Beavers.

“It has been great to reconnect with some of the guys I was here with before,” Langsdorf says during a recent interview. “It has been fun being back with the group. And, of course, living here in the Northwest — you can’t beat it.”

Langsdorf was one of Gunderson’s first football mentors.

“I grew up with Danny,” says Gunderson, 40. “The foundation of my football knowledge was with him. A lot of what he has taught and the way he looks at (football) has formed how I look at it. He is low-ego, high-output. He is sharp and sees things through a quarterback lens. He has been in a lot of systems with a lot of different ideas, so he understands all the different ways of doing things — what may fit us and wouldn’t fit us.

“He is a grinder. He works hard. He is fun to be around. He is just a great person. We wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t. He is perfect for me.”

What, exactly, are the duties of a senior analyst/quality control?

“There are a lot of definitions of this role in different programs,”  says Langsdorf, who turned 53 on Saturday. At OSU, “It is basically helping out where I can, whether it is game-planning or breaking down (video). Maybe helping the young (players) or giving an idea here and there. Maybe looking at a side project or something we did in the past that might fit into what we are doing now.”

Langsdorf helps Gunderson with the quarterbacks.

“I am there with Gundy, running the offense and calling the plays,” Danny says. “I can take a backup quarterback and help him through a read or a defensive look. I am an extra set of eyes for the offense, which is helpful for that position. You are playing with only one (QB) at a time. The other guys need mental reps in the background.”

Through the spring, Langsdorf has helped Gunderson run the quarterback meetings.

“He is doing a lot of quality control stuff now in the sense of making sure the installs and play-calls are dialed in, detailed and clean,” Gunderson says. “When we are in practice, he is standing with the quarterbacks, talking to them as I am out on the field making sure (the OSU offense is) completely organized. You invest a lot in your quarterbacks. You want to surround them with as many good people as you can. That was one of my main priorities this offseason. We have done that with Danny.

“As we get into the season, (Langsdorf’s role) is going to be game-planning and looking ahead. He will give us an advance report on the next opponent, but also game-planning early in the week, ideas, things he thinks we can do to attack the team we are about to play.”

Gunderson called plays from the press box in 2024. Does that mean that Langsdorf will be on the sidelines during games this fall?

“We haven’t decided that part of it yet,” Gundy says. “Whatever it is, he will be one place and I will be in the other.”

Langsdorf is having fun, but he is doing it solo. Michele and their two sons — both born in Corvallis — have remained in Moorsetown, N.J., 15 miles from Philadelphia, where the Langsdorfs have lived the last three years. Dawson (a high school freshman) is playing football and Carter (a seventh-grader) is playing football and hockey.

“I was back and forth between Corvallis and Moorsetown this spring,” Langsdorf says. “I’ll have to watch a lot of their games on livestream.”

NEW: The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.

Langsdorf grew up in McMinnville and around Linfield football. His father, Ed, was a long-time assistant coach for Ad Rutschman and was head coach of the Wildcats from 1992-95. When Danny was a youngster, he was the team’s ballboy, for several years with Riley as defensive coordinator.

A star quarterback at McMinnville high, Danny spent three years at Boise State before transferring to Linfield to play for his dad. As a junior in 1994, Danny was All-Northwest Conference, passing for 2,055 yards and 24 touchdowns, including a then-school record of 493 yards against Southern Oregon. He missed about half of his senior season with a torn pec muscle.

“It was fun getting to play for Dad and finish out at Linfield,” Danny says. “I enjoyed the coaches at Linfield. I knew them growing up.”

After graduation, Langsdorf played one season with the Deggendorf Black Hawks in the German Pro League.

“I probably drank more beer than I practiced football,” he says, “but it was a lot of fun.”

Langsdorf then began his coaching career as a grad assistant at Division III Cal Lutheran before serving two years as a GA under Riley at Oregon State.

“Danny jumped right into coaching our tight ends,” says Riley, now retired and living in Corvallis. “He was beyond his years as a coach, having grown up in a coach’s family.”

From there, Langsdorf went to Canada, coaching quarterbacks for three years for the Edmonton Eskimos for CFL legend Don Matthews.

“It was a great job,” Langsdorf says. “It is a wide-open game up there, fast-paced with a lot of offense.”

When Danny left Edmonton to take a job with the New Orleans Saints, he had a conversation with Eskimos president/general manager Hugh Campbell.

“He understood why I was leaving, but he said, ‘This is the best job you will ever have,’ ” Langsdorf says. “He was probably right.”

During his first year with the Saints in 2002, Langsdorf worked in quality control/offense. His last two seasons, he was receivers/special teams coach. The head coach was Jim Haslett, the offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy. Ironically, Riley was the team’s assistant head coach/secondary in 2002.

“I loved living in New Orleans,” Langsdorf says. “We had good teams and good coaches. It was a great learning experience for me.”

Then it was on to Oregon State and the longest stint of Langsdorf’s career. Danny was O-coordinator and coached quarterbacks for nine seasons. The Beavers played in six bowl games, winning four, and went into two regular-season finales needing a Civil War victory for a Rose Bowl berth. Oregon won both times.

The Beavers were stocked with talent at the skill positions. Among the quarterbacks Langsdorf coached at OSU: Matt Moore, Sean Canfield, Lyle Moevao and Sean Mannion. The premier running backs were Yvenson Bernard and Jacquizz Rodgers. The receiving corps featured the likes of Mike Hass and Brandin Cooks — both Biletnikoff Award winners as the nation’s outstanding receiver — along with James Rodgers, Markus Wheaton and Sammie Stroughter.

“We had a really good run,” Langsdorf says. “We won a lot of games. We had some characters on those teams. I often think about (linebacker) Joey LaRocque and how the defense used to rock the team bus (before games). We had some wild times. Those were players who were fun to coach, and we had a good, close-knit coaching staff.”

“Danny was loved by the players,” Riley says. “He had a good rapport and teaching manner with the quarterbacks in particular.”

Langsdorf worked closely with Riley through those years.

“We had a lot of fun together,” Danny says. “I learned a lot. It was always fun watching (video) and being able to work through things and make plans that would work.”

In 2014, Langsdorf left to become quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants under Tom Coughlin. The Giants finished 6-10 and missed the playoffs, but Eli Manning had one of the best statistical seasons of his 16-year career, throwing for 4,410 yards and 30 touchdowns.

“Eli was great to be with,” Langsdorf says. “He is a really smart guy who was in his 11th season. I probably got as much out of it as he did, but it was a lot of fun coaching him.”

Langsdorf spent only one year with the Giants, moving on to Nebraska with Riley for three years. The Cornhuskers went 6-7 the first season but beat UCLA 37-29 in the Foster Farms bowl game. They were 9-4 the second season but only 4-8 the third, and Riley and his staff were fired.

“We didn’t get much of a chance,” Langsdorf says. “I never felt like we were very welcome there. It felt like they wanted Scott Frost to be there the whole time. We made some strides that first year. We lost by a Hail Mary against BYU and had some close losses. We had a very good second year. There were some changes made and we weren’t as good the third year, and that was all the time we got. That was unfortunate. I thought that place had potential, but we didn’t have long enough to get it done.”

Langsdorf wound up at Oregon in 2018 as an offensive analyst. Mario Cristobal was the coach, Justin Herbert was the quarterback, and the Ducks went 9-4 and beat Michigan State 7-6 in the Redbox Bowl.

“Going to the rival was … different,” Langsdorf says. “I had spent so much time at Oregon State, it felt funny going in. But I was able to work with (O-coordinator) Marcus Arroyo, and helping coach Justin Herbert was a privilege.”

Langsdorf served as quarterbacks coach under Jeff Tedford at Fresno State in 2019 and in the same role at Colorado in 2020 and ’21 before his three-year stint at Temple. Now he is back in his home state working in a program with which he is very familiar. The Beavers are no longer in the Pac-12, however. They are in transition to what will become the new Pac-12 in 2026. The offensive talent isn’t at the level Langsdorf became accustomed to at Oregon State, but he isn’t complaining.

“I like the kids we have,” he says. “We are getting some linemen back from injuries. We have talent in the tight end, running back and quarterback rooms. The receivers are a good group of kids we are still working through. We have some playmakers. I am excited about it.

“There is legitimate concern about depth, but I like the focus and attitude of the kids. They like working. They are here in the (Valley Football Center) all the time. That is different than some places I have been. Oregon State is unique in being in a small city. Some people might say there is not a lot to do, but that brings the kids to the building more. They are more interested in watching (video) and practicing and asking questions.

“In some places, the football facility is far away (from the stadium). You see them during the workout and then they are gone the rest of the day. Here, they are in and out all day long. The guys are interested in football, in learning and getting better.”

Langsdorf’s early reads on quarterbacks Maalik Murphy and Gabarri Johnson:

“Maalik is smart and really talented. He made big strides from Day One of spring ball to the Spring Game. Everybody is looking for a lot of production from him. His growth will continue from now until fall. He is already showing signs of leadership, getting guys together and throwing balls, watching (video) and going over things. I am looking forward to having him during (training) camp and him having a great season.

“Gabarri had a good spring, too. He is a guy we can put in there and feel good about. His is a different style than Maalik’s, but that’s good. (Opponents) have to defend two styles. Maalik is more of a drop-back passer, and ‘Bari has an ability to make plays off-schedule.”

•

At 53, Danny Langsdorf is in excellent health 18 years after donating a kidney to Laurie Cavanaugh, wife of follow Beaver assistant coach Mike Cavanaugh

No article on Danny Langsdorf would be complete without revisiting that day in May 2007 when he donated a kidney to Laurie Cavanaugh, wife of Oregon State O-line coach Mike Cavanaugh.

“You want to talk about one of the greatest stories ever?” says Cavanaugh, back at OSU in his old position. “This is it.”

Danny and Mike had been on the same staff for nearly three years. Laurie was afflicted with polycystic kidney disease, the most common inherited kidney disease. Her father died of renal failure. Her brother had undergone a kidney transplant a year earlier.

Laurie’s health was deteriorating. Laurie and Michele Langsdorf are good friends. “We were visiting about it a lot,” Langsdorf says. “Laurie was pretty sick at the time. It was getting worse and worse for them.”

She had been waiting nearly a year for a new kidney. More than 20 potential donors — including several family members — had been rejected. “I didn’t know if it was going to happen,” she says now.

Langsdorf did some research on what kidney donation entails. He learned that people can live normally with only one of the two kidneys with which they are born. One day at the office, Danny approached Mike.

“I am going to get tested,” he said.

“It blew my mind,” Cavanaugh says.

A few weeks later, the Cavanaughs and Langsdorfs were in San Antonio for the American Football Coaches Convention. During the time, Danny got a call from the medical staff at Oregon Health & Science University, telling him he was a match for Laurie and was in line for approval to donate a kidney.

“I was walking down the River Walk when I got the call,” Langsdorf says. “It wasn’t five minutes later that I ran into the Cavanaughs.”

Danny told them, “I’m a go. What do you think?”

“It’s not what I think, it’s what you think,” Laurie told him. “You are going to get the most thorough physical you have ever had.”

Langsdorf underwent an additional battery of testing, including a liver biopsy. “They put him through the wringer,” Laurie says.

Four months later, the kidney exchange was completed in surgery at OHSU — four hours for Danny, six for Laurie. By that time, her kidneys were operating at 10 percent capacity. Surgeons removed both of Laurie’s diseased kidneys and transplanted one of Danny’s healthy kidneys inside her. An hour later, one of the surgeons called the families to deliver the good news.

“That was the moment that brought everybody to our knees,” Michele Langsdorf told me for a story I wrote for the Portland Tribune a day after the surgery. “We all broke down and realized how big a deal this really is. I am pretty proud of him right now.”

The morning after the surgery, while Laurie was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, Danny walked into the room. They hugged, and there were tears.

“It was a Kodak picture moment,” Mike said then. “This whole thing has been surreal. My wife went through so much, and finally, the miracle came through Danny.”

Both patients recovered quickly.

“I was hoping I could water-ski a month after the surgery, but it ended up being five weeks,” Danny says. “It was a little uncomfortable the first couple of days, but it wasn’t terrible. And it made me aware of the importance of paying attention to my health each year.”

Danny’s transplanted kidney lasted 14 years inside Laurie’s body. “That’s about average,” she says. Four years ago, she had a second transplant, which went by without a hitch. “Danny told Mike, ‘I would give her another kidney if I could,’ ” Laurie says. “He is such a sweetie.”

Today, Laurie’s health is fine. So is Danny’s.

“I have had no problems from (the surgery),” he says.

For the story I wrote for the Portland Tribune, Riley told me, “This whole thing is a good indication of the kind of guy Danny Langsdorf is. What he did is bigger than all the stuff we do as coaches.”

What Danny did for Laurie, she says now, “is unbelievable. Such a selfless act.”

Mike Cavanaugh says he is still in awe of Langsdorf.

“What an incredible thing for Danny to do,” he says. “You talk about the gift of life. Nothing better than that. The connection we have is a lot more than just football.”

•

Today, football is the focus for Langsdorf. He says he is enjoying the chance to work with Gunderson — this time with Ryan in charge.

“He has done a nice job mixing some things from all the different places where he has worked,” Danny says. “He has bits and pieces from different systems and made it his own. It is a logical, detailed, smart system that has some complexity to it. It is easy for the players to learn but not simple to defend.

“There is some carryover, some concepts that are the same as when Ryan was a player. The terminology is different. Any time you are developing your own system, it has to make sense to you first. I have been pleased and impressed with what he has put together.”

Langsdorf won’t be in this position forever. He has some good years of coaching left. I asked him if this would be a one-year gig for him.

“I am not sure where this will go,” he says. “I suppose if something came along I would consider it, but I love what I am doing here.”

He pauses. As he sits for a moment, I am guessing the haunting presence of NIL and the transfer portal passes through his mind.

“College football has flipped on its head for the last five years,” he says finally. “It is crazy. It has been such a changing landscape.”

Another pause. And finally: “I am just grateful to Coach Bray to be working here with this group. We’ll see what happens as we go.”

► ◄

Readers: what are your thoughts? I would love to hear them in the comments below. On the comments entry screen, only your name is required, your email address and website are optional, and may be left blank.

Follow me on X (formerly Twitter).

Like me on Facebook.

Find me on Instagram.