EUGENE — Two things are certain about the tumultuous offseason of the Oregon Ducks softball program: The six player transfers in the fall were not part of anyone’s plan when the search for a new coach began, and there is also no way of undoing those departures.

There is no scenario in which everyone goes back to their respective corners from June, when Mike White left Oregon for Texas, Melyssa Lombardi was hired from Oklahoma and the Ducks were still led by two All-American pitchers and had most of their position players returning.

“I don’t want to see any of these athletes leave, but I also want the best for them and I respect their decision,” Lombardi said. “If they felt like going to another place and starting fresh is what’s going to be the best for them, then I fully support them on that.”

There is only going forward for all of the parties involved. But in trying to understand how Oregon softball will attempt to do that as it opens full team practice Tuesday, one must first go back roughly seven months and then consider how a variety of factors contributed to changing the organizational culture. The issues range from the economics of a growing sport, players’ loyalty to White, Lombardi’s more structured way of running a program and how players reacted to the difference in leadership styles between the two coaches. All of those factors have led the Ducks to where they are today and how they plan to build into the future.

“Sometimes change is difficult,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said, “and this one has been difficult.”

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Texas was intent on investing heavily in a new coach this offseason and was willing to go out of market to do so.

The Longhorns approached a number of prominent coaches, including Florida’s Tim Walton, who ultimately agreed to a 10-year contract to remain with the Gators, before hiring White on a five-year deal with a $450,000 annual base salary, according to the Austin American-Statesman. White was three years in to a six-year deal at Oregon, where he was earning $237,500 annually, a competitive salary nationally (Alabama’s Patrick Murphy earns $305,000 and LSU’s Beth Torina and Arizona’s Mike Candrea each earn $345,000).

“Mike was very up front with us; (he) came back to us and said, ‘hey I have an offer for ($500,000), will you match it?’” Mullens said. “We said, ‘we love what you’ve done, we’d love for you to stay, but we are not in a position to pay outlier salaries. So if there’s something in between there that we can do, we’d love to do it.’ He said, ‘I have an offer for 500, this changes my status, I think I’m worth it,’ and we said, ‘at this point we’re not in a position to be able to pay 500.’ He said, ‘well, I have an offer, I have to take it.’ We said, ‘we fully understand that, is there anything else we can do?’”

Two weeks after White’s departure, Oregon hired Lombardi, widely considered the top assistant coach in the sport, to a five-year contract worth an average of $345,000 annually.

For Oregon fans still upset about the school’s unwillingness to match Texas’ offer to White, particularly with the hindsight of seeing four players follow him to the Longhorns, there may never be an amicable answer the program can provide for its fiscal decision-making. Whether spending an additional $100,000 to $150,000 — the approximate difference between the salaries of White and Lombardi — could have kept the program as people knew it together will be a question posed for some time and will only grow if Oregon struggles and Texas finds immediate success this season.

But even if UO was willing to match Texas’ offer to White, there is no way of knowing whether Texas would have simply raised its offer. Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation indicated Texas was willing to go as high as $1 million a year to hire a new coach, a figure approached only by Oklahoma’s Patty Gasso, who earns $725,000 in base salary plus a $200,000 annual retention bonus.

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How receptive were the Oregon players to the coaching change and the new coaching style that came with Lombardi’s arrival? Different sources gave different answers.

According to Mullens, four players indicated they intended to transfer from Oregon before Lombardi was hired on July 9.

“I understand the connection (players have) with the coach that recruited them,” he said. “I think what gets lost in this is people assume, well, they only build a relationship in two to three years. No, no, no, that’s a two or three year recruiting process. So you’re looking at a four-to-six year relationship. … As great as our university is, as great as our community is, the connection oftentimes is with the coach and we understand that. We’ve seen it in other sports as well. We see it go both ways. We’ve benefited from some transfers in. ... I would say the short answer is it’s the landscape that we live in right now, unfortunately.”

College coaches and players don’t spend much time together during the summer, as recruiting, travel and camps have to take priority. So until the Ducks reconvened in the fall, when the NCAA’s transfer portal was set to go into effect in mid-October, the differences in leadership style from White to Lombardi might not have been too clear to the players.

Suffice to say, there is a stark contrast in how they run their programs.

According to multiple sources, White is hands-off, particularly when it comes to off-the-field matters, whereas Lombardi exerts more control and structure.

At least some players saw Lombardi as infringing on their individuality, sources said.

Among the issues at the center of contention for the players were class checks, a common practice in college athletics regardless of sport, and a standard for appearance that players have interpreted as a dress code. Neither were in place under White, so for returning players it was a big shift to their daily routines and at least some were not receptive.

One player who left the program this fall told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the way players were being treated was “not tolerable” and “became unbearable" and expressed frustration with UO not retaining White.

“I feel as a program and individuals, we were/are being greatly disrespected by our athletic directors,” said the player, who requested anonymity. “We were failed by them from the start when they made no effort to retain Coach White, then again by them being unreceptive and unresponsive to countless meetings about the current staff and the way we were/are being treated as well as the direction that the program was/is going. Unfortunately, no meeting ever resulted in intervention or resolution of these issues, rather they resulted in my teammates and I feeling totally unsupported by Oregon athletics.”

The specifics of this so-called dress code are rather ambiguous. Institutionally, Lombardi and Mullens both downplayed its significance and even the degree of its strictness. But according to multiple sources, it was an issue during the weekend of Oct. 13, when the softball team was recognized as Pac-12 champions during the Ducks' football game against Washington, and as recently as Monday, a player made reference to it on social media.

“Our athletes represent Oregon softball, they represent the University of Oregon," Lombardi said. "All I ask of them is that they are presentable, whether they’re going to school, whether they’re out on the field, whether they’re on an activity that may regard a class. This major dress code, I don’t know about this major dress code. I just want them to look presentable. I don’t want them to get up out of bed and roll out of bed and go to class. I want them to look presentable. That’s it. I don’t have a checklist (of) this is what you can and cannot wear.”

Class checks and appearance standards might seem mundane to fans, but they illustrate the challenges coaches face in imposing discipline, structure, accountability and team culture while also allowing for modern college athletes to express themselves and behave like their peers.

“We absolutely want to support the individuality of our student-athletes, but also understand that we’re trying to help them prepare for the next phase of their life,” Mullens said. “I think some of those things have been overblown. (Lombardi) does want to help young people prepare for what they represent as an individual, as a program and I think she’s tried to relay that without impacting their individuality.”

“Anytime you do have change, a change in coaches, a change in staff, things are going to be different,” Lombardi said. “I didn’t coach here last year, so how they went about it last year — and they were successful and I respect everything that those coaches did — it’s just everybody’s going to be a little bit different.

“I think about the (Women’s College) World Series; you have eight teams that get to the World Series and they all get there eight different ways.”

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At Oklahoma, like many other schools in the South and Southeast, a significant number of athletes are involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and there are some religious overtones in the softball program. Oklahoma referenced the “Power of 3” from a biblical story during its 2017 postseason run, which culminated with the Sooners repeating as WCWS Champions.

Mullens said religion was not discussed when Oregon was going through the hiring process with Lombardi.

“We had a very clear conversation of how Missy was going to run her program,” Mullens said. “She values the student-athlete experience. She loves her role as an educator. Everybody we talked to, former players, former coaches, really focused on how she develops young players.”

Lombardi said she has no expectation of players when it comes to their involvement in FCA, attending church or any other religious practices.

“I respect every one of our athletes," she said. "I respect my staff and I respect their beliefs, just like I know they respect my beliefs. I’ve never had one conversation that talked about religion.”

Lombardi said chatter in the rather small softball world has mischaracterized how she is trying to change the culture of Oregon softball.

“Anytime that there’s negativity towards you, that’s tough,” she said, “but really, I can’t wait to get started this season.”

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The on-field reality of Oregon’s offseason departures will begin to come into focus starting Tuesday, when the team holds its first preseason practice.

The Ducks lost their top six home run hitters and seven of their top eight in RBIs from last season, plus more than 350 innings and 470 strikeouts All-America pitchers Megan Kleist and Miranda Elish combined for in the circle.

The returning position players combined for just 33 doubles, 11 home runs and 76 RBIs in 2018. Four or five freshmen will have to start immediately, while Maggie Balint, who was hampered by a back injury last season, will lead a pitching staff featuring newcomers Jordan Dail and Maddie MacGrandle, who transferred from Virginia Tech and Texas A&M, respectively.

“I’m not afraid of our youth,” Lombardi said. “They’re very talented. They’ve played top-level softball their whole career. I embrace it and I know they will, too. I think our preseason will start off fast and furious, and I’m OK with that. I accept that challenge, but what I think it’ll do is really prepare us for Pac-12 play.”

Alexis Mack and Haley Cruse will still set the table at the top of the order, Mia Camuso and Terra McGowan, who recently arrived after beginning her freshman year at Arizona State, will help provide power in the middle, and Shaye Bowden and April Utecht will offer some position flexibility. But the rest of a retooling lineup is still undetermined, which will affect how the Ducks try to produce runs.

“One thing that we worked on a lot in the fall was situational softball, situational offense in the fall when we had everybody,” Lombardi said. “I think this team is going to do a really job of that, of understanding their role and getting on, other athletes understanding how to move them over. Then, whether it’s a hit-and-run or hitting to the right side to score a run, if the ball leaves the park, which it will leave the park, I think it’s not just relying on the long ball but knowing that we have many different ways to score runs. … I think there’s maybe some people that are going to surprise you.”

How quickly heralded recruits McGowan, Jasmine Sievers, Rachel Cid, Allee Bunker, Lexi Wagner and Hannah Galey can make an impact as freshmen will ultimately determine the success of Oregon’s season.

With that inexperience and the turbulent fall in mind, expectations for this season have to be set accordingly.

Speaking prior to the addition of McGowan, a top 25 recruit last year, Mullens said 2019 was “about going out and competing” for the Ducks.

With the season starting on Feb. 8 with a doubleheader against Kansas and Cal State Northridge at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Arizona, Oregon has about three weeks to make a lot of determinations in terms of personnel, and perhaps more important, form cohesiveness and an identity as a team.

In the fall, Lombardi said her team would be “blue-collar, hard working and focus on what’s in front of them.” It’s up to her and the players to show that’s still possible after an angst-filled offseason.

“I look at this team and, to me, I tell them, ‘what can’t we handle in the spring?’” Lombardi said. “With everything that we’ve handled this fall, we’ve made it, we survived it, we’ve gotten through it, we’re better because of it. What can’t we handle in the spring?”