20-minute interview: Nate Krueger, Assistant Athletic Director and the primary point of media contact for nationally ranked University of Oregon Football.
March 3, 2025 — By Sophie Turnbull
Nate Krueger has been the University of Oregon’s assistant athletic director for communications since 2021. He has found himself great success throughout his career as he is the primary media contact for nationally ranked Oregon football and women’s golf while overseeing the UO athletic communication office.
Working directly with media relations and sports information, Krueger explains his job as a “Bridge for media and athletics.”
Kruguer’s career path is unique as he has worked in the Oregon athletic communications office since his freshman year of college in 2013 as a student intern. He was elevated to director of communications in 2017.
Previously, he worked with Oregon as the sports information director (SID) for other sports such as women’s basketball, softball, and women’s lacrosse, just to name a few.
As an Oregon alumni and Washington native, Krueger has earned himself immense success through the athletic program as he now reports game stats, manages press conferences, meets with head coaches, and manages television, post-practice, and gameday media.
Talking with him gave me insight into what such an impressive job looks like. Here’s what we discussed;
Everyday Work
A “normal work day” doesn’t exist for Krueger. Every day of work is very different for him. Krueger’s daily “to-do” list depends on a variety of things, such as the day of the week or even the season of the year. In the football world, the in-season is exceptionally busier than the off-season.
“July through mid-January are the busiest months.”
These months include preseason, fall camp, in-season games, playoffs, bowl games, and getting guys set up for the draft. With this hectic workload, Krueger explains Sundays as being the busiest day of his week. Following a Saturday game day, on Sundays, Krueger works the most with gameday film, game notes and stats, managing press releases, and setting up weekly meetings.
“Monday is the head coach’s meeting, where I have to prepare and write Dan Lanning notes for him to present.”
Spring looks different as he has new focuses, such as the spring game, the NFL draft, new recruits, and signing days. In spring, he works more closely with NFL Digital, where he will often give them content of the Oregon players to promote them.
As seasons change, work changes, but Krueger continues to stay busy.
Managing Interviews
Another huge part of Krueger’s job is managing and arranging interviews. A variety of television outlet teams or different social media outlets will come to talk to players and coaches; this is where Krueger must pick and choose which media outlets are acceptable to interview his people.
“The guy’s time is precious; the media can’t be wasting their time.”
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We think about ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports as big athletic outlets, but what are the media outlets Krueger denies?
“The media outlet has to be legit, and they have to be credible sources,”
Krueger mentions the common example of start-up podcasts with minimal followers that will constantly be asking to talk to Dan Lanning, but he just doesn’t have time for that. Big names like Dillion Gabriel and Dan Lanning don’t have time to take requests from small brands in season.
“At the end of the day, there isn’t a lot we turn down, and most of the time, it is a lot about the athlete’s decisions.”
There also comes the difference between in-season and out-of-season media opportunities. In-season media opportunities connect straight to Krueger and Oregon media, but NIL comes into play with out-of-season opportunities. Out of season, NIL will often contact athletes for media opportunities, but it becomes “fully the athlete’s decisions.”
“I’m not allowed to be involved in NIL agreements.”
Social Media
Krueger is the go-to man for Oregon football’s social media. Instagram is where most of their work is done because they get the most engagement here.
“Instagram is King.”
“X is going down.”
“Facebook is for old people.”
Short-form videos perform best because the modern-day attention span of people is limited. But they also produce and publish long-form video recaps about once a month.
As Oregon athletics has grown over the years, they have mainly stuck to social media, especially Instagram. With this constant change, the ability to be adaptable is important. Oregon football’s switch to the Big 10 brought more of a change. PR and media promotions were very important during this time. Remember the giant duck in the Indianapolis River? That was Krueger and his team.
Relationships
Working in such close relationships with the athletes, it’s important to have an active, healthy relationship with them. Krueger explains that the reality of being close with 125 athletes is nearly impossible but then mentions his past close-knits.
“My favorite guy was Verone Mckinley.”
This Oregon alumni and current safety for the Arizona Cardinals was important to Krueger as he started the podcast Turn Back the Flock. Krueger worked closely with McKinley to help him with this project and connected him to Oregon alumni.
Krueger also mentions his relationship with Dillion Gabriel and Bo Nix. They often had heavy media coverage, which built this connection between them. Krueger also got the opportunity to go to the Heisman Awards with these two superstars, which continued to build their bond.
Advice to Krueger’s Past Self
Krueger’s path was unique to get to the place he is now. When entering college, Krueger was dating his current wife. With this, he knew he wanted to get through college fast, and he did just that.
“I thought of college as a business trip.”
Krueger graduated from the University of Oregon as a journalism major in just two and a half years. After gaining an internship within Oregon athletics in his first week of college, he kept the same connections and became an intern for Oregon football when he graduated.
College was not “normal” for Krueger. He has no regrets as it led him to great success, but he told me to value my time. College is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it is ok to slow down.
“Take your time”.
Quotes are the exact words from Krueger after asking him an extensive list of questions.
Images:
Dillion Gabriel Interview — Instagram
Oregon Duck in Indianapolis River — IndyStar
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Wanted to give great thanks to Nate Kreuger for letting me conduct this interview!
