11 notable quotes from Dan Lanning following first career win at Oregon
It took a week longer than he likely hoped it would, but head coach Dan Lanning is on the board as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks. With a 70-14 dominant victory over Eastern Washington, the 36-year-old can officially say that he’s tasted the sweet joy of victory inside Autzen Stadium. There’s no turning back now.
While Lanning’s first win came with a couple of notable statistics — it took Chip Kelly 14 weeks to record 70 points at Autzen, and QB Bo Nix became the first Oregon player to throw for 5 touchdowns since Justin Herbert did so in 2019 — it doesn’t mean a whole lot in terms of the season-long look at things. The Ducks may have beat an FCS school, but they still have to prove how good they are against another Power 5 opponent. Fortunately, that chance is coming this next weekend as BYU travels to Eugene.
Before we start looking at that matchup, though, let’s revisit Saturday’s butt-whooping. Here are some of the most notable quotes from Lanning on Saturday night:
Opening Statement
Lanning: “Tonight’s game was a lot of fun for players. We were talking about things coming to fruition. We came in and talked about executing and being Oregon. What an incredible atmosphere. Listening to ‘Jump Around’ at the end of the 3rd quarter was great. We came out and got better and executed like we wanted to. I’m excited to get back and watch the film and move forward. The focus and attention now turn to BYU.”
RB By Committee
Question: Thoughts on how the group of running backs performed on Saturday
Lanning: “I said from the beginning that if you are good enough, you are old enough. We are going to find ways to get into a rhythm. If we have players that can play at a high level, we want to let them play. I think each of our guys has a different skill set, and as the season goes on, we will continue to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. I feel good about that group with a lot of players that can play, and I want to see them.”
Responding After Georgia Loss
Question: How do you feel like this team executed after the disappointment of week 1?
Lanning: “We said we wanted to do simple better. That is what this week was all about. It was about fundamentals and technique. We saw a lot of that show up in the game. With that in mind, there are some plays we want back that our guys want back. It was not the cleanest game in terms of penalties. We can still execute a few things better. We gave up a big kickoff return, and that was disappointing. We have to do better there. We will go back and work on the things that need to get fixed.”
Cam McCormick and Spencer Webb
Question: What was it like seeing Cam McCormick get that touchdown while wearing Spencer Webb’s jersey?
Lanning: “We were talking on the headset on that drive, and Kenny [Dillingham] said, “I think I have a way to get Cam the ball.” I think every single one of us wanted that, especially seeing him where Spencer’s jersey tonight. We were able to dial a play up and get it to him, and he was able to get in the endzone. I think Cam came off the field with tears in his eyes. That was a special moment for him and our team. Spencer will forever be remembered.”
Biggest Takeaways
Question: What do you guys take away from this game and your execution against an FCS school?
Lanning: “I have to go back and watch the film. I think there is a lot where we can certainly improve. Any time you have the opportunity to play football is exciting. We want to get on the field and execute. The benefit of a game like tonight is we get to see a lot of different players that will wear green and yellow. We got to see how they will execute at a high level. There is plenty for us to clean up. We had a bad taste in our mouths from the last game, and we were anxious to play somebody. This game is going to help us move forward as we go on to play more good teams on the schedule.”
Further Improvement
Question: Where can you guys still improve going forward?
Lanning: “We are not playing our best football by any means. The ceiling is high, and we can still improve a lot. We saw improvement. We tackled better and were more physical. We were winning the point of attack. We were able to complete passes and not put the ball in jeopardy. Those things were certainly positive, but it will still be challenging as we move forward. It will only continue to get harder, and we have to continue to play better. We have not arrived by any means; we still have a lot of work to do.”
Defensive Assessment
Question: What’s your assessment of the defense after Georgia and then this game?
Lanning: “Let’s be honest; Georgia is a phenomenal football team. We asked ourselves, can we play better and tackle better? Absolutely. We are going to play some really good football teams. I know there are fourteen points on the scoreboard that I want back. There are definitely things we can improve. The standard is our standard, and we must continue measuring ourselves up to that. We can certainly be better. It was nice to see us play a physical brand of football. Regardless of who was on the field, our guys knew they had to play the same as the guys who were previously on the field.”
First Victory
Question: What does it feel like to get your first career victory as a head coach?
Lanning: “I haven’t even thought about it. I’m already thinking about BYU.”
Offensive Success
Question: How important was it to have this type of offensive success after being shut out of the endzone in Week 1?
Lanning: “That’s kind of the secret to win, right? The more we get into the endzone, the better we are going to be. With that being said, we had some drives last week, we didn’t finish them. I think we found out tonight is when you don’t turn the ball over, you’re able to move the ball successfully, you’re gonna have a chance to win games and we were able to score points because we didn’t turn the ball over and we were able to finish in the red area.”
The Backup QBs
Question: How do you feel Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield performed in the second half?
Lanning: “Ty did a great job tonight, he was fun. Seeing Ty, Bo, Jay and all of those guys really operate there was a couple of times they made some checks based on lists we had given them during the week and to be honest we’d probably give them once or twice and they were able to give us some good plays. Ty did a really good job on the single run check. That was encouraging, we’re not there to operate it on where the ball should go on certain plays and based on the coverage he was able to be the coverage and take the ball where it needs to go, did not have to force anything but execute at a really high level. I don’t think anyone is as excited about Ty’s performance as his teammates. Ty comes here to work every single day, rolls his sleeves up and did a good job today.”
Looking Ahead to BYU
Question: What are your early impressions of BYU and have you learned anything from watching them yet?
Lanning: “I haven’t watched them this season yet, Baylor specifically. In the past they’ve certainly done some stuff that carries over, I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to watch that film and to kind of see what they do similar to what we do, we do have some good actions there so once the games are over with that’s something we can definitely evaluate.”
