12 notable quotes from Dan Lanning after No. 9 Ducks make a statement vs. No. 10 UCLA
After the game on Saturday afternoon, Oregon Ducks’ head coach was asked a difficult question. His team had just beat the No. 10 UCLA Bruins by a score of 45-30 and taken the undisputed top spot in the Pac-12 conference. On top of that, he had just welcomed the arguable best coach in Oregon history, and gave him a taste of his own medicine with a high-flying offense that was unable to be stopped.
Lanning was asked to describe how good it felt to be in his position, as a first-year head coach finding unfounded success so early on in Eugene.
As frequen readers would expected, he quickly defelected and put the credit on his players and his coaching staff. High class through and through.
Whether he will admit it or not, Saturday was a huge day for Lanning, who has his team back in the mix after a disastrous start, and potentially making things tough for the College Football Playoff committee. Here’s a look at all of the notable things he had to say on Saturday after the win:
Opening Statement
Lanning: “Wow. I had a pretty good feeling this was going to be an awesome day the minute I stepped out on the quad right around 6 a.m. this morning and that place was packed. Our fans brought it from 4 a.m. or even 1 a.m. last night all the way to the very end of that game and they were absolutely a difference for us. It was a complete team win. We changed the game in special teams and were able to have some big momentum plays both offensively and defensively. When they’re scoring field goals and we’re trading them for touchdowns, that’s going to be a recipe for success. There’s certainly a lot of things we can get better at. I don’t think anybody on our team is satisfied and that’s what gives this team a chance to be hungry and great. Really excited about moving forward to the next game, but we’re going to enjoy this one though.”
What we learned
Question: What do you feel like you learned most about your team on Saturday?
Lanning: “The buy-in. You always want that as a coach. At halftime, we sat there and talked about how the most physical team is going to win this game. You look at the brand of football we played going into the half and coming out in the third quarter, we said we’re going to run the ball and be physical. We have a team that has buy-in, believes in what they’re doing and that’s when you have a chance to be really successful.”
The onside kick
Question: What did you see in the 2nd quarter that made you comfortable going with the onside kick?
Lanning: “I think some of you guys might have been at practice earlier this week and I told you ‘Don’t tell anybody or I’ll never let you come to practice again,’ right, you guys saw us practicing that and appreciate that you guys kept your lips sealed. We knew that was something that we wanted to do and we wanted to practice that in pressure situations throughout the week. We had a couple of pressure kicks that we did early on. It was there, we saw it after the first kickoff and we felt like that’s the look we want. The second kick-off we thought it was there as well. The third one was actually the worst look we had and we still felt really confident. It looked like there was some weather coming in and if there was a chance to steal a possession, it would be before the weather hit. It turned out some weather came, but we knew once we received the kick that we wanted to look to get an extra possession if we can, because we weren’t going to get the ball after halftime.”
Bo Nix
Question: What did you see from Bo Nix today that impressed you the most?
Lanning: “I don’t think anyone can sit here and watch football right now and watch our quarterback play and not tell me he’s an elite quarterback. This guy’s playing at an extremely high level and he makes great decisions for our team. He’s an elite competitor, an elite leader, he has phenomenal character, he’s throwing the ball really well and making great decisions. He’s humble and I think everybody on our team is excited about his success.”
Good D, Better O
Question: UCLA arguably has the best defense you’ve seen all year, how was your offense able to find so much success?
Lanning: “For us, the standard is the standard. You could ask those guys in the locker room before the game started who we’re playing, and they’d say Oregon. Every week we are competing against ourselves. I think that’s a really good football team that we just went against, but the standard doesn’t change based on the team you play. Our offense has been operating at a really high level and I think that’s credit to our offensive coaches and credit to our players for the work they put in during the week.”
Georgia Bounceback
Question: After such a tough loss in Week 1, how do you think that your team has been able to bounce back so well?
Lanning: “Growth mindset. Our players have a growth mindset. They know every single week that there’s an opportunity to get better. Just because we won this game, doesn’t mean we’re not looking for an opportunity to improve. People know that I’m going to say we’ll have to go to the doctor, and we’ll figure out what we can get better at and go take our medicine and improve. Our team has done that week in and week out.”
The 15-play drive
Question: How important was that 15-play scoring drive for you guys in the 3rd quarter?
Lanning: “That’s an explosive offense that we just played. They’re really hard to defend, they’re obviously really well-coached. The best way you can defend them is to keep them off the field. We wanted to have our offense on the field and there offensive off the field. That’s a great example of our offense doing that, utilizing the clock, being able to take advantage of time of possession, and work the ball down the field.”
Dorian Thompson-Robinson
Question: We knew that DTR could hurt you with his legs — what did you guys do that made you so successful bottling him up tonight?
Lanning: “Ultimately we wanted to tried to eliminate one-on-one opportunities and we wanted to try and have vision to be able to close and finish the play on him. Our guys did a really good job of executing when we did have a chance. I’m not sure we had a sack in this game, but we did keep him contained. He’s a really talented player and tough guy to stop. It wasn’t as much about statistics for us as it was keeping him corralled.”
The O-Line
Question: Can you put into words how great your offensive line is playing right now?
Lanning: “I’ll have to go back and watch the film, but that’s a really cohesive unit. Credit to our offensive staff and the job they’ve done there and also credit to those guys. We have some guys, senior leaders, on that group that are like coaches on the field. They’re able to communicate the looks they see every time they come off the field. If you guys watched Alex Forsyth work when no one else is working, you’d understand why that offensive line is like it is. He’s out there practicing snaps before practice and going through calls. We’re at chapel today and Alex is carrying the football around. I know the Lord appreciates that and so do the Ducks. They just work really hard and hard work pays off.”
Kenny Dillingham
Question: What has made Kenny Dillingham so successful at Oregon?
Lanning: “He’s done a great job. Obviously, he’s a guy that I’ve been able to watch in this profession for a long time. It wasn’t that long ago that Kenny Dillingham was a coach at Chaparral High School sitting in the corner of staff meetings every single day not saying a word. He’s grown so much as a coach and developed over time, and obviously, he’s doing a great job of leading or team. I also think he’d be the first one to give credit to our quarterback who’s playing at a really high level and players around him that are doing a really good job. Excited to see him have the success he’s had.”
Troy Franklin
Question: What makes Troy Franklin such a valuable target for Bo Nix?
Lanning: “You like guys that catch the ball and Troy catches the ball. He has a big catch radius and a lot of those catches you see on the game field are the same ones we see in practice. Troy’s doing a great job, he’s grown up as a player and I’m looking forward to watching him grow and continue to develop. I know we’re just scratching the surface to what he can be.”
Early success as head coach
Question: You’re 6-1 and have your team playing as well as anyone. How does it feel to have such early success as a head coach?
Lanning: “I’m excited for our players to have success and I’m excited for the coaches. I’m excited for the university and for the people that support this university so much to see that success. I don’t want to get in the way of that. I’m really thrilled to see our guys continue to grow. What I want is at the end of the season for us to be playing our best football. We’re still not there, but we’re getting better every week and that’s what excites me.”
