13 notable quotes from Dan Lanning as No. 12 Ducks enter bye week and prep for No. 11 UCLA
Talk about an opportune time for a bye week.
As the Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins get ready for what is shaping up to be a top-15 showdown in Autzen Stadium on October 22, both teams are enjoying a bye week that assures they will be well-rested and prepared for the marquee matchup.
As the Ducks enter their bye week, head coach Dan Lanning met with media members on Tuesday to wrap up the conversation on the game against the Arizona Wildcats, and also detail what the team will be focused on over the coming 10 days or so with a major game on the horizon. Here are some of the most notable quotes from that press conference:
Opening Statement:
Lanning: “Improvement from practice one for us in the bye week. Great opportunity for us to focus on us it’s really been our focus the entire year so far. I think we’re trending in the right direction. Got some really good work. Got an opportunity to get some young guys more opportunities and reps also got an opportunity to get our old guys better develop our roster; continue to grow. Certainly, we’ll ID some things this week. Each player on our team has a personal individual improvement plan, something that they’re working on if they can get better at. Coaches are being really specific with them and their growth. We’re gonna look to continue to grow we’ll have similar practices the rest of the week.”
Targeting Calls
Question: What’s the coaching method for Dontae Manning’s targeting hit? How do you coach him up after that?
Lanning: “We want to hit in the strike zone. We want to make sure we don’t lead with our helmet or our shoulder in a launching position. I think every one of us can express frustration with a rule. I think there’s an intent in the rule, and we want to make sure that we’re protecting people. We want to keep people safe in the way we play. So we have to coach hitting the strike zone, right? Making sure that we’re not launching in a way that would create a penalty and make sure we’re keeping our head out of it.”
Red Zone Improvement
Question: Is there a team improvement plan set to help in the red zone?
Lanning: “So just like we have an individual improvement plan, we have these four things on offense that we’re gonna get better at, these four things on defense that we’re gonna get better at special teams in this unit, here’s what we want to see for improvement. You have to be really clear. It’s really a big week for self-scout where we go back and self-evaluate what we’ve done well, what we’ve done poor, and then how we can build off of that and grow from that.”
Christian Gonzalez
Question: Christian Gonzalez moved all over the field and played in the slot a lot against Arizona. How would you assess his play?
Lanning: “I think it’s a tough challenge for him. But you know, obviously, we think really highly of Christian and he’s the kind of player that we can put in a lot of different positions. They had a really talented slot receiver. We want to be able to see him move around there. I thought he handled the first game of that, doing it pretty well. You know, if you guys remember going back into fall camp, we want to train guys in multiple positions and be able to see what they can do. And that’s a great example of a guy not necessarily getting a ton of reps throughout the season at one spot and then being able to go and adjust on the fly.”
RB Splits
Question: Have you guys picked up on the running back distance from QB splits?
Lanning: “It shows up. That’s the same reason you’ll see us at weeks we’ll play with the back behind the quarterback in pistol formation. At times we’ll be in the gun, we moved around quite a bit. We shift, we motion a good amount. So, certainly something we’re aware of. I’ll say this, in my opinion, great teams have tendencies. If you’re a great team, you’re gonna have tendencies. They’re gonna show up. You just have to be aware of those tendencies as a coach.”
Redshirt
Question: At this point in the season have you talked to players about redshirting and do you know who will or will not?
Lanning: “That’s not a huge discussion for us right now. Our focus right now is playing. We’re aware of it, we track it every single week of where guys are at. If somebody can help us and help our team perform. We want to be able to utilize those players and I think a lot of players on our team want to be able to do that.”
Injury Update
Question: Are you guys going to get Steven Jones back this year, and will Popo Aumavae be petitioning for another year of eligibility?
Lanning: “Yeah, there definitely is. We’re definitely evaluating that with Popo, and we’re working on getting the rest of our guys back.”
DB Response
Question: How do you feel like your defensive backs responded to early deep shots against Arizona?
Lanning: “I thought our guys played, in a lot of ways, maybe our most complete game. Going back and evaluating and I think we definitely could have done some stuff better special teams-wise. And then we have to be all finished. There’s a couple of penalties in drives that extended drives and gave them an opportunity to throw the ball down the field. We got to do a better job there, but we were advantageous with takeaways outside of two running plays, we did a good job of stopping the run, and we knew that they were gonna have a good passing game, but I thought our guys responded well.”
Self-Scout vs. UCLA
Question: How much time this week is spent self-scouting vs. working on UCLA?
Lanning: “It’s not just UCLA, really every team that we’re going to play. So we have teach periods in every single one of our practices we’re focused on future opponents and things that will show up for us, but it is, it’s that, a balance.”
Recruiting
Question: How do you feel like recruiting has gone now that you have some examples of what you’re doing at Oregon?
Lanning: “I think it’s going well. I’ll say this next game, I’m hoping to have some really great players on campus. It’s gonna be an awesome atmosphere, obviously getting the opportunity to play UCLA, who’s a really good team clicking on all cylinders right now. But that environment, I think, from our fans, and for recruits, it’s gonna be really special.”
Ty Thompson
Question: How have you seen Ty Thompson progress so far this season?
Lanning: “I know he would love to have some moments back, but I think he’s done some good things too. He made some really good run checks this past game, he was able to assess what the defensive lineup was in. He looked really good in practice today and did some good things today in practice, so continue to be excited about his development. I talked to our players as a whole, not Ty, the entire team: If you’re the same player, you were in week one right now, shame on you. We should be better, and Ty’s a guy that’s getting better. You guys don’t always see all the work. You only see the game film, right? We see all the work in practice and every one of our players we want to see him continue to develop.”
UCLA Environment
Question: How special do you think the environment for the UCLA game will be?
Lanning: “It can be elite. I think there’s gonna be a special game regardless of who comes or doesn’t come. This is going to be an elite atmosphere. You love to have an opportunity as a coach and a player to play great teams. It’s a great team, great team coming to play us. We’re not really there yet. We’re not spending all of our time on them. But I know that environments gonna be really special, and hope we can create a special one here.”
Bo Nix
Question: Is there anything that Bo Nix has done this year that has really impressed you or surprised you?
Lanning: “Bo’s playing well. We’re excited that he’s doing that, and it’s what we’ve known he can do. It’s not a big surprise. I think I would challenge everybody, including Bo and myself and everybody on our staff and everybody out there. Don’t let your highs get too high and your lows get too low. It’s about continuing performance, continuing putting that together. He doesn’t get hung up in the moment. He’s done a good job. I think he’ll continue to do a good job but that’s because he has really level focus.”
