8 notable quotes Dan Lanning said after Oregon’s convincing win over BYU Cougars
It wasn’t his first win inside the walls of Autzen Stadium, but it was absolutely the first meaningful win that Dan Lanning has picked up as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks.
The pile of melting ice on the field following the Gatorade bath that Lanning received proves that.
Lanning’s Ducks welcomed the No. 14 BYU Cougars to Eugene and sent them packing in just a couple of quarters. The relentless dominance started early, with Oregon going up 24-7 at the break, and it continued long into the afternoon. Ultimately, the Ducks walked away with a 41-20 win, which will act as a statement to anyone who was doubting this first-year head coach following the Georgia game.
There is still a lot to improve on, of course, but this was a big victory for the Ducks. That much was apparent when listening to Lanning talk after the game. There was some excitement in his voice, but an understanding that in order to obtain the success that he came to Eugene to achieve, there is still a long way to go.
Here are some of the most notable quotes from Lanning after the statement win:
Opening Statement:
Lanning: “Well that was fun. That was a lot of fun with a special, special crowd. We knew that they were going to come out there and be there for us. It’s hard to coach at the end of the third quarter during ‘Shout’, so I’ve got to figure that out. I thought we stumbled a little bit in the fourth. That being said, we came out to this game and said we wanted to be a physical team and I think we were that. We wanted to win critical situations, we were good on fourth down and able to stop them and get ours (fourth down conversions) whenever we had opportunities to go for it. We wanted to out-rush our opponent, that’s a brand of physicality we were able to show. We wanted to establish an identity. I think everybody in the stadium at some point probably realized what we were doing when we ran Josh Conerly (Jr.) out there, our big group with three tight ends in the back and we were about to get big and go play ball. We didn’t really care if you knew what we were going to do, you had to stop us. I thought our offense did a great job of that. We had some big defensive stops as well, played contested ball and I thought this was our cleanest game from a special team’s standpoint. That being said, there’s so much we can improve on. We played BYU today, but we also played Oregon. We want to finish games, we want to be able to capitalize at the end. I don’t know that we did as well there at the end as we want to. We’ll continue to grow, we’re about to go play a really good Washington State team and have to get ready for them. That being said, we appreciate Duck Nation for the job they did today.”
Bo Nix's Growth
Question: What have you seen from Bo Nix and his growth so far this season?
Lanning: “You talk about quarterback, and you talk about decision maker. Obviously we have to go back and watch the film, but I thought Bo made great decisions today. Each week he gets more and more confident in what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s the small things that you guys don’t see that make him a special quarterback. Like letting the play clock go there at the end of the game when a lot of people would just go and hike the ball. He did a really good job of operating and handling what was out there for him today.”
Team Identity
Question: What do you think the identity of this team is through three weeks?
Lanning: “I know this, I know we’ll work. Where we’re at as a team, I still think there’s something to be decided. You’re only as good as your last game and you’re only as good as your last play. We’ve got to live in the moment, we’re not resting on our laurels, we’ve got a lot of things we can go work on, but we’ve got a team that will work. I told the guys in the locker room, the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war, and that’s because of what you do Monday through Friday in practice. We’ve got to go work on the practice field to be able to achieve in the game. What you saw on the field today was a result of the hard work that happens Sunday to Friday.”
Offensive Tempo
Question: How did you feel about the tempo of the offense today?
Lanning: “We want to dictate the tempo, we don’t want the people to dictate the tempo to us, right? Part of that is based off success, when you have successful plays you can go fast, but I think you also can see we have the ability as an offense to slow it down at times and that keeps a defense guessing, makes it really hard for the other team to prepare. We want to be able to play fast, when we want to play fast and we want to be able to slow it down when we want to. I thought Kenny (Dillingham) and the offense staff did a really great job of that today.”
Ty Thompson
Question: What’s your confidence level in Ty Thompson, and what went into the decision to pull him in the 4th quarter?
Lanning: “Absolutely and Ty didn’t do anything wrong, other than I thought we were in a position as a team that we needed to buckle up, and knuckle up, put our first group back on defense, put our first group back on offense and it was time to make a stand. You know you want to get an opportunity to get other guys opportunities. Ty absolutely didn’t do anything wrong, I have the utmost confidence in him but that was a decision for our entire team there as a unit to go put our ones in, to set the standard, and set the model for how we finish the game.”
Injury Updates
Question: Do you have any updates on Byron Cardwell or Justin Flowe and why they didn’t play?
Lanning: “Byron (Cardwell) was day-to-day throughout practice this past week and he tested himself wanting to be able to push on Thursday, he’s a warrior wanting to go to work. Came out wanting to go through warm-ups and I think it was still lingering, you could see he still wasn’t kind of 100%, didn’t want to jeopardize his health. In that situation if we ask Bryon to, I promise you he would’ve and that is a great example of his character and what he is willing to do for this team. With that being said, we don’t want to put our guys in a position where they are not going to be healthy. Really the same thing for Justin (Flowe), if we had to push Justin and he was able to go through warm-ups today, he could’ve definitely contributed for us today and helped us. With that being said, the next guy up in both those situations, those guys prepare really hard, they earn their moments in practice, you earn the right to go play football with the way you practice and the next guy up in both those positions did a really good job. Seven [McGee] was able to go for us at times but we were in a lot of personnel groups that didn’t always put him on the field, and i think his unselfishness is a great example of Seven saying, ‘I don’t care how we do it, I just want to win the game.’”
Jahlil Florence and Dontae Manning
Question: How do you feel Jahlil Florence and Dontae Manning performed in the second half?
Lanning: “I’ll have to go back again and watch the film. You know we always see those guys and if you’re able to touch the field for us, we see you as a starter. I know Dontae was able to break up some contested balls there at the end, but I want to go back and evaluate the film and see where we’re at. I know that there were some times where we had some good coverage throughout and we gave up late, so we’ve got to figure out how to work those finishes better.”
Coaching through 'Shout!'
Question: You mentioned it being difficult to coach through ‘Shout!’ Can you elaborate?
Lanning: “Well, does anybody remember the next play after ‘Shout’? We gave up a third down for a first down, so I don’t know, I’ve got to figure that out. We talked through what we were going to see, what we were going to play, we didn’t finish on the sack, lost contain of the quarterback so I’ve got to get better on coaching in that situation. We got some really good dancers on this team, right? That’s apparent but I hope we can figure out a score margin or rule that you can dance on ‘Shout’ based on what the score is. I love that our players of energy and passion for this game, this game is meant to be fun and our guys had fun out there today but we’ve got to be detailed and finish and that next play we didn’t finish.”
