9 notable quotes from Dan Lanning following gutsy victory over Cougars
This isn’t a game that the Oregon Ducks usually win.
In years past, with so many things working against them, we’ve often seen the Ducks tend to fold in situations like this. Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, mental mistakes, or missed tackles, past Oregon teams often struggled to step up to the plate when tested.
Something about this Dan Lanning-led squad feels different, though.
The Ducks stepped up and pulled out a gutsy comeback victory on the road against Washington State Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t always pretty, and did a good job of identifying numerous places where the team can still improve, but it was a win nonetheless.
After the victory, Lanning met with media members to discuss what went right and what went wrong. Here are some of the most notable quotes from that press conference.
Opening Statement
Lanning: “Well, glad there was a little time left on the clock there at the end. Gutsy performance. I gotta give credit to Coach Dickert and his team. They came out here ready to compete, and they caught us off guard early and in a lot of ways, they outperformed us a lot of the day. But there was enough time left on the clock when our offense got the ball there at the end. I said, ‘Hey, guys, this is a two-minute drill on Thursday, just like we did in practice.’ Those guys went down and executed. Obviously, a lot of things didn’t go right in the first half, getting down in the red area and not being able to score but to walk out of this game, without giving up a sack, that’s credit to our offensive line. This is probably the most challenging look that we’ve seen up front from Washington State. They do a lot of things to change it up. Obviously, a lot of stuff for us to go to work on. We have to get a lot better on defense, we didn’t play well enough there today to be successful and win the games that we are going to have to win in this league. That being said, it’s hard to come to Pullman and this environment. They had a great crowd, great atmosphere today, and get a win. Our guys got a win, and they earned a win, and they battled all the way to the end. So really proud of them. Proud to walk away, I think you can learn as much from close wins as you can from losses or big wins, at times. We learned a lot today. There’s a lot for us to go work on. I’m anxious to get to the film.”
Bo Nix
Question: What are your thoughts on Bo Nix’s performance?
Lanning: “Obviously, there at the end, every possession was really critical. We had to go score touchdowns, and our offense knew that, but I think the offense put the defense on their back today and did a great job. Turning those drives into touchdowns in the second half, the drives we didn’t turn into touchdowns in the first. But Bo did a great job. He can’t get much worse than throwing pick-six as a quarterback, and to respond the way he responded and our team responds to Bo the way they responded, I think that shows the ultimate confidence that this team has in Bo.”
Mase Funa
Question: What did you see from Mase Funa on the game-sealing interception?
Lanning: “That was a great instinct play. I wish he would have gone down right then and we could have kneeled it out. But he probably couldn’t hear me say that on the other side. But that was a great instinctual play by Mase. You know, they’ve been firing the ball out quick game all day and we talked about getting hands up. You know, I think their quarterback did a great job of extending plays and that was one that came out quick and he was able to make a play.”
Offensive Output
Question: Did Nix’s offensive output surprise you at all?
Lanning: “In general, I will tell you today was not what I expected it to be. There were a lot of things that were unexpected, but what I expected was tough, resiliency, and never give up. And that showed up today in our team. There’s so many things that we can fix and we can coach better and play better and do better. That being said that team didn’t give up and when our best was needed, it was there and we were able to finish. So I’m excited to see that.”
Personal Fouls
Question: What did you make of the two personal foul calls against Brandon Dorlus and DJ Johnson?
Lanning: “I’m looking forward to getting some explanations on some of those. I hate to see it come down to calls like that we have to do a better job, obviously, of coaching that on our side of the ball, but I’m anxious to look at the film and get the interpretation on some of those plays at the end. Can’t lose our composure and give an extended drive we’re about to be in great situation, we get a late personal foul, that can never happen. We can’t be that team. It almost cost us and we’re lucky it didn’t. We’re gonna learn from it. I can promise you that. You know, that being said, there’s a couple of odd things that happened today that I’m looking forward to hearing explanations on.”
Halftime Mood
Question: What was the mood like at halftime of the game?
Lanning: “Our locker room never wavered. The guys in the locker room, the sideline, never wavered. They were composed and ready to finish the entire game. And I think we knew that a lot of the issues that we’re facing were self-inflicted wounds that we got to clean up.”
DJ Johnson
Question: Your thoughts on how DJ Johnson played?
Lanning: “Well, I love DJ. DJ knows I love him, but I was extremely disappointed in the way he managed the moment right there. That he made a huge play for our team and then it almost hurt us. DJ’s gotta learn from that, our team has to learn from that not everybody has to make make a mistake for us to learn from a mistake. But that was certainly a critical one. One that I hope we don’t make again.”
Noah Sewell Stats
Question: How do you think Noah Sewell played today?
Lanning: “I think stats are overrated you know? Noah Sewell is a phenomenal football player. Anybody that watches football knows that Noah is a phenomenal football player. I don’t know what his stats were. I don’t know what it finished but Noah can play football and just turn on the film and watch it, and you can see that.”
A big win
Question: How significant does this win feel?
Lanning: “It feels good to win. It feels bad to lose. It feels good to win, and this is a tough place to win. I don’t know how many messages I got this week about hey, have you played there before if you’ve been there before, it’s a tough place and you know what, it was. But we got a win. We’re gonna celebrate wins around here. But I promise you there’s a lot that we can go work on, and we’re gonna go to work and fix some things.”
