Dan Lanning breaks down Texas Tech win, previews final non-conference game vs. Hawaii
I think we can say with some confidence that Dan Lanning learned some things about his Oregon Ducks this past week in a gritty 38-30 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders down in Lubbock.
Not all of it was good, not all of it was bad. All of it, however, was necessary. After a blowout win in Week 1 against an opponent that had no business sharing a field with the Ducks, we entered Week 2 against a competitive FBS school in Texas Tech having a number of questions that needed to be answered for Oregon. In 60 minutes of action, the Ducks showed that there are still a number of flaws that need to be improved upon if this team is to reach its championship aspirations. The team also showed that it has the ability to buckle down, not panic, and gut out a tough win in a hostile environment.
On Monday night, Lanning met with reporters to discuss what he saw against the Red Raiders after watching film, and what he expects going forward as the Ducks prepare for a Week 3 game against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.
Here are some of the most notable quotes from that press conference:
Opening Statement
Dan Lanning: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it first, just acknowledging 9-11 and the impact I think that’s had on everyone. That’s one of those days for me that will always stand out. You remember exactly where you’re at that exact moment. For me, it’s my sophomore year in science class. It’s just weird how you can almost recall every moment of that day. So we want to have a chance to remember those involved in that.
But back to Saturday night, that flight was full of mixed emotion. We were really excited. I was really proud of our team’s poise and our coaches’ poise throughout that game, but also acknowledging all the things that we put in ourselves in the situation that we put ourselves in within that game, but to be able to come out of that place in a hostile environment with a win.
Moving forward from that game, Hawaii, I’m really excited about this matchup. I think it provides some fun opportunities. There’s a lot of players on our team from the islands that are here and this game means a lot to them. Certainly a team that we have a lot of respect for. There are also some unique opportunities this week for our fans to contribute back to some of the people involved and what happened on behind Maui as well. So I know that’ll be something working with Marcus Mariota Foundation, collecting some clothing and finding things that we can do to help give back to those people as well.
Proud to stick together and get the road win
Question: We’ve talked a lot about the mistakes and the stuff that you need to know to get better at after this week. What are some things that you saw after watching film that you’re really proud of?
Lanning: Yeah, poise, that’s hard. You know what I’ll say? The answer is there were moments on both sides of the ball. I thought situationally our team handled some situations really well. You talked about a situation like I haven’t been a part of it. I can’t remember a game I’ve been a part where there’s a blocked punt and you won the game. We get a punt block and you turn around very next play … interception. We go forward on fourth and one and we don’t get to stop. Next play or shortly after, we end up getting a sack fumble. Great response when we were putting some tough situations defensively. I thought offensively when we didn’t hurt ourselves, we moved the ball really well. And what I loved was from our sideline every time we got thrown in bad situations, it wasn’t a coach telling the players what we’re about to do. It was the players communicating what we’re about to do. You know, we’re about to go put the fire out on defense or we’re about to go convert, go score on offense, so seeing our team respond to that adversity, but then how they handle those situations was great to see.
Timmy Chang's offense
Q: What do you remember from Timmy Chang’s playing career and then also just how their offense resembles for he played?
DL: You see a lot of it. He was a phenomenal player. I think second, overall, all time passing yards and that’s the flavor that they are right now. They air it out. Their quarterback has probably the strongest arm as far as getting the ball down the field that we’ve seen so far this year and they connect on deep shots. I think they throw for over 350 yards a game. And I know that he’s looking for more balance, but they create explosive plays with those throws down the field and they have some guys that can really stretch the field and it’s very different. It’s a very different scheme than what you see in other weeks as far as the route distribution, how they read patterns and run the routes based on your leverages and how shallow routes can convert to long deep routes or deep routes can come back so they have to be really in sync and they found a way to be in sync in seeing them score some points against other power five opponents this year. They will challenge you from an offensive perspective. But him as a player and what they’re doing you see a lot of carryover
Avoiding pass interference calls
Q: How do you avoid some of the pass interference calls on defense that hurt the team on Saturday?
DL: I think all three pass interferences that we have were a little bit different. You look at Mase’s (Funa). He was not necessarily in panic mode, but the receivers working back right to the ball and he’s got to turn and be in position to be able play the ball and not just run through the receiver. He was in panic mode, and the ball was thrown but looking back that’s when we have an opportunity to go play the ball. So again, just calming down. Looking back at Tysheem’s (Johnson) I’ve watched it several times. I don’t know that I’d call that pass interference very often, but it was called so now we gotta do we gotta go play I thought he played aggressively. There was a little bit of hand fight back and forth. But what you would say is creating some out of phase drill work well, we can figure out where the ball might be underthrown. You have to go play the ball and play through without making drastic contact. That’s obviously a really frustrating one. You had an opportunity to get off the field, ball gets launched down the field. We lost, where we’re adding our third in the bank, and that’s one that you’d love to have back. But all of those can be coached and there are drills that we can do to make those better.
2022 win at WSU vs 2023 win at Texas Tech
Q: How is this win at Texas Tech compare with the road win at Washington State from last season?
DL: There’s a lot of people that have mentioned that game to us. In fact, we’re getting on the plane and Casey Rogers is talking about “hey, this game feels it feels like Washington State” and then right after that, we got it. He said that and we got an interception right afterwards. So it’s just really unique. How they both played out, I think both those games are games where we felt like we hurt ourselves and we were still able to overcome that but there’s gonna be a time where we play a team that we can’t do that. And you know, I’m glad like I said, I’m glad our players were really resilient. You know, each game, each team, each situation has a life of itself. And that game was certainly different. But there are some similarities.
Slide Bo! Slide!
Q: Bo Nix slid a couple of times where he could have got more yards. Is he making more of an effort to slide more to avoid injury?
DL: I think both being a smart decision-maker out there and there’s opportunities that he needs to get it. We sat down and watched some plays yesterday and he said, “I guess I could have gotten that one.” And we actually just talked through the slide rules. What’s the mechanics of the slide? The ground is it’s down when you slide versus how many yards you can gain. But no, I think he has an awareness of being smart, but I know this when Bo Nix needs to get the yard he’s gonna do everything he can to get the yard.
Defensive subs vs good matchups
Q: How did you feel about the volume of subs you guys are having on the defensive side throughout the game?
DL: There was a strategic piece to that. An offense that goes really fast when they substitute, you want to match this up and slow the game down. And there’s just a reality of when they saw you have an opportunity to sub as well. So we wanted to sub right in those opportunities. And what that did is it did pull some guys off the field at a time that would have been on the field more, and vice versa. You know, I think we’re always looking for more balance, but to be at a high level and play at a high level. It’s not necessarily not the snaps, it’s about what you do with the snaps. Again, we will continue to challenge our guys do a great job there.
Running game inconsistancies
Q: How do you run the ball better on first down in order to have more options on second down?
DL: I thought our efficiency in some runs was really good and our efficiency and other runs is really bad. And I thought that they had a great plan for a lot of our primary runs. We’ve had a lot of success in the past with our counter plays. I thought they had some good schematic answers for that. And then we got to be able to figure out where in the Rolodex we can answer because for us to be the team we want to be set up our play action shots and be able to move the ball, we’re going to run the ball. And at times, we didn’t do that as effective as we want to be able to do that on Saturday.
Going for two early in games
Q: Is there a specific reasoning for going to two early in both games so far?
DL: If you score two points, it’s more than one. And we found that when you have more points in the opponent, it gives you an opportunity to win. But no, I mean, if you look at it, we felt like it was something that we would have potentially on film. The play didn’t come out as clean as we really wanted it to come out. That being said, that paid off later on because they were chasing the two-point conversion later. We got the two-point stop. Right at some point one of those plays that we do for two it might not work and when it doesn’t, then I’ll have to defend that side of it as well.
Bucky's lack of touches in the fourth quarter
Q: Is there a specific reason Bucky Irving didn’t receive many touches in the fourth quarter?
DL: No, absolutely not. He’s a phenomenal player and he can touch the ball a bunch. I mean, we’re gonna play all of our backs. We have three really good backs. We use our backs. So no, he’ll continue to play for us. I don’t know exactly what his touches were in the fourth. You could probably tell me they have one carry in the fourth I don’t know. But I mean, Jordan’s are really good back, Noah is a really good back. Bucky embraces whatever role he’s in. I mean, that’s what makes Bucky phenomenal. So, we were going to use all the backs that can play for us at a really high level.
The importance of recruiting in Hawaii
Q: Can you talk about the importance of recruiting in Hawaii and possible satellite camps on the islands?
DL: I don’t know that we’ll ever be down there for a satellite camp. There’s just a long trip basically in a short amount of time, especially now with official visits and everything else that happens in June. But Hawaii will always be extremely important to us from a recruiting standpoint. And what’s great is we’ve had some great ambassadors that have played here at Oregon that are from Hawaii, and those players that have come here and given back to this program and put us on the map of that place and made it a place that a lot of players there want to come play here.
