Dan Lanning talks offensive excellence, defensive physicality after win over PSU
After over a month of talking about growth, development, competition, and connection, there was finally football to talk about on Saturday afternoon.
The Oregon Ducks set a program scoring record by putting 81 points on the board against the Portland State Vikings. After allowing an early touchdown to the visiting team, the defense pitched a shutout and looked dominant.
Of course, against a lesser opponent like Portland State, that is the expectation.
After the game, Dan Lanning was excited about how the team looked, but eager to get back to work, watching film and preparing for a big game next week against Texas Tech.
Here are some of the best quotes from Lanning’s post-game press conference on Saturday
Opening Statement
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Lanning: “All right. I hear the Duck is still doing push-ups. But it’s a good day out there today, got to see us execute at a high level. You know, that’s the expectation for us. We talk about it’s a standard. That’s how we measure ourself is based on the standard not necessarily on the scoreboard. Certainly some things that we can clean up and things that we can improve on. But overall it was you know, glad to see Autzen bouncing today, had great energy from the crowd. Got a lot of players some experience it’s going to be definitely needed throughout the season.”
Penalties
Question: Only 2 penalties today, how do you guys feel like you did operationally?
Lanning: “Yeah, I’ll have to go back and look at a few things. But you know, ultimately, we talked about not having any pre-snap or any post-snap penalties in this game, and I thought there was one that was really, you know, poor on our part. Some aggressive penalties might happen in between the whistles, but ultimately I thought the operational piece was pretty smooth.”
Portland State
James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
Question: How do you feel like you guys got better today?
Lanning: “We got to play another team that we can go out there and tackle break blocks, you know, make blocks and get off blocks. You know, I think anytime you get a chance to play football against somebody else, it gives you an opportunity to improve. And again, we talked about we aren’t really measuring our standard based on the scoreboard. We’re measuring based on our standard, right and I think at times, you saw a team that met that standard. I think we’re gonna go back and look at the film and see some things that we can definitely do better. So any day that you play football, it’s a good day for us.”
QB Play
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Question: How do you think the QBs played today?
Lanning: “Yeah, when you operate with efficiency and you take care of the ball, I think obviously good things can happen right? We did a good job taking care of the ball today. I thought we called plays that allowed us to get completions, right. And a lot of times you can let the wide outs and the tight ends and the backs do things with the ball after they get it. So when we’re operating at a high level from that standpoint, you’re gonna see success on offense.”
Bryce Boettcher
Question: What has Bryce Boettcher shown you in fall camp to earn the starting nod today?
Lanning: “Yeah, I have to go back and watch the film to see exactly how we performed in the game but Bryce has been really productive through our football scrimmages through our practices. He’s a guy that loves Oregon. It means a little bit to him stepping on that field. I think you see that in the way that he plays, right. So he’s earned that right, he’s earned that opportunity, but he knows he has to battle for it every day.”
Defensive Bounce Back
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Question: After the early TD from PSU, the defense bounced back and pitched a shutout. What went into the turnaround?
Lanning: “Yeah, we had two critical errors in that drive. Made a really bad execution in the red area on that touchdown. You know, but ultimately, I think what you saw is when you don’t do your job, bad things can happen. We had a couple guys not do their job early in that series. It led to a long drive and I think we all settle down after that and realize, ‘Hey, all I gotta do is my part, my 1/11th and the rest will take care of itself.’”
Offensive Line
Question: With so many new faces on the OL, how do you feel about their performance today?
Lanning: “Y’all have to go back and watch the film. I mean, obviously we’re able to run the ball well today. I’m more concerned about how we’re finishing on every play. Are we chasing the ball? What’s the finish look like? Where we get movement the way we need to get up front but overall, I thought you saw a lot of guys out there played up at a high level.”
Iron Sharpens Iron
Question: This offense has to go up against the defense every week in practice. Do you think that helped them get ready for this type of performance today?
Lanning: “They play off of each other right? Iron sharpens iron in practice. I think we’ve certainly had some good back and forth in fall camp. But I think everybody in that locker room right now knows that they’re not satisfied with the result and there’s some places that we can do better. I expect us to operate with that sort of efficiency throughout the year. But I also know we’re gonna play some teams that are gonna make it difficult for us to operate that way in the future. So we got to work to keep challenging ourselves and making sure that our standard is the secret to our success.”
Emar'rion Winston
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Question: What has Emar’rion Winston shown you this fall camp to give him the starting roll today?
Lanning: “He’s a playmaker that’s smart and understands his role and takes his job really serious. He does the extra work, you know, he’s done a lot this offseason. I don’t think anybody in our program was surprised to see him out on the field for us because of the way that he works every single day in practice.”
Noah Whittington
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Question: Noah Whittington didn’t play after warming up today. Was there a reason for that?
Lanning: “Yeah, no, I’m not gonna talk about anybody that didn’t play today, but Noah does everything right for us. He’s doing a good job. We’re just gonna be smart with our players.”
Getting Ready for Texas Tech
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Question: The Texas Tech game is starting here soon. Are you encouraging players to watch that here and get ready for next week?
Lanning: “I want our team to get off their feet. We’re gonna go decimate and break through that information for them so they can go get it. I certainly want to be able to sit down and watch this game and get an idea of what we’re about to face. I know it’s a really good team. And they have a quarterback that when he starts, they win. I know they’re really good at home. So it’s going to be a really tough challenge going there to Lubbock, it’s a good environment. I know they’re coming off a road game when they come back. So I’m excited to sit down and be able to evaluate it, we’ll start breaking them down as soon as we can.”
True Freshmen
Question: A total of 23 true freshmen played today. How do you feel like they all did?
Lanning: “Well, what I did see today, what I did see in the fall is that it was a group that wants to compete. And they understood that if they step on the field, they’re viewed no different than a starter, right? There’s a standard of excellence that we expect and I think a lot of guys are trying to perform to that level. The only you’re gonna get better football is playing, right? So some of those guys get out there, getting that early experience, those are gonna be guys we’re relying on later on the season. Those are guys we’ll be relying on every single game so it’s good for them to get, you know, some early opportunities out there in the field. We’ll see what they do with it going forward.”
Gary Bryant Jr.
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Question: Gary Bryant Jr. had a big game, what did you make of his performance?
Lanning: “Yeah, I think he caught the ball well, you know. Ultimately part of what makes it work for the quarterback is when guys have a ball thrown their way they can catch it, right? And we have some guys that caught the ball well, and when they got the ball in their hands, they’re able to create some yards after catch. I don’t think you’ll go out there and say any of those throws or routes we’re asking these guys to run they were remarkably tough, it’s just about doing simple things better. Those guys did simple better today. Punt returner with Tez, he fielded the ball. You know, that’s kind of our expectation, and one was a little bit close to there. He probably could have thought twice about fielding, but I’m glad that he’s able to get some additional yards.”
Ty Thompson
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Question: What did you make of Ty Thompson’s performance today?
Lanning: “I think that’s a sign of what Ty’s capable of, right? Because Ty performed exactly how we expected him to perform today. He did a really good job, like I said I think first started his first drive off 3-for-3, was really efficient and made some tough runs, played with some toughness at quarterback which we loved to see. And I think he proved everybody that can operate in this offense really well.”
81 Points
Question: The 81 points were a program record today. Does that mean anything to you?
Lanning: “I mean, not really. I’m not I’m not concerned — we won the game. I’m glad we won the game. I’m not really, you know, in for stats, right? I’m in for W’s, right, and wins and, you know, wins for us come based on performance. I want to go back and evaluate the film and see where we could perform better. That’s what we really want to evaluate. We’re not interested in winning ‘who had the best scoring offense last year, or scoring defense.’ We’re interested in winning games that’s our that’s our objective.”
Bo Nix
Question: We haven’t talked about Bo Nix yet. How do you feel he performed in this offense?
Lanning: “Yeah, ultimately, I thought Bo did a good job. He took care of the ball. You know, I don’t think we connected maybe on some of our deeper shots today, like we have in the past. I think we are getting a rhythm there. But overall, Bo ran the offense well. He got to a third down there early in the game, we were kind of in the back and forth, and was able to convert on third. But yeah, I think that there’s some moments there but Bo did everything we expect him to do. Our challenge is what’s gonna look like when we play a team that matches up well with us and I think we’re gonna see some of those coming forward.”
Special Teams
Question: There were several touchbacks today, and one long punt. How do you think the special teams performed in general?
Lanning: “Yeah, I thought our first kick wasn’t great. And we had a couple, a few location issues on some of our kickoffs. Camden did a really good job on field goal. I want to see us continue to improve, you know, improve in the areas of our locations and where we get the ball kicked. The one punt that we had, I thought Ross had a great kick. We’ve got to get better coverage on that unit, we had bullets did a good job getting down the field but I’m want to see the rest of the punt unit get down and feel better.”
Secondary Meshing
Photo Courtesy of Ethan Landa
Question: The secondary meshed pretty well today with a lot of new faces. How do you think they performed?
Lanning: “I don’t know if they really got tested today, right? You know, they did a good job communicating, I thought we saw a good communication from those guys, but I don’t know what they ever had an opportunity where they really got tested. So I think, you know, that’s still set to come, right? We’re not interested in reading the press clippings of this game, it’s about the future and we have some good players out there but we have to be able to execute at a high level moving forward. And again, we’re gonna play some really good teams moving forward.”
Coaching Improvement
(Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Question: From last year post game 1 to this year post game 1, how do you feel you’ve improved the most as a coach?
Lanning: “The verdict’s still out. We’ve got a lot of games to play, right? There’s still a lot of time and certainly a lot of room for me to continue to get better and our program to get a lot better. So we’ll wait to vote on that until the season’s over with.”
Tyler Shough
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Question: You guys have a lot of proprietary information on the QB for next week beyond game film, with RPMs, and various metrics from when he was in Eugene.
Lanning: I don’t know what… RPM’s, what do you mean?
Reporter: Like how fast the ball releases.
Lanning: I don’t think we measure that at practice.
Reporter: Well Nate Costa did when he was here.
Lanning: I got you, I’ll have to call Nate. I haven’t looked at how fast he throws the ball, but I know this, he’s a winner. I’ll let you ask the rest of your question.
Question: How much do these things help you if at all?
Lanning: “Yeah, I mean, here’s what I know. He’s a good quarterback. They play really well when he’s in the game. I think he has complete control. He has the ability to make checks at the line of scrimmage. They’re gonna play a different brand of football where they actually get the ball out on the perimeter and they have some talent wideout that they can take advantage of. But they’re also up into 12 and 11 personnel. I think it’d be interesting to see what kind of team they look like this year. They’ve got a lot of the parts back. I don’t know what the RPMs are, but I know plays quarterback well.”
