Dan Lanning's pregame speech adds spice to Ducks rout of Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes

Between his fiery pregame speech and little bit of snark during his halftime interview, Oregon coach Dan Lanning was in rare form Saturday.

His team was as well.

With the college football world watching, No. 10 Oregon delivered a dominant and unifying performance after spending the past week trying to avoid the trappings of hosting an opponent immersed in hype and hysteria.

The Ducks dumped No. 19 Colorado and their popular coach Deion Sanders 42-6 at Autzen Stadium to improve to 4-0 for just the second time since 2014.

Much to the delight of most of the crowd of 59,889, the game was never competitive as the previously undefeated Buffaloes (3-1) were no match against Oregon in any phase of the game.

“I think we did exceptional,” quarterback Bo Nix said. “From the start, we were prepared, we knew the moment was going to be really big, we knew the occasion was going to be really big, but we just wanted to go out there and play like ourselves.”

The day began with ESPN camera’s catching Lanning’s pregame locker room speech, clips of which immediately went viral.

“The Cinderella story is over, man,” Lanning was recorded telling his team. “They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins. There’s a difference, right? This game ain’t going to be played in Hollywood, it’s going to be played on the grass.”

About an hour before the game on Saturday, Sanders emerged from the visitor’s locker room wearing a white sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head and sunglasses as he walked the perimeter of the field surrounded by an entourage of videographers, photographers, security and others, stopping only in the west end zone where he appeared to banter with former Ducks receiver Keanon Lowe.

The NFL Hall of Famer and media star has brought an unprecedented level of excitement and eye balls to Boulder where he has taken a 1-11 team from 2022 and turned them into a top-20 program. Their game against Colorado State last week averaged 9.3 millions viewers, making it the fifth-most watched game on ESPN of all-time.

Saturday, after Oregon took a 35-0 first-half lead, Lanning told ABC sideline reporter Katie George, “We’re not done yet. We’re not satisfied. I hope all those people that have been watching (Colorado) every week are watching this week.”

Lanning attempted to show some contrition and add some context to his comments.

“I get a little passionate at times,” he said. “I get a little excited about what I want to accomplish for our team and I just want to say, I need to humble myself a little bit. This is one game, and I’m not satisfied. So as I just told our players, we’re about to go play great quarterbacks, we’re about to go play great teams moving forward and it’s about how great we can become.”

Lanning praised his players for handling the hype with poise and staying focused. He also said that type of pregame speech is hardly new.

“We’ll always have a message for our team,” he said. “Sometimes it’s to get them fired up, sometimes we don’t necessarily need the brimstone. … There is no speech that wins games. Players win games. Our players went out there and won the game, and our players went out there and executed.”

When asked about the pregame speech, safety Evan Williams said, “Which one?”

He then noted that Lanning, “knows how to get us hyped up. He’s a master at what he does. We know that every time we step on the field he has our backs and we have his. Anytime someone like that is getting fired up for you guys, it’s going to be a big moment. That speech got us all fired up, but I think we were all ready for the moment.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Dan Lanning pregame speech hypes Ducks before Colorado game