It’s hard not to be in a good mood when the sun is shining and football is being played.

That was the overall vibe from Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning on Saturday afternoon following the team’s second spring practice of the year. The Ducks got after it, once again in no pads, putting in work to create consistency and develop good habits ahead of the regular season.

Lanning talked about what he’s looking for from his team as they go into spring break and are off for a couple of weeks, and how they can get better coming back. He also touched on the recruits in town, and what he’s liked from the first two days of practice so far.

Here are some of the most notable quotes from Lanning on Saturday.

Opening Statement

Lanning: “Good second day. You know we got more reps today, we pushed the tempo of practice a little bit more and some fatigue showed up, but you want to do that today before you get a little bit of a break because we’re about to have some time. So you really want to push guys’ bodies and you saw that, you see our guys responded to fatigue. It was good day at work. Guys worked really hard. And it was certainly a positive.”

Interior DL

Question: This year you have a lot more depth on the interior defensive line than you did a year ago. How does that impact the way that you guys can practice?

Lanning: “I mean, really similar to what I said last practice, we’re able to do two spot practices now, we’re able to have basically practices on two fields, get a lot of guys reps and ready. And that’s what it takes. To get better at football, you got to play football. So having guys out there that can rotate where it’s not just about conditioning, but it’s about the technique that’s starting to show up.”

Spring Break Mindset

Question: What do you stress to these guys as far as mindset over the next couple of weeks away from practice?

Lanning: “You gotta be disciplined, right? You got to be great decision-makers. You know, have a mind on what you’re doing and how you’re attacking it. We have a plan for these guys over the next two weeks. They have to execute the plan, right? It’s where ownership takes place.”

Early Enrollees

Question: How are some of the new enrollees transitioning so far?

Lanning: “Yeah, I think they’re handling it really well. I think we had a great transition team too when it goes with the prep with school and football. We got a great group of coaches. We have a detailed plan with what we do so those guys have handled it well.

More Additions

Question: Do you guys expect some more additions on the roster once you come back from the break?

Lanning: “Yeah, we’ll see a few more. I don’t have an exact number but we’ll see a few more guys come back after spring break when the next term starts.”

New Normal

Question: Do you feel like that’s a new normal with guys coming here for spring ball and enrolling early?

Lanning: “It’s probably the new norm in college football, right I think it’s probably the new norm and college football there’s gonna continue to be change and some guys will come some guys will go but we’re always going to do everything we can to enhance our program. You want guys here as fast as you can. That’s not always going to happen. There’s some guys that we’d love that we could have here early, but the more you can get here early. It’s like having an additional redshirt year for guys that are brand new.”

Junior and Jestin

Question: Do you have an update on Junior Angilau and Jestin Jacobs? They both had season-ending injuries last year where are they at now?

Lanning: “Junior is limited. Jestin’s been able to do really everything with us come spring ball.”

Evan Williams

Question: Bennett Williams said he thinks Evan Williams will step into a leadership role with the Ducks. Have you seen that so far?

Lanning: “I’ve been really pleased with what he’s looked like so far. I don’t think he’s been extremely boisterous, but his actions have spoken really loud and it’s you know, it’s preparedness when he gets on the field. He’s willing to ask questions, and then ultimately, he runs really hard to the ball and that solves a lot of problems.”

Punter Competition

Question: What do you look for in the ongoing punter competition this spring?

Lanning: “Yeah, consistency and then it’s different when you start to see some pressure too, right? It’s easier to kick on air than it is to kick when somebody’s running in your face. And we have to create some of those moments.”

Practices Before Break

Question: What is the strategy behind having two practices before the team goes on break and then coming back?

Lanning: “For us, it’s about spacing, right? You’d like to go Tuesday, Thursday Saturday for practices, but we don’t want to go into May because we have a recruiting window in May that we want to go get our coaches out in May and then you know, truly it’s kind of gives a build up. I think it makes our players think about this a little bit on spring break, rather than rolling and we did a lot of walkthroughs going in. But yeah, just more than anything is timing with where the recruiting windows fall.

Commits Taking Visits

Question: What is your philosophy on players who are committed to Oregon continuing to take visits to other schools?

Lanning: “Yeah, there’s a lot of… I mean, I think each situation is different. Certainly, we love having committed players be committed to us and not take trips to other places, but they need to know where they’re going when it’s all said and done and they have to have a great feel for that. It’s our job to continue to recruit them to be here. You know, like I said before, I probably wasn’t my wife’s first choice, but over time, I won her over. We have to do the same thing when it comes to recruiting, and just continue to keep doing that same thing.”

Coming Together

Question: With so many new coaches and players, how have you seen everyone come together so far?

Lanning: “It’s a process. It’s over time. You know, we’re not there yet. Right? But we have time to get there. And that’s the benefit. You know, it’s practices that are hard that gets us there, right. You got to you got to share some hard moments and then spend time together outside of football.”

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire