Dan Lanning Feels Everything Exists At Oregon To Win A Championship

By 750 THE GAME STAFF

The world of college football is changing every single day, but for the Oregon Ducks they have a big constant. That is head coach Dan Lanning. Lanning has been pursued by other high profile jobs but has remained true to his word and stayed at Oregon.

Fox Sports college football lead analyst Joel Klatt caught up with Lanning and talked to the 38 year old head coach about why he stayed at Oregon and many other things.

Klatt asked Lanning why he stayed at Oregon when other jobs including the Alabama job became available. It is unknown if Lanning was offered the position at Alabama, but Lanning says Oregon was the easy decision.

“I think it’s more about what exists here (Oregon).  For me, this is the first time in my career I feel like I can be somewhere for a really really long time for my family, and that’s probably number one. I think I told you before my kids have lived in eight states. I also can never for granted that Oregon took a chance on me and that means a lot to me. There’s things I want to accomplish here that I want to accomplish here yet that I feel indebted to this program and to the people that support this program.”

When going into a college football season there seems to be only a few teams that have a legitimate chance at winning a championship. That number may grow a tiny bit because of the expanded CFP, but Klatt thinks Oregon is one of them. Lanning was asked what makes Oregon a program that can win a championship.

“There’s so many people that have put so much into this place. Whether it’s our administration, whether it’s our student athletes that beleive in this place, or our fans. They’ve created an experience here at Oregon that’s really unique. I’m lucky that I get to be a part of that and keep the train on the tracks. To accomplish a championship is so hard. It takes a lot of things working the right way, but it also takes a level of skill. It takes talent, it takes a team, and I think all of those things can exist here.”

Oregon has had some great recruiting classes in the past, but Lanning has taken recruiting to another level in this new age of college football. Klatt asked Lanning how he has done that and also how Lanning has built a culture at Oregon that seems like it will survive the transfer portal.

“You have to have players that want to be here. So you have to create an environment that they enjoy being a part of, and you have to make sure that they are taken care of and they’re able to create opportunities for themselves. When I think about why I came to Oregon in the first place. This place has always been on the cutting edge, innovative. Never felt like they have been operating from behind. They made a decision to be ahead of the curve. So when that (NIL) became part of the landscape for college football I feel like they made the decision let’s figure out how we can do this better than anybody else, and you have to know to compete at this level.”

The third year Ducks head coach seems like he is ready for the season and the future in Eugene. Oregon opens up the season playing Idaho at Autzen Stadium on August 31. Kickoff for that game will be at 4:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Listen to the full interview between Joel Klatt and Dan Lanning by clicking the podcast below.

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