Dan Lanning Is Happy With His Oregon Ducks Team This Spring
By 750 THE GAME STAFF
The Oregon Ducks spring game is almost here. It will be the first time we see Oregon playing since their Fiesta Bowl win over Liberty. But it’s a completely different team from last year.
There is a lot of pressure on Oregon as they head to the Big 10 in coach Dan Lanning’s third season. There has been some criticism of Lanning not being able to win the big game in his short Ducks career and he is working hard this spring with his team to try and get over the hump.
Lanning joined the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano to talk about his team so far in the spring. Lanning has to replace his quarterback in Bo Nix. The Ducks brought in Dillon Gabriel from Oklahoma and Dante Moore from UCLA to help replace Nix. Lanning says everybody has to hit the ground running, but he is excited seeing the growth out of his quarterbacks.
“Dante (Moore) and Dillon (Gabriel) coming in. Luke Moga is a freshman coming in. They got to grow up really fast,” Lanning said on 750 The Game. “Spring ball is a little bit different than a walk-through. You’re practicing, going full speed against a defense that’s trying to get home every single second. I’ve been really happy with the way these guys have handled the speed of the game. Certainly some more opportunities to improve, but the experience I think really pays off for guys like Dillon and Dante and what they’ve been able to go through already.”
Three potential first round picks for the Oregon Ducks on offense this past season is a lot of talent for any program, but Lanning says he loves what he see on the offensive side out of his players so far this spring.
“You lose a guy like Troy Franklin and you think what’s our wide receiver core going to look like?,” Lanning said. “And I think that they’re executing at a higher level. There’s a lot of positions that are doing really well. Our running backs have looked good out there. Tight ends have looked really good. I feel good about our team. I feel like we have a good team. It’s just about becoming a team then obviously when you get to the season to stay healthy.”
It’s still the offseason even though we are coming up on the spring game. Lanning talked about what he and his coaches are working on when it comes to recruiting.
“I think what you can teach is what the extra is,” said Lanning. “Everybody that recruits makes phone calls. Everybody sends text messages. It’s about teaching what’s on that phone call. Like what’s that conversation look like? We spend time on that. We spend time on what’s your letter look like. What kind of questions are you asking. So yeah, I think you can teach some of those details. What’s hard to teach is hard work. If you don’t have hard work it’s probably not going to show up.”
The Ducks spring game is scheduled for Saturday, April 27 at 1 p.m. at Autzen Stadium.
Listen to the full interview with Dan Lanning by clicking the podcast below. Catch the Bald Faced Truth with John Caznano weekdays 3-6 p.m. in Portland exclusively on 750 The Game.
