Around the Big Ten: Dan Lanning goes viral, Jason Kelce apologizes for incident

The No. 1 Oregon Ducks are making headlines for more than just their performances on the field.

Oregon's latest viral moment came from a usual suspect: coach Dan Lanning, whose Gladiator-inspired motivational tool has some fans and former players ready to run through a brick wall.

Elsewhere around the Big Ten: a cell phone-spiking incident involving Jason Kelce, and Urban Meyer's pick for national coach of the year.

Each week throughout the season, The Oregonian/OregonLive is sharing the stories we're reading and watching from around the Big Ten.

'All day, it's thumbs down'

Lanning has pulled out some unique motivational tools for the Ducks this season, and it has paid off. This past week in the lead-up to the road game at Michigan, the Oregon coach likened their trip to the Big House to pieces of Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech.

Oregon also watched the 2000 classic starring Russell Crowe, "Gladiator," and utilized the thumbs down celebration throughout the game as it showed no mercy to the Wolverines in a 38-17 win . Clips of Lanning behind the scenes of the Michigan game, which came from Oregon's weekly "Ducks vs. Them" docuseries, went viral as a result.

'I chose to greet hate with hate'

Speaking of viral moments, former Eagles center Jason Kelce had one of his own over the weekend, spiking a fan's cell phone at the Ohio State vs. Penn State game after the fan called Jason's brother and podcast partner Travis a homophobic slur. While the Internet largely came together in Kelce's defense after he reacted to the fan's heinous behavior, Kelce apologized for repeating the slur back at the fan in the heated moments after he spiked the phone.

"I think everybody has seen on social media what happened this week," Kelce, now an ESPN NFL analyst, said on the Monday Night Football pregame broadcast. "Listen, I'm not happy with anything that took place. I'm not proud of it. In a heated moment I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don't think that's a productive thing, I really don't. I don't think it leads to discourse and it's the right way to go about things. In that moment I fell down to a level that I shouldn't have."

Cig lighting it up

All-time great Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer has his pick for national coach of the year in 2024, and it's far from a controversial one. Meyer believes that Indiana's Curt Cignetti — who has led the undefeated Hoosiers to a No. 8 ranking in the projected College Football Playoff field — deserves the award.

Meyer pointed to the spread in the Indiana-Michigan game as a prime example of how far the program has come.

"And I'm going to talk about this because they're playing each other: Who would've thought, 365 (days) removed from the worst team in the Big Ten, they're playing the best team in the Big Ten a year ago, and they're a 14.5-point favorite," Meyer said.

Iowa QB remains sidelined

Despite their recent success, the Iowa Hawkeyes are still on the mend. Previous starting quarterback Cade McNamara remains out with a concussion this Friday against UCLA, making way for replacement Brendan Sullivan to remain under center.

Sullivan has played well, leading the Hawkeyes to a 42-10 win over Wisconsin this past weekend. Iowa has won both games since McNamara went down, and done so in convincing fashion, so it won't likely be in a rush to make another quarterback change.

Wisconsin abandons its identity?

National reporters are starting to wonder what has happened to Wisconsin under coach Luke Fickell. The team is 5-4, and a blowout loss to Iowa has inspired big questions from fans and reporters alike. These are not your father's Badgers, some have pointed out.

The Athletic's Scott Dochterman was among those leveling criticism, saying Wisconsin is "forfeiting" its identity of hard-nosed defense and winning games in the trenches on both sides of the ball, leading to adverse results. Tough place to be in with top-ranked Oregon coming to Madison next week.

No. 1 Oregon (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) vs. Maryland (4-4, 1-4)

When: Saturday, Nov. 9

Time:

Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene

TV channel: Big Ten Network

Stream: Watch this game live for FREE with Fubo (free trial) or with DirecTV Stream (free trial) with the "Sports Extra" package (cheapest streaming plans), which is $25 off for the first month if you add the "Sports Extra" package that includes Big Ten Network, SEC Network and a few other sports channels. You can also watch this game live on Fox Sports Live with your cable or satellite provider login information.

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