Dan Lanning would 'love' to continue playing Oregon State in future
looks to finish out their regular season with a win over Oregon State Dan Lanning touched on whether this will be the final time the Ducks and the Beavers meet.
Oregon is moving to the Big Ten. While teams like Washington and Washington State have worked out a deal to continue playing their rivalry showdown , Oregon and Oregon State haven’t done anything like that yet.
However, Lanning doesn’t believe in saying never. He spoke to the possibility in a press conference earlier this week.
“Yeah, I think games like this are really important. It’d be great if that’s something we could make happen, and continue to make happen,” Lanning said . “I know the people on our end would love to see that continue.”
That’s be pretty awesome if both programs could broker a deal. The Ducks facing the Beavers is always an awesome showdown, and it’d be a shame to miss out on it.
With all the hype surrounding Lanning, one has to wonder if he’ll be the man to lead the Ducks into the future, where the game is still up in the air. While he’s said he doesn’t want to coach anywhere else, we’ve seen coaches have their minds changed time and time again.
On3’s Andy Staples brought on Justin Hopkins of ScoopDuck as his guest on the Andy Staples On3 Podcast to go over the matter.
Other programs across the nation have taken notice of the job Lanning has done with the Ducks, making his name a hot commodity during this year’s coaching carousel. But what makes the head coaching position at Oregon so appealing for Lanning? According to Hopkins, the Ducks don’t have as many chiefs as other programs across the nation.
“Everybody knows Phil Knight’s a massive booster for Oregon,” said Hopkins. “He’s done tremendous things for the university. There’s a lot of joy, if you’re Dan Lanning or a head coach that says, look, I kind of only have to answer the one or two or three boosters here. I don’t have 100 guys or 100 egos all demanding answers from me or demanding my attention or whatnot. It’s just me and Phil and a few guys. That’s nice for a head coach.
“You don’t have to have your hand out all the time and shaking hands and doing all these things. I think there’s a lot of attraction there.”
Of course, Oregon is Lanning’s first head coaching opportunity. It’s not often that a first-time head coach gets an opportunity to head one of the top programs among Power-5 schools.
Since becoming the head coach last offseason, after helping to lead Georgia to the first of two national championships as defensive coordinator, Lanning has impressed with a 20-4 record as the Ducks’ headman.
Hopkins credits Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens for not only bringing in the young, talented defensive coordinator to the program but also allowing him to do so freely and comfortably.
