Oregon Ducks Football: Can We Trust Dan Lanning?

[FishDuck Article]

Dan Lanning is Oregon’s new head coach for the immediate future. Heading into bowl season, he has one 9-3 season so far under his belt with the Ducks, and now looks to cap off what looked to be a promising campaign with a solid bowl win against the North Carolina Tarheels...

 

Oregon Ducks Football: Can We Trust Dan Lanning?

FISHDUCK.COM

---

Dan Lanning is Oregon's new head coach for the immediate future. Heading into bowl season, he has one 9-3 season so far under his belt with...

 

[HappyToBeADuck]

Fun topic to consider and ponder...

 

My confidence in Coach Lanning is as high today as it was when Oregon hired him. The story of DL as a head coach is just being written. DL salvaged an imploding 2022 recruiting class, brought key transfers into the program who produced at a high level and can hit 10 wins. Many on this Forum thought 8-4 would be difficult to achieve in season one. DL exceeded those expectations.

 

Recruiting expectations, both high school and portal are very high. I guess we will have our answers for 2023 in the next few months. DL and staff have a tall task to field a better than average defense. Immediate playing time for recruits and transfers should be appealing.

 

As for in game coaching decisions my confidence is high medium. This Duck fan is very disappointed that a 10-2 or 11-1 regular season was not achieved. Disappointed that the Ducks did not reach the PAC Title game and at a minimum a Rose Bowl invite. CK set the bar high by laying the foundation for NY6 bowls and Natty game appearances. MC reached and won PAC Titles and NY6 bowls. That to me is the Oregon standard. 
 

Poor coaching and player execution in the last 20 minutes of the regular season derailed all of that. Just one more Oregon first down or one (just one) 3rd or 4th down stop against Beavus and we make the RB. That was an epic meltdown on a national stage with everything on the line. It tarnished my confidence but not enough to be down on DL or staff. If that repeats in 2023, well?

 

When it's within your grasp and your goals can be achieved, the great coaches capture the prize. We have Utah and Washington on the road and no Georgia on the schedule in 2023. If the Ducks fail to win the PAC my confidence will drop going forward....... Not my love for the Ducks, just my confidence in DL.

 

My confidence in DL staying is high. He stayed at Georgia to finish the season. Yes the stakes were as high as they get. Thats more that can be said for Slick, MC (most of his staff) and Dilly. However, its a new world and anything can happen. Any SEC team can offer a HC $8 million per year and come calling at anytime.
 

To me, DL has a track record of finishing what he starts. My expectatation is that after the 2023 PAC Title game, DL's head coaching record should be 22-4. And off to the CFP. That kind of success will bring DL some very tempting, high paying offers.

[Haywarduck]

I think perspective is critical. Dan Lanning has been a head coach for 1 season, that's it. This was like a 5* freshman player taking the reins at both QB and Middle Linebacker, he did pretty well I would say. 

 

I am not really going to rate him other than say there are areas of concern, but overall Dan Lanning has shown the foundation a great coach can launch from.

 

My take is Lanning is learning how to run all elements of a football program. The responsibilities of a head coach of elite football are massive. I think a weakness of Lanning was he was too hands off, but that is how an excellent CEO does things. You hire good people, give them a framework within to work, and let them do their thing.  

 

Always making the decisions about in game shifts wasn't something Lanning controlled. We saw that happen the last few years, and the offense was stifled. The head coaches shadow was all over the program, and that shadow didn't allow growth.

 

The question I have is can Lanning manage the disfunction within the defensive coaching group? This is where the true test will come from. Can he make the coaching changes needed to bring chaos, instead of the prevent we have seen so far.

 

My bet he has made another great hire at OC and will let him run the show. At defense, can he tweak it enough to give us what we want. As a freshman coach I was thrilled with what I saw, and continue to see. 

 

A true winner, which I think Lanning is, gets excited when they see failure, and disfunction. The question is can we trust Lanning to deal with this failure? I give him my complete trust, but expect more failure, and issues as the freshman goes through his sophomore season.

 

I did find this article about  how Saban deals with coaches, and takes responsibility interesting. I imagine Lanning deals with in game decisions in a very similar way.

 

Nick Saban not Placing Blame on Coordinators after Crimson Tide's Recent Struggles - Sports Illustrated Alabama Crimson Tide News, Analysis and More

WWW.SI.COM

---

The Alabama head coach said each person has to be held accountable for their role, but that the ultimate responsibility falls back on him.

 

[Ktmguy2018]

On 12/17/2022 at 3:39 AM, HappyToBeADuck said:

CK set the bar high by laying the foundation for NY6 bowls and Natty game appearances. MC reached and won PAC Titles and NY6 bowls. That to me is the Oregon standard.

Agreed!  What I have to remind myself about CK is that he had the opportunity to be the OC for two years before taking over for Bellotti.  

 

That's like getting to drive a Ferrari for two years before deciding if you want to buy it!!

 

DL didn't get those two years at Oregon before taking the reins so he gets a bit of grace from me...I am sure he will sleep easier knowing that

 

I have a feeling that DL will create a new level for the program.  Just call it a hunch.

[Mudslide]

Perspective must be embraced.  If 2 or 3 bold decisions in challenging situations had turned out differently (e.g. the One Play Thompson, 4th down vs. the beavs) we would have cheered him as a gunslinging football savior who completely erased the sour memory of MC.  Further, we'd be wringing our hands about him leaving to coach Alabama in a year.

There are no guarantees for winning in football.  Other teams can present matchup difficulties, are have their best game against the Ducks, or are simply better teams than our beloved Ducks.  Perfection in football is almost as rare as a unicorn.  DL tried some things that didn't work.  He also tried a lot of things that certainly did.  Let's give it a measure.  I'm going with 99% good to great and 1% oops to yetch.  How would you grade his overall work?

 

I want DL to be our Ducks' coach...and for a long time.  I also want a more attacking defense.  Hopefully that comes in year 2.  I want a natty for our boys.  But then...I want a new 77" tv for Christmas....but the missus says "Nyet".  So one can't have everything.  Can one?  Nevertheless, I have a nice 8 year old 58" plasma in the meantime.  (Unless I accidentally break it, heh heh.)

 

GO DUCKS! 

[1Ducker1]

Offensively Lanning was great in my book -offensive plays go bad for every team incl Georgia. The D was very much a disappointment for me but Im not throwing the towel in yet. I like the guy and he's a great face for Duck football -I like his energy. I just wish he could put our LBs in a better space to help with the run D.

[Mic]

Again, to answer the original question: We kinda have to, don't we?

 

Dan's the H.C. for the foreseeable future, did pretty well in his first season as the H.C., is young enough to be still developing (not an old set in his ways coach like Kirk Ferentz of Iowa) so there's still plenty of up-side potential here.  Nothing we've seen other than some rookie mistakes leads us to believe he won't be a successful coach at Oregon.  So yeah, we trust him - until such a time as he should prove otherwise.  Go Ducks!

[WiseKwacker]

Interesting article, Alex. In answer to your question, my opinion is simple: "Heck, yeah, I trust Dan Lanning."

 

My summation of this season is as follows: The team played way above my expectations after the opening game blow-out loss against Georgia. Then, Bo Nix got injured against the Huskies. The Ducks consequently lost that game. And, after an amazing win against Utah, the Ducks--with a still-gimpy Nix--lost a heart-breaker to the Beavers. 

 

From my perspective, if Bo stays healthy this year, the Ducks would've been in the CFP. I think their porous defense would've resulted in a blowout loss in the semifinals, though, so I'm happy with the Holiday Bowl as a building block for the new coach.

[PittDuck]

Great article Alex, one that is generating even greater discussion, thanks!

 

I agreed with the points you made as well as the outstanding comments above.  However, the question is not really about can we trust DL, because, as mentioned above, not only do we have no choice, our trust makes no difference.

 

The question should be do we have confidence in DL?  All of the comments I am reading points to a resounding yes, for a multitude of well articulated reasons (see above).

 

As a long-time Duck homer, I am fully confident DL can and will continue to get better.  (He is too young and too capable not to.). For the same reasons, I also believe his in-game coaching will continue to improve.   
 

I am confident we will see a 10-2 or 11-1 season next year.  But I will also say that I will continue to root for OBD and their coaches even if they face-plant into a 2-10 season.

[Just Ducky]

On 12/17/2022 at 12:34 PM, WiseKwacker said:

Interesting article, Alex. In answer to your question, my opinion is simple: "Heck, yeah, I trust Dan Lanning."

 

My summation of this season is as follows: The team played way above my expectations after the opening game blow-out loss against Georgia. Then, Bo Nix got injured against the Huskies. The Ducks consequently lost that game. And, after an amazing win against Utah, the Ducks--with a still-gimpy Nix--lost a heart-breaker to the Beavers. 

 

From my perspective, if Bo stays healthy this year, the Ducks would've been in the CFP. I think their porous defense would've resulted in a blowout loss in the semifinals, though, so I'm happy with the Holiday Bowl as a building block for the new coach.

 You took the words straight out of my pie hole Mr Kwacker. I’m sure our defense would of been exposed by any of the teams in the playoffs. Although I would have loved a Rose Bowl  I think we are better off where we are. I trust Lanning will keep this thing going up the hill. Most importantly we don’t have MarinoO any more and I trust DL to make us forget all about him.

[Mic]

On 12/17/2022 at 2:51 PM, Just Ducky said:

 Most importantly we don’t have MarinoO any more and I trust DL to make us forget all about him.

Haven't we already? 

[Duckhart]

Sure, the trust is there as he and staff put together a really nice season. 

It will be this year however that we should se some improvement in the defense, after all it is his wheel house. Yep, it'll take a few years to see Lanning's defense evolve if it's going too. I worry about just how good.                                  the DC is when recruiting parents in the home, seems a bit rough around the edges. If we are able to get high level recruits here for opportunities to sell Oregon's program and don't seem to be doing so after this year and such, then we have to figure out why we aren't closing on players.