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Wasson: Oregon’s Dan Lanning building a West Athens-style winning machine
By David Wasson
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The tremendous amount of hubbubbery revolving around college football at the moment is so exhaustingly predictable – as we just knew there would be gnashing of teeth and grinding of gears revolving around “who’s No. 11” and “but this team has more quality wins/fewer bad losses.”
Meanwhile, the best coach prowling a college football sideline is practically an afterthought.
Dan Lanning practices his trade in the relative peace and quiet of Eugene, Oregon – a locale so serene that you wouldn’t figure a dominant program could possibly take root. The head coach of the Oregon Ducks, Lanning might look like and talk like just about any other coach at the high school or college level. But what Lanning has done with the Ducks – long derided as a brand that was entirely Nike-fueled sizzle and precisely no steak – has been nothing short of amazing.
And Lanning has done it without any of the whiny-fanbase headaches and NCAA scrutiny that often comes with championship-worthy programs.
Even to imply that the Ducks are newcomers to this level is a bit disingenuous, as the Lanning/Oregon combination has been spooling up to what we are seeing in 2024 for a couple years. The 38-year-old Lanning was a sapling on the Nick Saban coaching tree for a season before he hooked up with Kirby Smart and Georgia in 2018. Smart isn’t the type to let just anyone fiddle with his defense, yet Lanning quickly moved from outside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator within a season – and stayed with the Dawgs through their 2021 national championship.
That’s when Oregon came calling, in search of a replacement for Mario Cristobal. A 10-3 rookie season in 2022 was followed by a 12-2 season last year. He’s 12-0 this year, ahead of Saturday’s Big Ten Championship date with Penn State. Even with my public-school math, I have Lanning at 34-5 as a college head coach – a sterling .872 winning percentage.
By comparison, Smart went 32-10 in his first 3 years at Georgia. Jimbo Fisher was 31-10 in his first 3 years at FSU. Saban was 33-8 in his first 3 years at Alabama. Even if Lanning’s Ducks were to flame out in the Big Ten title game and the College Football Playoff, he would still have a better initial 3-year record than those coaches.
Of course, there are flip sides to that stat. Lincoln Riley went 36-6 in his first 3 seasons at Oklahoma before eventually finding Norman less welcoming than Los Angeles. Heck, Chip Kelly went 34-6 with a BCS title game berth in his first 3 years at Oregon before NCAA issues chased him to the NFL. And Larry Coker was 35-3 with a national championship in his first 3 years at Miami before being fired 3 years later.
Although the Ducks are the only undefeated team in the country and undisputed No. 1 heading into conference championship week, they aren’t quite perfect. They couldn’t stop likely Heisman finalist Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty in Week 2, needing a last-second field goal to win 37-34. An ill-timed slide by Ohio State quarterback Will Howard on Oct. 12 could have flipped the script on what was a 32-31 victory over the No. 2 Buckeyes. And Oregon needed to play the full 60 minutes at Camp Randall Stadium on Nov. 16 before outlasting unranked Wisconsin 16-13.
But whatever quibble one may take with Oregon’s schedule, or the relative strength of the Big Ten opponents the Ducks faced, the bottom line is that Lanning has been the steady hand behind it all. Recruiting is pumping briskly along, the Nike-NIL spigot that was opened to full blast a couple years ago shows no evaporation in sight, and Eugene is suddenly looking very much like West Athens.
Critics will point to that bottomless Nike well, of course, and say that it is easy to buy a championship program. Then again, ask Ryan Day in Columbus how that has gone for him. Lanning is winning day after day on the recruiting trail – including Wednesday, the opening of the Early Signing Period – by looking kids in the eye, telling them the truth, and then coaching the hell out of them once they arrive. Between that and a shrewd use of the omnipresent transfer portal, and Oregon is not only on the cusp of winning the Big Ten title on its first year in the league, but trending toward capturing the school’s first national championship.
The through line is Lanning, a seemingly tireless and energetic coach who makes his players wonder if he ever sleeps at times – a dervish of coaching ability, 21st-century intellect and relentless drive to build Oregon into a consistent power. That combination will be put to the test again Saturday, as Lanning’s Ducks take on No. 5 Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.
So let the rest of the country argue this week about who should be in and who should be out of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Dan Lanning is busy recruiting another massive class of future Ducks while prepping the current Ducks for greatness – all under our noses out there in idyllic Eugene.
An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
