Walk in your trap, take over your trap. Oregon, quite literally, took to their new habitat in the Big 10 like Ducks to water. Leaving tradition and loyalties at the door upon realigning from the PAC-12 meant there was a fair amount of unrest within the fanbase. Well, Dan Lanning and co. quelled any echoes of disdain straightaway. Winning the conference championship right off the bat goes a long way. So does being ranked the No.1 team in the country for essentially the entire season. Autzen was a fortress, and Oregon entered the playoffs 13-0. But you know how #13 brings bad luck? Their invincibility dissipated into thin air at the most inopportune time.
Oregon took the short trip south to Cali after their first-round playoff bye. Afforded to them for winning the B1G, which may actually have been counterproductive. But more on that in a bit. Out in beautiful Pasadena, with that famously picturesque sunset in the background, Ohio State lay flowers on Oregon’s proverbial coffins at the Rose Bowl. That blowout loss was a brutal massacre of hopes and dreams. It served as a late but potent “Welcome to the Big 10” moment for the program. It was due to happen, but to come at the Rose Bowl was damning. In all honestly, Oregon should be able to take solace from the fact the Buckeyes did this to every team in their wake en route to the Natty. Losing to the eventual champions isn’t an indictment. But Dan Lanning doesn’t see the bright side. This one pierced deep. So deep that he self-proclaimed to still have sleepless nights over it.
Dan Lanning is a shrewd, pragmatic customer. He’s not naive to the fact teams lose football games. Nor is he delusional enough to make excuses for his team’s poor showing. But if there’s one thing that keeps a head coach up at night, pondering over a bygone and being unable to move on, it’s being outdone tactically. You can live with things not going to plan, that’s sport. But a flawed plan is regrettable. Throughout the season, Ohio State were in 2nd gear. Ryan Day and then-OC Chip Kelly were keeping their cards close to their chest. A lot of packages and schemes never say the light of day until the playoffs began. This is evidenced by how drastic the turnaround was between that Michigan loss and the Tennessee win. Coach Lanning seemingly didn’t know what hit him that fateful day. Something he owned up to now that the dust has largely settled.
Dan Lanning guested on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, hosted by retired NFL vets Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. The pair actually pulled up to Eugene for the interview, so naturally the line of questioning was a little more intimate than it would’ve been in a virtual setting. Compton initially confronted Lanning about what was running through his mind at half-time in the Rose Bowl, down 34-10. It’s almost as if the question flared up some sort of PTSD! Lanning let out a massive sigh before saying, “Tough, man. Tough.” He spoke about preaching to his players how the Alabama vs Georgia game involved a massive 2nd half comeback, as proof that this wasn’t over. “I’m that guy that wants to fight until there’s no time left on the clock,” said Lanning. But the more intriguing facet of his answer was how he dealt with things after the final whistle blew and their fate was sealed.
Dan Lanning proceeded to give an elaborate insight into his psyche. “When you leave that game after [its] over, you’re like, ‘Okay. I want to make sure that doesn’t that doesn’t happen again.’” he said. “Coach Day did an unbelievable job…there were things that they did in that game that we didn’t prepare as well for. And that’s the [important] part. Like, can you take the medicine? Can you figure out what didn’t go right?” Upon hearing this, Will Compton asked Coach if that “medicine”, which implied coming up with a reworked strategy for the next time Oregon plays Ohio State, “lasted a little bit longer” than usual.
“I wake up every night about that medicine,” remarked Lanning. He spoke about how being unable to get over the hump against Kalen DeBoer’s Washington caused him to do so in the past as well. “I wake up thinking about that Rose Bowl game. Didn’t do it the way I wanted to do it, so it motivates me. Makes me hungry to go back to work,” he resounded. That’s powerful and goes to show how taxing this gig is. Something his contemporary Ryan Day knows all about too, having gone through parallel adversity against Michigan time and again. With all that said, there is one sticking point that Lanning himself acknowledged to have played a part in that loss. An external factor may have fanned the flames of Oregon’s loss and, by extension, Lanning’s peril- that first-round bye. As alluded to earlier.
Dan Lanning opens up about how a supposed blessing became a curse
Hark back to the discourse around the new format affording conference champions a first-round playoff bye. There was a conversation around how it was actually a disadvantage matchup-wise. Penn State, who lost to Oregon in the B1G championship, played Boise State in round 2. Meanwhile, Oregon were backhandedly punished for their win by being slated against Ohio State. But that’s just how the pieces fell. A more overarching debate around bye-weeks is rust vs rest. Dan Lanning’s Ducks had 3 weeks off between that PSU game and the Rose Bowl. It’s not a reach to suggest that could’ve caused them to be a little slow off the blocks. Which is how things transpired too, with potentially rusty Oregon being down 4 TDs at the half.
Taylor Lewan asked Dan Lanning about whether having “that long of a break hurt” Oregon’s chances against OSU. While Coach prefaced his statement by saying he’ll never make excuses, he did agree it did. If for no other reason, than simply because it was unprecedented. Both he and his players weren’t sure how to approach the scenario with an adequate regime. “It’s a lot different when you’re playing a game every single week…I’ve always been an advocate of, you know, staying in a rhythm on Saturdays,” said Lanning. He was then asked whether, in hindsight, he’d approach that bye differently. “Yeah, there’s certainly some stuff that I’ll tweak. I won’t get in the weeds about what we do different,” said Lanning. He even spoke about talking to people about formulating an ideal plan, but because it was the first expanded playoff, everyone was shooting in the dark.
“There’s some things we’ll do differently in the future. You put the best plan together [which] you think makes sense, and then you adapt and adjust based on what what wasn’t good,” said Dan Lanning in summation. It’s been months, but there remains an air of regret. Being 13-0 and then falling flat on your faces is quite the reality check. Lanning will hope to turn that regret into revenge and make a deeper run next season. He and Oregon aren’t going anywhere just yet.
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