Dan Lanning identifies golf as a hobby he would like to be good at

The Oregon Ducks are on the brink of their biggest game of the season thus far as they travel to Washington this weekend to take on the Huskies in a marquee matchup featuring the No. 7 and No. 8 ranked teams in the nation.

Big moments come with a lot of exceptions and pressure, but everyone has a way of unwinding. And on the ‘Oregon Football Coaches Show’, Ducks head coach Dan Lanning revealed a hobby he likes to partake in to unwind that also serves as a work in progress for him.

“I’m not good at golf but I like to golf, some day I want to be good at golf. That’s something I’d like to do,” Lanning said.

Golf seems like a hobby that’s been growing in popularity on the Oregon football team, so much so that Lanning was asked if he was who started the movement. Lanning denied that he was the trendsetter, but gave a shoutout to offensive lineman Bailey Jaramillo and kicker Camden Lewis for being two of the best golfers on the Ducks’ roster.

“No, but there’s some good ones on our team,” Lanning said. “Our specialists are elite at golf. Bailey is a stick, and he can hit it a country mile. Cam’s really good, there’s some good ones.”

Lanning may not have taken the credit for starting the trend of Oregon players seeking to improve their golf game, but he knew the trend was real when his 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive lineman decided to grip the clubs and take a stab at golfing.

“When I noticed it became a big deal is when I started seeing Brandon Dorlus out here playing golf all the time, I was like what?” Lanning asked. “I actually played with Brandon once this offseason, and I’m slightly better than Brandon. But he’s got all the confidence in the world and he’s picked it up way earlier than I ever picked it up. So he’s gonna be good some day.”

It’s clear the Ducks have been making strides on the links, but they’ve also been doing so on the field this season as they extended their record to 6-0 prior to their recent bye week.

Oregon has defeated their last two opponents in identical fashion on the scoreboard, beating both Stanford and Colorado 42-6. The chances of them doing that to an undefeated Washington is low, but there’s no question that the matchup has all the makings of a Pac-12 instant classic.