Dan Lanning responds to Kirby Smart comment about knowing who Oregon will start at QB

As he gets ready to face his former defensive coordinator this week, Kirby Smart hinted he might know more about Oregon than Dan Lanning thinks. The Georgia headman said he already knows who the Ducks will start at quarterback even though Lanning still hasn’t publicly named a starter.

Wednesday, Lanning responded.

The Oregon quarterback competition is still a storyline as Auburn transfer Bo Nix battles Jay Butterfield and Ty Thompson for the starting job. Lanning has been coy about naming a starter publicly ahead of the highly anticipated showdown against the national-champion Bulldogs on Sept. 3. He kept his answer brief when asked about Smart’s remarks.

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“I don’t know,” Lanning said. “I’m not really worried about it.”

Smart made his comments in a press conference this week ahead of the big game — Lanning’s first as a head coach.

“That really doesn’t impact anything for us. I mean, I know who the quarterback’s going to be,” Smart told reporters on Monday. “So I’m not worried about that, I’m worried a lot more about how our guys play and what our guys do and how our guys execute, you know.

“You guys use that to write about and talk about. I mean, let’s be honest. Regardless of which quarterback is in there, they’re going to do what they do. And maybe he does one thing better than the other guy does. And at the end of the day, they may play both of them. It’s never about the preparation for one specific quarterback as much as it is the preparation of your team to go play well.”

Lanning will debut his new starting quarterback on Saturday when his Ducks travel to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to take on the Bulldogs Sept. 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET.