Dan Lanning: "A lot of things went right our way today."

Saturday afternoon Oregon head coach Dan Lanning met with media to talk about Oregon’s big opening season win over Montana State. It was a drastic difference of an opener from last years game against Idaho.

With so many new faces and such a different team headed into this season, there were a a lot of questions answered in Saturday’s contest.

Here is the majority of what Lanning said in the post game.

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Opening Statement:

“Doing great. Well, always fun to see Autzen full, right? And our fans are great as always. You know, I think a lot of things went right our way today. There was even some moments where we made mistakes and still had success. You know, I was really proud of the fact that we got to see a lot of players in this way today. There’s even some moments where we made mistakes and still had success.”

On Rotations of Players:

“I was really proud of the fact that we got to see a lot of players in this game today. A lot of guys go out there and compete, and I think there’s still a lot for us to be able to clean up and still give ourselves an opportunity to assess exactly where we’re at. But overall, proud of the compete, proud of the guys never looking at the scoreboard and continuing to just work and focus, and overall, proud of the product.”

On Dante:

“He’s sharp. He was sharp. He knew where to go with the ball, was decisive with his reads, was able to make some checks. I thought we had a simple plan and a plan that we could execute at a high level, and he went out there and executed it really well.”

On the Depth:

“Yeah, I’ve said it a bunch, but strength in numbers has got to be a weapon for us. And throughout the season, you never know who might go down and who might be up. And because of that, we want to make sure we get great experience for players that are playing above the line football. We’ve always said it, that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough. And if you’re good enough, you’ll get an opportunity to play. And we have a lot of guys that are good enough right now.”

On Using Two Kickers:

“That opportunity, I mean, experience is invaluable. Both guys have done a really good job, been competitive. Gage, I think, is a guy that can be a big time weapon for us in the future, and he needed to get some of those reps. That’s that opportunity to create that experience.”

On Dakorien’s Block into End Zone:

“I’m really proud of that play. He’s blocking the wrong guy, but he’s blocking his ass off. Right? So, I mean, that’s what’s exciting. You know, we can make full speed mistakes and then we can still make them full-speed and do an unbelievable job for our team. That’s huge. So, you know, that’s what I was proud of today, the effort, and there’s still opportunities to clean up some stuff for us overall.

But Dakorien is going to be a really special player for us. I don’t think anybody’s surprised to know that. But to see the effort and the way we talked about, you’re going to tell us how much you love your teammates by the way you block on the perimeter today at wide out. And we knew this was a game that we had to outrush our opponent. And their six losses that they’ve had over time, they haven’t outrushed their opponent. That was going to be an important factor for us. So that showed up today and those guys blocking on the edge was a big piece of that. No negative yards, no punts.”

On the team’s Growth since Spring:

“Well, it’s important that we continue to grow, right? This is one step in the right direction. Certainly a better start than what we had last season. There were some changes that we made coming into the season to be prepared for those moments, but it’s just one game. So I’m more excited about the growth that goes on, you know, moving forward beyond what just happened between now and fall camp.”

On the RB Room:

“Yeah, I think it’s really special, right? And I think that that’s going to be our challenge as a coaching staff when you have a lot of talent, you know, where do you give those snaps? Where do you give those reps? How are you creative in a way that you can keep everybody involved? And it takes guys being selfless and saying, okay, I want to see everybody eat, see the team eat. And ultimately that’s going to create a lot of success for us.”

On Makhi Hughes’ Limited Carries:

“Yeah, we got a ton of really good backs. So I’d say I’m really, I want to go watch the film, but they earn it every single day in practice. We’ve got a bunch of guys that can play winning football. And again, that’s the challenge for us to figure out where does that fall. But we get to see it every single day in practice.
And these guys would tell you that Noah Whittington’s earned that every single day in practice and his leadership and how he’s worked.”

On Jeremiah McClellan’s Growth:

“Yeah, you talk about like biggest growth guys, like guys that took some of the biggest steps. And I’d say J-Mac’s one of those guys that’s taken the biggest step for us in his second season here. His mindset, his temperament, the way he approaches every day, special teams being important to him. So I was excited to see him out there making an impact for us today.”

On Noah being a Leader in the RB Room:

“Just in everything that he does. I mean, he’s serious all the time, right? And he loves what he’s doing. He loves his teammates. He works really hard at practice practice and there’s results on the field because of that. Can you glean anything at all, comparing this game to last year’s game against Idaho when you had fourth quarter was a one possession game, obviously you guys recovered from that one 13 to one, but to dominate the way you did this game.”

On Rotating DB’s:

“Yeah, I think it’s really important. And again, I said it before that we have a lot of above the line players in that position. So the depth’s important. Being able to be fresh is going to be really important and figuring out what guys can execute when it’s, when the bolts are flying is really important. to be really important and figuring out what guys can execute when it’s when the bolts are flying is really important.”

More on Dante’s Play:

“No, just the timing. You know, one of the plays that I was most proud of is him down there in the red area. You know, he’s moving to the right and he’s got an opportunity to maybe try to punch one in and throw one in a tight window in decisions that we’ve made in the past where that’s been a potential takeaway or a ball in jeopardy. And he tucked it and he ran it and we ended up kicking the field goal to go up 17. All right, so to me, like, that’s a great decision. That’ll get no hoopla. He didn’t make the extraordinary pass. What’d he do? He protected the ball and we walked away with points.”

On Formations Used Saturday:

“Yeah, there was certainly some stuff in the bag that we didn’t use today, right, that we had available if we needed it, and it didn’t come up to that. That was a discussion at halftime, right? There’s a lot of things that we didn’t run today. But always you want to carry enough that you can go win a game.”