Dan Lanning Following Win at Washington: "Excited for that next opportunity."

Saturday night Dan Lanning met with media following a big win at Washington. The Ducks moved to 11-1 on the season but will not have a chance to play in the Big Ten conference championship.

Still the Ducks look like a lock to be in the playoffs. Dan Lanning talked about reaching that milestone and getting a big win over Oregon’s biggest rival.

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Opening Statement:

“All right, those locker rooms are fun. Competitive game, I think again, really credit to Washington. They didn’t make it easy. This environment is really good. I thought our players handled the chaos extremely well. Don’t think the noise affected us and even heard our fans chanting there at the end, which is awesome to be able to come into somebody else’s stadium and create that.

When we talked about this game was gonna come down to takeaways, I thought that was obviously a big piece of this game. Be able to take the ball away twice and be able to own the ball on offense. You know, our kicker obviously played outstanding four kicks, you know, in a tough place to kick. You know, he’s been really solid for us down the stretch.

But several players coming up making big plays, you know, and I know at the very end, you could ask why not kick the field. It’s kind of a tough angle for the field goal kicker that tight. And ultimately, fourth and one, you want that opportunity to go get it. But I thought our guys handled the environment extremely well. You know, they did a good job of limiting our run game, which is something that showed up that we got to be able to run it in tough situations.

I thought Washington was outstanding there. So we’ll have to make sure we can shore that up. But defensively, we played well. You know, offensively, we made some big plays down the stretch. Obviously, that pass to Benson was huge. And altogether, the sideline was incredible. Just a really fun group. And the great part is we’re not done playing yet. So excited for that next opportunity.”

On Celebrating the Win:

“I told the players before the game, I said, history’s great, but what’s more fun is writing history. We got to write some history today, which is awesome. And they showed up, man. Everybody had each other’s back. Certainly this is a big game. It’s a big rivalry, one of the best that I’ve been a part of. So it was fun to go out there and take care of business today.”

On Benson’s Big TD:

“Yeah, and I don’t know where Malik finished. I mean, I don’t know how many balls he caught. You guys could probably tell me. I know he had like a hitch on the sideline. Yeah, I mean, that play was as impressive as any. And just the composure, man. I even saw the ball security there, you know, for him. Having that ball up and tight. It’s a coaching moment. Just all the coaching moments that showed up.

You know, obviously we had a couple aggressive penalties there that I’m disappointed in. Lost our composure. I didn’t think you’d see that from our team today. One of them was an aggressive block that went a little long, right? And one of them is one that we just absolutely can’t do, which is disappointing.

But overall, really proud of Malik, man. What an unbelievable teammate he’s been for us this year.
What a great throw by Dante. You know, great protection there. Our guys handled it really well. Our coaches prepared them well.”

On Sappington’s Big Day:

“Yeah, I mean, he just did a great job, and we’ve seen him hit him in practice, right? That was right on the edge of where we felt comfortable giving a shot, and any time you can walk away with points, you know, I know that sounds funny coming from me, right? That was a positive, and he did a great job, you know, putting it through the upright.”

On Getting Ready for CFB Playoffs:

“I’m excited, very excited. I’m going to enjoy the moment here for a little bit, probably through the rest of the night, and then start worrying about what’s our prep plans moving forward. Our team’s banged up. It would be great for us to be able to get healthy. I think everybody at this point in the season is dealing with that. But there’s only 12 teams in the nation that get to keep playing, right? I mean, some other can play, but in the real one, and we get the opportunity to do that. So I’m excited about that.”