Dan Lanning Reacts to Oregon's Big Win Over USC: 'Being ready for your opportunity, not waiting for your opportunity'

The No. 7 Oregon Ducks defeated the No. 15 USC Trojans 42-27 Saturday night in Eugene to move to 10-1 on the year, setting up a regular season finale against the rival Washington Huskies in Seattle.

Head coach Dan Lanning met with reporters to give his thoughts on Oregon’s win.

Opening statement: “All right, that was a fun one tonight. Our crowd, again, was unbelievable, great atmosphere there. Really proud that we were able to go do that in that environment with our seniors. There’s some moments when you sit in that game and you’re frustrated because you know that we’re not performing to the best of our abilities. A great challenge—their team is obviously very explosive on offense. Ultimately, I think a lot of it comes down to the physicality that we talked about for us to be able to go out and rush for almost 180 yards and hold them to 52 rushing yards. Gives an indication of how do you win this game, what’s it look like? Special teams were special tonight. Obviously a huge punt return there from Malik (Benson). Disappointed in general, just our lack of composure at times. Thought obviously we were penalized in this game, gave up 130 yards of penalties. Some of them made sense, some of them maybe didn’t. But ultimately, there’s certainly some ones that we can go clean up and attack. And we gotta be better on third down, defensively. They had some moments there, but I thought defense showed up big there at the end of the game to get a stop. I thought they were big there at the beginning, into half for us to be able to control the middle eight, get the ball back. We didn’t do enough coming out at halftime, but we won the fourth quarter. That’s an area we wanted to be able to go attack. But overall, I’m really proud of our guys, proud to go beat a good team. These guys are a good team that we just played. And ultimately, looking for the opportunity for us to grow from this moment.”

On embodying strength in numbers in the face of injuries

Lanning: “Yeah, you said it. I mean, all those moments showed up. And guys, I always talk about being ready for your opportunity, not waiting for your opportunity. There’s some guys that were ready for their  opportunity when their number was called, and there’s some stuff that we can clean up. But we got a  bunch of guys that want to go out there and battle for the man next to them. And they take a lot of pride in what they do. And to be able to take six minutes off the clock there on that last drive when they  got a loaded box every down and the numbers for them are right, but we’re still able to out-push and finish physically. That’s what really matters. And you got a bunch of guys on this team that have unbelievable heart. Noah Whittington showed up the last four weeks in a big way for us. The way he’s  run the ball, the way he works. You got Bryce Boettcher, you got a bunch of seniors that give it  their all. Charlie Pickard, whose number hadn’t been called all year, and he comes in on senior night. I  know that’s got to be a special moment for him, and there’s some moments to clean up for sure. But  what an awesome way for him to get to enjoy senior night.”

On keeping Dante Moore clean in the face of injuries and rotations

Lanning: “Yeah, I have to go back and watch the film, but I mean, you said it. We were able to keep our  quarterback clean. I thought he did a good job of decision making. I know he had the one turnover, but  ultimately, when you have a lot of changing parts, that’s tough, especially with a unit that has to play  together in a cohesive unit. And those guys went out there and did that. There was some pre-snap  penalties that we have to clean up, a couple errors that we definitely have to get better at and work on  getting our guys healthy to see what we can look like moving forward.”

On Malik Benson’s punt return touchdown

Lanning: “Another great example of a guy being ready for his opportunity. And you saw his speed. We’ve seen his speed all season, especially when he’s able to go field that punt. We did feel like we were going to have some aggressive opportunities for us on punt return there. He was going to have a chance. I thought he  did a great job of fielding the ball and getting the high gear and getting vertical  quick. I’m sure we’re going to turn on the film and see some great blocks on that as well. But it was an  awesome play, huge momentum swing in the game for sure. And great opportunity for them to feel like  now that they have to chase some points, right, rather than us be battling back and forth.”

On Fox Crader being ready for his moment

Lanning: “He prepared really well this week. Our coaches have a lot of confidence in him. And again, a guy being ready for that, that means he did a lot of work until he got that opportunity to, right? That doesn’t just happen on accident. That’s a guy that’s working his tail off. World rolled his ankle in the very first play of last game. Right, and played the entire game. It tells you a little bit about his toughness. But it was severe enough that we felt like he was pretty limited today. Coming in and felt like he could go at moments, but Fox was ready. And certainly have to watch the film and evaluate  it. But thought he did some really good things today.”

On his long-term commitment to Oregon

Lanning: “No, I don’t mind the question. But I guess ultimately, people realize at this point that I’m not interested in being anywhere else. Like I’ve said for a long time, as long as I win, I get the  opportunity to be here. That’s on me, right? So this is where I’ll be as long as I do that. What I can  speak to is that my situation is so good that I feel really comfortable saying that, right? I love this place.  And more than that, I love the commitment that they’ve given to me, right? Somebody gave me  this opportunity; not everybody gets that. I can’t speak for anybody else’s situation when it comes to that. So it probably tells you how special Oregon is, right? And certainly how special I feel getting to be here and getting to coach here. What a privilege that is for me. That’s something I’ll never take for  granted, and want to be able to see it through.”