Dan Lanning Talks Oregon QB Battle, Development of Freshmen in Fall Camp

Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning met with reporters in Eugene on Wednesday following the team’s 17th practice of fall camp. It will be the last time Lanning speaks with the media until his game week press conference next Monday August 25.

Below are some of his most notable quotes.

On Sione Laulea, why he’s in a better position to help this year’s team

Lanning: “Experience and time. He’s certainly an above the line player for us. We feel like if he’s out on the field, we can have success. He’s got length. He’s been a much better communicator in year two than year one, and I think that comes with learning the defense. He’s showing up.”

On tight ends behind Kenyon Sadiq

Lanning: “I like this position for us a lot. I think every day Jamari gets a little bit better when it comes to what’s the scheme? What’s my job? And he’s proven that he can be a really athletic playmaker for us and Roger’s coming back from injury, and he’s looking better and more confident each and every day. And then there’s young guys in that room too that have stepped up. Really a talented group that I think can block well in the C area. Can also flex out at wideout and run routes. But they all do different things extremely well, and it’s a good group for us.”

On development of Dante Moore/Austin Novosad

Lanning: “I’m excited about the growth of everybody in our quarterback room. For me, it’s can they operate the offense at a high level? And I think you go back and you look at the moments that those guys just first got here, and you say okay, we should have made this check and we didn’t. Or we should have adjusted this and we didn’t. Just the way you use your cadence, the command of the offense, the way you break a huddle. All those areas have been big improvements, and then a couple plays hit, and all of a sudden everybody’s confidence goes up. That’s the one thing that the quarterback can impact, is the confidence of everybody on the field. Because a quarterback’s job is to get the people around them to play better. You can’t be good at quarterback if you’re not good at wideout, if you’re not good on the O-line with protection. So at the end of the day, those guys have been able to create a lot of that. And if you look at them from day one to where they’re at now, it’s night and day.”

On when Oregon shifts to preparing for week 1 opponent Montana State

Lanning: “We’ve always been preparing. It’s just, what we do, it’s not necessarily just about the team that we’re going against. We’ll start to shift that direction here this next week.”

On development of freshmen core, potential to see true freshmen in week 1

Lanning: “I think you will. Yeah, I definitely think you will. It’s a group that’s gotten a lot of opportunities. The way we practice what we do, it gives those guys an opportunity to go get involved and get on the field if they know their job. And I’ll say this group is a group of perfectionists. They want to be right. They want to be great. They get frustrated when they mess up, and they gotta realize that that’s part of the process. It happens. As a freshman, you don’t make every single play. But can you learn from those mistakes? That’s the key. And I think you’ll definitely see some out there making an impact for us this season.”

On his feel for this team going into last couple days of camp

Lanning: “That’s always hard for me. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt like if you ask me, hey can you have three more weeks of practice to get ready? Would you take it? And I think I’d always take it. Even in this moment now. But I am really happy about the progress of day one to where we’re at right now. I haven’t ever felt like we had in fall camp this day nan, I wish we could have that day back. That was a waste. We didn’t get better. I feel like this group’s gotten better every single day. So from that standpoint, I’m excited. Would I love to have three more weeks to get prepared for game one? Absolutely. But these guys are also ready to go hit somebody else. And that’s the hard part about college football, is you don’t have the inner squad scrimmages with other teams. You don’t do that. You don’t experience that. So you’re hitting the same guys every single day, and they’re ready to hit somebody else.”