EUGENE, Ore. – It’s been 1,099 days since Dan Lanning first put on the headset as head football coach for the Oregon Ducks back in September of 2022. The hours that followed prompted a 49-3 thrashing at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs, a team Lanning helped win a national championship as the defensive coordinator the prior season. Fast forward three years to 2025, and Lanning has since compiled a career record of 37-6, wins in both the Holiday and Fiesta Bowls, along with a Big Ten Conference Championship in a short time frame. Now into his fourth season at the helm in Eugene, Lanning’s head coaching debut feels like nothing but a footnote.
Following a 59-13 blowout victory over Montana State last Saturday, No. 6 Oregon (2-0) welcomed Oklahoma State (1-1) to Autzen Stadium for Week 2. Days before the opening kickoff, longtime OSU head coach Mike Gundy had made comments about the large financial efforts the Oregon football program has been able to make in NIL and the transfer portal from big money donors like UO alumnus and founder of Nike, Phil Knight.
Lanning responded briefly to Gundy’s words in a weekday press conference, saying, “We spend to win.”
By the time the first September Saturday had rolled around and 60 minutes of game time were complete, it was the Ducks who walked away with a 69-3 shellacking of the Cowboys to improve to 2-0 in the 2025 season.
In the post-game press conference, Coach Lanning was mild-mannered, now having this to say about Gundy’s comments,
“I told our team before the game, it never requires extra motivation for an opportunity to go out and kick ass, but it never hurts when someone pours gasoline on the fire. I felt like these guys wanted the chance to go prove who they are.”
There is only so much we will really know of what is said between Lanning and his players before, during and after each game, but it seems as if a new element of Dan Lanning’s head coaching prowess was unlocked today. To be able to move the shoe to the other foot on the topic of blowout loss in game one for Lanning in 2022 to a dominant victory today speaks a lot about what he has been able to accomplish and the fashion in which he has done it.
We all know the fiery Dan Lanning that has the power to make his team want to run through a brick wall for him before a game, specifically the viral pregame speech before a game against Colorado in 2023 that ended in a 42-6 Ducks win. Lanning has been able to enter deeper into his relaxed side as a leader, and it has proven to have the same value of effectiveness in shutting down outside noise and producing strong results.
So much of Lanning’s message to his team in the past three seasons has been putting emphasis on his players and no one else.
“It’s always been about us. It’s our ability to ignore the noise is always the thing that’s going to make us uphold the standard,” Lanning explained after being asked what the driving factor was in today’s 66-point win.
This calmness the Ducks have been able to capture showed on the field, with Oregon being able to control its temper on the field. The Ducks committed just six penalties for 45 yards to Oklahoma State’s eight for 45 yards. None of which by Oregon were of the personal foul variety, which says that Coach Lanning has his team disciplined for every moment throughout this season, big and small.
Today was another checkbox for Lanning’s Ducks. Being able to listen to impactful words from the second-longest tenured coach in college football in Mike Gundy, and brushing that aside to the second-largest margin of victory Oregon has posted with Lanning at the reins is something more than noteworthy. Albeit on paper, Oregon completely outgunned Oklahoma State talent-wise, and it showed in a big way on the gridiron. This in no way means anything as Oregon gears up for the gauntlet that is the Big Ten Conference schedule it has ahead.