Notable quotes in Dan Lanning’s weekly press conference before the Oklahoma State game

With a game under their belt, the Oregon Ducks have a lot more substantial things to look at, improve upon, and actual game film from their first Division I opponent of the season in Oklahoma State. Coming off of a Week 1 win against Montana State where the Bobcats were dominated 59-13, we saw a lot of great things from Oregon, particularly the young players on the roster who had a chance to get out and prove themselves for the first time.

In Dan Lanning’s weekly Monday night press conference, the Oregon head coach talked about the good things he saw in the Montana State win, the things that could be tweaked for the better, scouting the Cowboys and responding to some comments Mike Gundy made concerning Oregon’s budget. We also got some injury news from Lanning on a few players, including starting left guard Emmanuel Pregnon, who left Saturday’s game with a leg injury and did not return.

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Here’s everything Lanning had to say in his meeting with the press Monday night.

Opening Statement

Dan Lanning: All right, certainly is a fun game on Saturday. You know, proud of our guys effort, really appreciative to our fans, who always show up and show out. Unbelievable job by them. It was great atmosphere. It always feels good to be back in Autzien, and grateful for, you know, some former Ducks making a commitment to this next week, getting to have some young guys. To have some young guys in the stands there, in the stands there with us, with Marcus (Mariota) and his foundation, Justin (Herbert), Sabrina (Ionescu), all the work that goes on outside, you know, creating opportunities for others is part of what makes this place so great.

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Dante Moore’s Growth

Question: You had said on Saturday the play where Dante (Moore) made where he, you know, didn’t force the ball, on the third-and-goal. I’m curious, after watching film, are there any of the moments that really stood out to you that showed his growth, specifically in that game?

DL: Yeah I mean, there were several, you know, there were several plays. The big catch by Jay (Harris) there over the middle, that was an opportunity for him to redirect the protection and slide it away from a load front, which is pretty unique, you know. But, you know, he did a great job there, and was able to hit an angle route there to Jay. But there were a lot of moments where, you know, the first read wasn’t there, and you see him going through the progression into his second read. Took care of the ball. There were very few ball-in-jeopardy to take place. I thought he made good decisions and looked really poised back there.

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Taking easy plays over taking a chance for a big play

Q: Along those lines, he (Moore) talked about, you’ve been harping on take the easy stuff. And Will Stein has said that for years since he’s been here. What’s that transition like, or that process like, of getting a quarterback to take the easy stuff and don’t always go for the chunk play?

DL: I just think it’s, it’s important for coaches to celebrate moments when you know it isn’t always the highlight reel play, right? And I think that when you’re a young player, you know so often you feel like, “hey, this my opportunity to go make it, make a play,” and you almost force yourself to go make plays. And the reality is we need to celebrate the plays that are avoided, right? That could be bad for our team. And we a lot of young guys play in this last game, I think we had close to 30 guys in our last two signing classes out there for for us playing, which is huge, right? Speaking of development and the people we’ve been able to add to this roster, but when you have over 70 players playing a game, you know, and then they’re all developing, making good decisions, that’s exciting.

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Scouting Oklahoma State

Q: Looking ahead to Oklahoma State, with all the coaching turnover there, with all the roster turnover there, what are some of the challenges of scouting a team like that?

DL: Well, certainly a lot of change. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Gundy, the guy’s 170 games. He’s been one of the best, of the best in the business, and adapted with the times. I mean, anytime you’re able to be somewhere, as long as he’s been, you know, I think he’s only had two seasons where he didn’t have, you know, winning seasons in his time there. So that speaks a little bit their culture. I think it’s derived from him and what they do have always been innovative, always been really good on special teams. So I think you have to look at that piece kind of holistically, of like, what’s made those teams good in the past, and then recognize there’s some changing parts. There’s a new coordinator on offense, new one on defense, some carry over there on special teams, right? But a lot of new faces. But does it still carry the same flavor of what those teams have been in the past, and you’re able to stay film of where these coaches have come from, what they’ve done in the past. There are a lot of coaches on their staff that I’m familiar with that are really good, so it’s going to be a fun challenge.

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Dakorien Moore’s blocking setting a tone

Q: You commented on the block that Dakorien had, obviously on Gary’s (Bryant) touchdown, but you look back and see the two that he had on the opening drive, and I’m sure others that you can see in all 22 that we don’t on TV. How does that help set a culture in that room? Then when a freshman comes in and does that in Game 1?

DL: Awesome, because it’s not natural, right? It’s not natural. And he did it, but several guys did it in that game. And I’m really proud, you know, we talked about half of the game. I’m really proud of the effort that our guys gave. Like, you want to see people play 100 miles an hour. And I thought we had a lot of guys playing 100 miles an hour on Saturday, but the way you block again tells me how much you love your teammates.

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And that guy blocked really hard, right? And there were several guys that blocked really hard on Saturday, and then we found some moments where, you know, some of us were buying a ticket and watching other people make plays instead of blocking, right? And those are, those are the moments we got to continue to get better at and make sure that we’re connected at the end of plays. But that was something probably early in the season last year, we didn’t do as good of a job of, and that was a big emphasis coming into this game. And at times, we’re going to the right people. At times, we weren’t, but we were finding ways to be connected at the end of place, which is huge.

Offensive line gelling despite injuries

Q: A year ago it took the offensive line a couple of games to gel because of early injuries. Saw some early injuries in this game, but the offensive line didn’t really miss a beat. What do you attribute that to? And how encouraging is that to see for you?

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DL: Well, I think one it is attributed to the fact that we mix up our own lines a lot in fall camp and make sure we have different parts, there are different pieces, because those moments can happen. So we had guys that played right right guard, guys that played left guard, guys that played tackle and guard. I mean, there was a lot of combinations you saw there. And then, obviously, when you have the game in hand, you want to get experience. But I think you saw that. You saw the variety that gets pitched to our players and, you know, really in practice, and then being able to go out and execute in games.

Having actual game film on Oklahoma State

Q: Despite the number of new players and coordinators in this program, what is the biggest advantage from a scouting standpoint, from week one to week two, when you have that full game under your belt that you can really dive into?

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DL: Yeah, it’s just one game. That’s the hard part, and especially when there’s a lot of changes, ultimately, with the staff, you know. So you’re looking at one game and realizing that they’ve got a lot more than that one game, right, that you have to be able to adapt to, and the personnel you feel like you might know, but you really don’t have a big enough picture yet to fully grasp who they are. But you you do recognize that this team has an identity that we’re about to play, right? And that’s what shows up. You know, Coach Grantham’s defenses have always been really aggressive, really good edge play that always shows up. Some coverage, commonalities in the way he does things there and what we do and on offense, you know, with Coach Meacham and Coach Gundy, they’re going to take shots, they’re going to spread you out, they’re going to move with great tempo. So we get one game to look at, but I don’t think it’s really a full, you know, glimpse of who they are.

Fighting your way down the field

Q: Kenyon, Gary had to break a tackle for a touchdown. Yeah, Dakoriwn and had to hurdle a guy for a third down. Sure, running backs broke down. What do you make ofvyour team just fighting through contact and getting extra yards, getting touchdowns?

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DL: Yeah, we always celebrate that. You know, I think Coach Stein and the offensive staff do a really good job of showing how many yards that we have after contact, you know, in the game. And when we threw that stat up to this morning, going over the players, it kind of threw me off, because it told me that we weren’t blocking well enough up front for them to, you know, make, make those kind of yards initially, right? You’d like to think that you’re blocking it well enough that you can go five yards without getting touched, but we had a lot of guys breaking tackles and creating, you know, not going down on first contact, which is huge. And I saw that from freshmen all the way up to, you know, veterans that have been playing for us.

Dave Iuli’s versatility

Q: important is a guy like Dave Iuli? Only in terms of being able to flip from one guard start to the other and maintain the continuity on the offensive line and put everybody in their most advantageous positions.

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DL: Yeah, I’m big fan of Dave. I love Dave. He comes out to work every day. Always has a smile on his face. He’s a pleasure. He’s always asking, What can I do to be better for the team? And we have a lot of unselfish play right now on our team, which is so awesome to see with new faces. Right? Guys saying, Hey, Coach, can I go down to look team and give us a look? Right? You know people that you never expect that from, and that’s making us a lot better team, right? Which is, which is awesome, but, you know, Dave is been versatile, and several of those guys on the offensive line.

Preparing for a backup quarterback

Q: You mentioned the difficulties of prepping for team with so many guys, they had a quarterback, and then he gets hurt. What do you know about (Zane) Flores? And how do you prepare for a scenario like that? You’re bringing a new guy, and then he gets hurt, go after another guy.

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DL: Yeah, you know, that’s, that’s college football, right? So you got to prepare for what you see on film. The system is the system more than it is. They’re going to completely change what they do as a player. They have compliments where the quarterback can run the ball or throw the ball, so they carry that in their system. Might make them a little bit more reserved to run the quarterback, you know, based on that situation, but ultimately, like you see, a player that can play and execute in an offensive scheme that’s this tough to defend.

Familiarity with opposing coaching staff

Q: How much does that familiarity for Will Stein with multiple numbers of their staff. How much does that help?

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DL: Yeah, yeah, we I think the familiarity always helps, right? Like Coach Grantham was at Florida for a long time when I was at Georgia, so got to see that. And you know, there’s, there’s several guys on their staff that I’ve been around as well. And then will was around coach Grantham at Louisville. Everybody changes and adapts with time. So even what he was doing, you know, this past week is a little bit different than what he did in his time in Florida. But yeah, familiarity certainly always helps.

Grading out freshmen corners

Q: What you got a chance to go back and watch the film? What excited you about the young guys in the cornerback room, especially the two three freshmen, and then also Ify (Obidegwu) getting his first start?

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DL: Yeah, I think again, I’ve always said, if we have above the line play, we’re going to try to make sure we give, you know, create roles and create opportunities, and you want that to happen, and you’re concerned about, what’s the anxiety going to be like in the first game? What’s this? You know, there’s just new moments playing football in front of, you know, a filled stadium is a little bit different than playing in practice. And I thought those guys executed well.

Jay Harris improvement

Q: The fall cam documentary episodes, you highlighted Jay Harris and his pass blocking reps and how that’s improved. He had several those chances in this game. Just curious the growth you’ve seen from him and just how encouraging that is?

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DL: is. You know, what’s fun is, you know, obviously, we have a lot of talent back right now, right? And a lot of people want to ask questions about that, but like, what was great is, I don’t know how many carries Jay had. I know all, like, seven of our backs had carries, right? Jay was an unbelievable teammate on the sideline. His enthusiasm, his energy, he’s helping us on special teams. He was in on the play where, you know, we bought the punt. He was, you know, he played multiple special teams. He had the big, obviously, the big pass catch down the middle. Like this guy’s just focused and worked on getting better and better every single day. And his story is an unbelievable story. You guys don’t even realize, you know, some of the stuff that this guy’s gone through to get to where he’s at right now. So really happy with Jay and the work that he’s put in back right here.

Defending Terrill Davis

Q: Kind of talking about some of those new, new players, the wide receiver number two Terrill Davis … just how does their offense kind of highlight him and what makes him a threat?

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DL: Yeah, this will probably be the team that we played that takes the most vertical shots down the field right to date that we’ve seen, and probably my time here, like they’re going to push the ball down the field right a lot of quick passing game and a lot of shots down the field, and he highlights that they can line up fast. They’re going to try to catch you off guard. If you leave somebody single covered, they’re going to let their wide outs go, have an opportunity to go win and, you know, compete down the field for the ball. And he’s certainly one of those guys.

Harkey’s nasty debut

Q: AlexHarkey, he certainly graded out well from a pro football focus, whatever that’s worth. What stood out to you about his play? He certainly had some blocks, even behind the play, at times that were there’s a certain nastiness, I would say, to his level play. What stood out to you?

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DL: Well, I think you said it right. He plays O line with the nastiness. He wants to finish blocks. He’s a finisher. He’s compete. You know, a guy that competes every single day, really, really pleased with Alex, and I still think, like his best football is ahead of him. There’s some there’s some moments that I think he wants to be able to have back. But you see a guy that’s trying to finish people, which is the mentality you want of your offensive line.

Jeremiah McClellan on special teams

Q: Jeremiah McClelland was one of the first receivers off the bench on Saturday. But how much does him be able to make an impact on special teams? Get some hands on some punts impact him being able to get on the field on offense?

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DL: Yeah, if you can, I mean one to start for us on over d we expect you to be able help us on special teams. But Jay Mac has been very eager this year to help this team in any way that he can, and obviously he made a huge impact in the game. I guess, I think I said it several times. He had a great fall camp. He’s gotten better and better. We showed some clips of him running routes early in fall camp last year in comparison to this year. And it’s just it’s not the same player. This guy’s really improved.

Gundy comments on Oregon’s budget

Q: Mike and you spoke quite a bit today, and mentioned a lot about how much the resources are here, a lot of spending on the team here. Suggested the roster cost $40 million last season, and also said that non conference scheduling perhaps should be more aligned with budgets. Just didn’t know if, with all of those comments, if you had a particular reaction or thoughts about future scheduling, or how much there may be a disparity between these programs?

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DL: It sounds like there is listening to him. He talks like I said, I got a ton of respect for Coach Gundy. You know, ultimately, how Blessed are we to be in a place that’s invested in winning? If you want to be a top 10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. And we spend to win, some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t right and ultimately, like he’s a great coach, they’ve done an unbelievable job, but I want to be a team that’s competing at the highest level, and we’re really fortunate to be in that situation. So I can’t speak on their situation. I have no idea, you know, what’s what they got in their pockets over there. I’m sure UT Martin maybe didn’t have as much as them last week, and they played. So we’ll let it play out.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Notable quotes in Dan Lanning’s weekly press conference Monday night