How Dan Lanning embraced change, learned to adapt in current college football landscape

Over the past year, I’ve said numerous times that there’s no coach in America whose stock I’d buy more into than Dan Lanning’s.

In his first two seasons as head coach at Oregon, Lanning has compiled a 22-5 record and has built the Ducks into a team that can be a legitimate national title contender for the foreseeable future. For this week’s “Big Noon Conversations,” I traveled to Eugene to find out how Lanning has put together a program that appears to be on the precipice of becoming a powerhouse.

We also spoke about Nick Saban’s influence on him, and why he didn’t jump at the opportunity to replace the legendary coach at Alabama.

(Read more from “Big Noon Conversations:” Sherrone Moore, Steve Sarkisian, Deion Sanders, Matt Rhule, Ryan Day, Kalen DeBoer, James Franklin)

Here’s a snippet of my conversation with Lanning:

If you go back to the end of the year, you’re a guy that coached with Nick Saban. You’re from that tree. When you saw the news that he was stepping away and retiring, what did you think?

Well, one, that the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) just retired, right? The best ever to do it, the level of consistency and the way he operated day in, day out. I can’t say I wasn’t surprised to see him step away just because of what the game is becoming and what he did for so long. But yeah, grateful that I got to learn from him for a little bit.

What was that like? As a young guy, you’re trying to learn how to be a coach, and I’m sure even when you were there, you realize like, “This is the best that’s ever done it.” 

I don’t think there’s any question for me [that Saban is the best coach of all-time]. At the time, I was a full-time coach at Sam Houston State and it was a step backward financially. But for me, I always thought about when I went to Alabama. That’s when I got my doctorate in football. I felt like that was a place where, coming in, I thought I knew a lot and I realized how much I didn’t know. 

Whether it’s running an organization schematically, the work ethic required, it was a great step for me in my career to be around some phenomenal coaches on that staff. You had Kirby Smart, Mario Cristobal, Mel Tucker, Billy Napier and Lane Kiffin. All those guys obviously went on to be head coaches, and then learning from Nick every single day was great for me.

Is there one trait from [Nick] Saban that you either learn the most from or you respect the most?

Just his consistency. I always said, when I left there, the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow at whatever time in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and at 7:25 a.m., Nick Saban is gonna be walking into that office and there’s gonna be a staff meeting at 7:30 a.m. He already had his oatmeal cream pie and he’s gonna have a salad at lunch. Just every single day, that consistency that he operated with and what it took to be excellent was very impressive.

Are there things that you have recognized now that you do that incorporate some of that consistency?

Certainly. Just the model of what it looks like – for me, I think the schedule, the way that he was able to map out the day, what was important, what wasn’t important, his ability to go back and assess anything that we did, and then quality control, like how can we make this better next time? That’s where I think you consistently saw the improvement. The other thing that really stuck out to me about Coach Saban and even Coach Smart is their ability to learn from anyone. If somebody had something that can make their program or organization better, they wanted to know it. It didn’t mean that it was always incorporated, but they wanted to know what you know.

You and I texted about that time, because myself and others were saying that Alabama was going to come after Dan Lanning. Rightly so, you’re a heck of a football coach. I’ve said many times, if I had to buy stock in one coach in America, you’d be that stock. 

Yet, even through our text messages, I could sense that maybe that wasn’t going to happen. I legitimately thought it was going to happen until we started to communicate. Why didn’t that job interest you?

Well, I think it’s more about what exists here. For me, it’s the first time in my career, I feel like I’m somewhere where I can be for a really, really long time for my family. That’s probably No. 1. My kids have lived in eight states. I also can never take for granted that Oregon took a chance on me, and that means a lot to me. There are things that I want to accomplish here that I haven’t accomplished yet that I feel indebted to this program and the people that support this program that I want to be able to get done and create here. 

So, I’ve never liked leaving a place where I felt like there’s more left on the table and there’s a lot left on the table here at Oregon.

We’ve also chatted that there’s a finite number of places that I think there’s a realistic chance to win the national championship. People don’t love that that’s a truth in college football, but that’s a truth. I would argue this is one of those spots. I think your level of commitment, in particular to this offense, suggests that you believe that this is one of those spots as well.

Yeah, and it’s not one of those spots because of me. There’s so many people that have put so much into this place, whether it’s our administration or it’s the student-athletes that believe in this place. Our fans, they’ve created an experience here at Oregon that’s really unique and I’m lucky that I get to be a part of that. I get to kind of help keep the train on the tracks. 

To accomplish a championship, it’s so hard. It takes a lot of things working the right way. But it also takes a level of skill, it takes talent, it takes a team and I think all those things can exist here.

Every place has something that makes it difficult to win. Are there those things here?

Every place has limitations. I think one of the harder things here in the Pacific Northwest is I can’t go out and throw a football and hit players that can play for us. So we have to have players that are courageous and brave. There’s some guys that will win from the Pacific Northwest in this state that can contribute. But we can’t make an entire team from here. So we have to go find the guys that are willing to get uncomfortable and maybe step away from their home to come here and be excellent, be great. 

But that’s also part of what makes this place great. When you walk into the locker room, it’s a melting pot of people. You have guys from the islands all the way to Miami to the DMV and all across the United States that make this a really special place.

I remember preparing to call your game against Utah last year and I’m looking at your two deep. The two deep was littered with players who were highly recruited at each position. I thought to myself, “Oregon is going to be really good in the years to come.” But you’ve also done a great job in the transfer portal. What’s the secret to being great at both?

If you look at any championship team over time, the one commonality is these teams have talent. Whether it’s Michigan last year or it’s John Wooden’s teams at UCLA, every team that wins championships is going to have talent. So you have to have great talent to create a winning organization. For us, we realized quickly that we can do that with developing great high school players, but you can also add to that competition, that consistency throughout your roster with the portal. 

I think it starts with retaining your best players, making sure the best players are still on your team the next season. We’ve done a really good job of that. We’ve been fortunate enough to keep guys that have started for us and made an impact for us. They’ve stayed here and then we’ve added to that with developing the guys that are on our current roster and bringing in guys that want to compete to take this thing to the next level.

How important is the support that you get here, from an NIL perspective in particular, to do what you just said? Because I think that’s what kills rosters faster than anything, is when their best players decide to walk out the door and you can’t replace those guys.

I think it’s two things: One, you got to have players that want to be here. So you have to create an environment that they enjoy being a part of. Then two, you have to make sure that they’re taken care of and they’re able to create opportunities for themselves. When I think about why I came to Oregon in the first place, this place has always been on the cutting edge. They’ve made a decision to be ahead of the curve. So, when that became part of the landscape of college football, I feel like they made the decision, “OK, let’s figure out how we can do this better than anybody else.” And you have to right now to compete at this level.

You’re a guy that I feel like has adapted. Maybe some would argue it’s your age, right? You’re not an old guy in this business.

I’m aging quickly.

I’m sure you’re aging quickly, but you’ve only been a head coach for two years. So maybe you’re in the perfect spot, like Gladwellian, right place at the right time, in order to take advantage of these things that have morphed and shifted in college football. You seem to have embraced what college football currently is. How important do you think that is?

Somebody asked me that the other day, what’s the most important trait for a head coach? In today’s landscape, it’s that. It’s the ability to adapt. I think that’s changed over time. Consistency might have been that approach 10 years ago, or that word 10 years ago, or relentless. Those things still matter, but you have to be able to adapt with the times and adjust. 

So I think it’s really important, especially here, and especially in the landscape that exists right now in college ball.

Looking ahead to the season, I think the teams that do find that connective tissue can play as a unit are going to have even more success. I would argue that was the case with Michigan last year. This group’s gonna have a new leader at quarterback. You’re gonna need to replace some alphas and talented players. Who are some of the players you feel can be leaders to form that connective tissue?

It’s always hard on the front of the season to predict that because every year, somebody’s going to reveal themselves that you didn’t know about. But I do think we have some leadership returning.

On defense, Jeffrey Bassa has been a great leader for us. I think this could be a great year for Jeff. I think winning games in the front, on the offensive and defensive line, is really big. Both of our offensive tackles are guys that have great experience: Ajani Cornelius and Josh Conerly Jr. Then you flip over the other side of the ball, Jordan Burch, some of the additions on the inside and our young edges that kind of played for us last year. 

So all those pieces have to really come together. But the thing that excites me is I don’t think you look at our team and say, “OK, where’s the weak spot?” I don’t see that yet. Now, at some point, we’ll probably figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are as the season plays through. But there’s not a spot where you’re like, “OK, that’s gonna really hurt the Ducks next year.” 

Two years in, some self-reflection, what do you really think you’ve learned the most as a head coach?

It’s probably the thing that caught me off guard when I first took the job, and that’s your time is not really your time anymore. Some of the things you fell in love with getting to do as a position coach or as a coordinator, you have to step back from and having that big lens view of –  it’s really important that I spend time on the offensive side of the ball. It’s really important that I move around position rooms, which I really enjoy that aspect. But it removes you a little bit from what you love as a playcaller, or as a guy that’s going in and doing all the schematic pieces. For you to be really truly connected as a head coach, which I think is really important, in today’s day and age, you have to remove yourself from some other pieces.

Heading into the season, I think you guys will be in the College Football Playoff. I think this is as good of a team as any in the country. I’ve talked about Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas kind of being the premium teams in the country. With that comes expectations. Do you feel that at all? Is it different than the previous two years?

I think it’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel the expectations. But you hope that you create expectations with the way that you’re building a team. Certainly, it truly is. Kirby used to say, “Pressure is a privilege.” And I think there’s a lot of truth to that. 

But again, you have to go out there and perform, and the outside noise doesn’t dictate the results on the field. That’s where the work takes place, right.? So, again, I feel great, I feel great about the team that we have, but you still have to go out there, execute and perform at a really high level.

For more of my conversation with Lanning, head over to Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him on X/Twitter at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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