Dan Lanning has been the head coach of the Oregon Ducks for only 17 months. Since taking over for Mario Cristobal in December of 2021, a lot has transpired. There have been roster shake-ups, numerous coaching changes, big-time wins, frustrating losses, and all-in-all, a successful start to the new era of Oregon football.
One thing that hasn’t changed under Lanning is recruiting success in Eugene. While Willie Taggart got the ball rolling in 2017 and turned a lot of Oregon eyes toward the world of recruiting in his one year at the helm, Cristobal really took things to the next level and recruited better than anyone ever had in Eugene.
Lanning picked up right where Cristobal left off, and is arguably doing things just as well, if not better than the former Oregon coach did.
While Lanning has a knack for star-studded visitor lists and a recruiting class that resembles an SEC school along the defensive trenches, one of the things that has stood out to me the most during his almost two years in Eugene is his — and his coaching staff’s — ability to recruit in the defensive secondary. Whether it’s cornerbacks or safeties, it has felt like picking up players who can cover with speed and be physical at the point of attack has been a priority for the Ducks.
Again, this ability is not Lanning’s alone but also should be credited to his coaching staff, mainly cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin, former safeties coach Matt Powledge, and current safeties coach Chris Hampton.
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On Sunday afternoon, the Ducks got a commitment from 4-star cornerback Ify Obidegwu, the No. 99 player in the 2024 class. His commitment urged me to dig into the numbers to answer a question that I have found myself routinely asking…
Is Dan Lanning’s staff better at recruiting defensive backs than any other coach we’ve seen at Oregon, or is this just a product of recency bias?
I dug through the numbers of the recruiting classes for the past five head coaches to get an answer, going back to the start of the Chip Kelly era when you could argue that recruiting started to be a focus for Oregon. Here’s what I found: