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Now that the 2021 college football season is over for the Oregon Ducks, many fans are looking towards the future and getting excited about the next era. The Dan Lanning era.
While Lanning is still entrenched in his work down that the University of Georgia, where the No. 3 Bulldogs have a rematch set with the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide for January 10th in the national championship game, Oregon’s future coach has been able to split his duties incredibly well, working to keep his current team ready while setting up the pieces for his future team.
Over the past month, Lanning has been able to fill out his new coaching staff with the Ducks and hire some of the best position coaches available, while also scheming up a defense that held the Michigan Wolverines to just 11 points in the Orange Bowl.
Another place where Lanning has excelled is in the recruiting game. Heralded as one of the best recruiters in the nation, Oregon’s head coach has been able to get a jump start on the 2023 recruiting class, recently getting a verbal commitment from 4-star CB Cole Martin, the No. 65 prospect in the nation.
In his most recent press conference with the Bulldogs, Lanning was asked about what he hopes to bring along with him from Athens to Eugene. His recruiting ability, along with Oregon’s national brand, was a big part of his answer.
“One of the big benefits obviously being at Oregon is it is a national brand,” Lanning said. “We can go anywhere in the nation and be able to sign players. I think you bring that relentless pursuit that we operate with day in and day out here and the organization behind it. We can bring the mentality of how we play football to a certain level. I’ve been very fortunate to have high-quality experience in my time whether it be here at Georgia or Memphis or Alabama or some of the other places I’ve been able to visit and coach.”
The Ducks currently don’t have one of the better recruiting classes in the 2022 rankings, where they currently sit at No. 56 after the departure of Mario Cristobal and the number of de-commitments that brought. However, things are certainly looking up, with a number of highly-ranked prospects including Oregon in their final decisions. Recently, Josh Conerly Jr., the No. 1 rated OT in the nation, included the Ducks in his top-6, and 2023 5-star QB Nicholas Iamaleava included Oregon in his top-12.
It’s developments like that which can put Oregon back on the map, but Lanning knows it’s still going to take work to land the recruits.
“Taking all that out there I think will be really important and then the biggest thing is learning from that experience. Not any situation is the exact same, but recruiting ultimately at the end of the day comes down to work,” Lanning said. “It’s going to take work to get great players at Oregon. And we have the ability to get great players and great players should want to come there.”
While his time has been split between two incredibly important jobs over the past month, it’s been impressive to see what Lanning has been able to do while wearing two hats. In a matter of days, his time at Georgia will be over, and he can focus all of his attention on the Ducks.
We can’t wait to see what happens then.
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