Dan Lanning tells his team he’s staying in Oregon despite Alabama rumors

The second-year Oregon head coach was a hot name to replace legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who retired on Wednesday.

On the heels of Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s shocking retirement on Wednesday, a popular name for his replacement seemed to be Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.

In fact, social media caught fire after an alleged flight tracker posted a photo of a private charter from Eugene to Tuscaloosa, seemingly confirming Lanning would at least be brought in for the job.

Instead of letting those rumors fester, Lanning chose to dispel any questions about his status as the Ducks head coach with a short little video shared to social media.

“It’s not about worrying about the next thing,” Lanning said in a team meeting, “It’s about wondering what’s right in front of you, the six inches right in front of your face.”

The video ended with a short speech from Lanning about how he wanted to stay in Eugene as long as the city and the program wanted him to be the coach.

“This place has everything that I could possibly ever want,” Lanning said.

With one big name off the board, the Alabama coaching search continues as the Crimson Tide try to find someone to replace Nick Saban.