Head coach Les Miles and the University of Kansas agreed to part ways last week due to reports surfacing of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment during his time at LSU (2005-2016).
Now, Kansas must find a new head football coach as spring football season approaches. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports has included Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning as a possible candidate to take over the Jayhawks.
“7. Dan Lanning, Georgia defensive coordinator: A budding star who has worked for Kirby Smart, Nick Saban and Mike Norvell. Texas and Florida State both reportedly took cracks at Lanning to be their DC in the last two seasons. Lanning knows the territory as a Kansas City native. He recruited Kansas jucos while at Arizona State under Todd Graham.”
As Dodd mentions, Lanning has received calls for other coaching positions for the last two seasons, most recently Texas. New Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian reportedly offered the defensive coordinator position to Lanning, who elected to return to Athens and shortly after, received a pay raise of $450,000, which puts him in the upper echelon of assistant coach salaries at $1.7 million per year.
Lanning’s resume at Georgia is impressive. He led the 2019 Bulldogs to a No. 1 ranking in scoring defense, while ranking No. 3 in total defense. And in 2020, led Georgia to the No. 15 scoring defense and the No. 13 total defense in the country with several key starters going down with injuries.
Although Kansas will probably not pull Lanning away from Georgia, it’s only a matter of time before the right job opens up for him and Lanning decides to move on from Athens. Until then, the Bulldogs have one of the top teams in the country in 2021 and focus now has to be on a championship.
Check out the “UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton” podcast here! J.C. is joined by Georgia legend Rennie Curran in this special episode.