By Kyle Golik
When I attended Big Ten Media Days over the summer, there seemed to be a feel with the new expanded league. Ohio State has one of the largest media beats in the country, so the many questions that head coach Ryan Day had on the field were always going to be there. While everyone would have loved to talk to Day, he didn’t have that buzz. Penn State’s James Franklin is always good for good interaction, but it was a similar feel to Day. Southern California’s Lincoln Riley was a curiosity as well Michigan’s Sherrone Moore. I honestly didn’t waste time using Google to search for Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, I was far from Indiana’s 11-1 recoed – definitely not one of my best moments. But there was a star in Indianapolis and that was Oregon’s Dan Lanning.
Lanning commanded the room, his media session, and set the tone for Oregon’s first foray into the Big Ten.
The results have Oregon poised to fulfill “Uncle Phil’s” dream. For those who aren’t aware, “Uncle Phil” is Nike’s Phil Knight – an Oregon alumnus who ran track under the legendary Bill Bowerman. Bowerman would guide Oregon to four NCAA national championships, dozens of All-Americans, and co-founded Nike.
While Oregon has had many great coaches since Bowerman, none are in the stratosphere of where Lanning is and where they could be. With Oregon awaiting the winner of the Ohio State/Tennessee game in the Rose Bowl, the path to Oregon’s first national championship may also lead to Lanning taking the unofficial crown of best coach in the nation.
That is a bold statement when you consider the current holder of the crown is Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who has guided the Bulldogs to their fourth College Football Playoff berth in eight seasons – winning two national championships and making an appearance in a third.
Lanning was Smart’s defensive coordinator for the 2021 national championship team. With Lanning committed to Georgia throughout that playoff run, Smart kept Lanning on the staff text chain to ensure continuity amongst the staff. After Georgia clinched its first national championship since 1980 defeating Alabama, Smart had to excommunicate Lanning from the chain saying, “Hey, love you Dan, got to remove you from the staff thread, appreciate you, coach.”
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Coincidently, Lanning’s first game as a head coach for Oregon came against Smart and the Bulldogs. It seemed Oregon forgot to get off the team bus that day where Georgia began its defense of its national championship 49-3. It was the start of growing pains for Lanning as he dealt with another chess master in then Washington’s Kalen DeBoer.
DeBoer seemingly had all the answers in administering three consecutive defeats, including the final Pac-12 Championship Game in its original configuration that sent Washington on its way to the College Football Playoffs and Oregon to the Fiesta Bowl.
Lanning was also known as an aggressive chess player, something that burned him against Oregon State in his first season and allowed the Beavers to rally back and upset Oregon.
Throughout it all, Lanning has maximized on the Oregon branding, marketing, and “Uncle Phil’s” Nike influence. This is not a slight against Lanning, but it’s been a giant mystery why Lanning’s predecessors didn’t lean into it enough.
Lanning culminated the early signing period with the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class per 247Sports in 2025 that included signees from four five-star recruits. Lanning was not only able to beat James Franklin and Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game, but also for the services of defensive back Brandon Finney from McDonough School (Owings Mills, Maryland). Lanning also beat out DeBoer, Hugh Freeze, and Ryan Day for the services of cornerback Na’eem Offord, the No. 2 player in the state of Alabama from Parker HS (Birmingham, Alabama). If that wasn’t impressive enough, Lanning scored two wide receivers that included the No. 1 player in the state of Texas, Dakorien Moore from Duncanville (Duncanville, Texas) and Dallas Wilson from Tampa Bay Tech (Tampa Bay, Florida).
Lanning took to X and summed it up simply, “Today Was a Good Day.”
Today Was A Good Day! pic.twitter.com/HbA81q8c6z
— Dan Lanning (@CoachDanLanning) December 4, 2024
What does Dan Lanning mean for Oregon on a historical level?
It seems 2024 has been filled with many good days for Lanning, and more seem to be on the horizon. The challenges are coming for him as well. If Oregon does indeed finally breakthrough and win the national championship they dearly covet, it raises Lanning’s stocks to unprecedented heights in the Oregon program.
You can look back historically and see when Len Casonova took Oregon to the Rose Bowl, trust me that is a very big deal, but today that doesn’t resonate similarly to where the playoff is. Rich Brooks will always have Ducks hearts for what 1994 means as a turning point for the program. Mike Bellotti had those Joey Harrington teams that should have played Miami in the Rose Bowl instead of Nebraska, which would have been a better game and maybe a different story. Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich additionally flirted on the doorsteps for national championships, falling short each time.
Neither of those names have been in Lanning’s position to deliver so much and be so much more. We are indeed watching the ascension of Lanning to the proverbial throne, the only question left is can Lanning secure it, time will tell.
