Everything Oregon Coach Dan Lanning Said About Oklahoma State Before Week 2 Showdown
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The Oregon Ducks will be the toughest test the Oklahoma State Cowboys face all season.
The Ducks (1-0) are No. 2 in the AP Top 25, released on Tuesday, but are coming off a tough win over Boise State, 34-27. The Cowboys (0-1) lost to Tulsa, 24-10 in head coach Eric Morris’ debut with the program.
The pair have faced each other before. Back in 2022 Morris was the offensive coordinator at Washington State while Lanning was the head coach.
Lanning had his press conference with reporters on Monday. Here is everything he had to say about Oklahoma State and Morris during the press conference.
Dan Lanning on the Changes from Last Year’s OSU Team
“I've got a ton of respect for Coach [Eric] Morris and what we're about to face here at Oklahoma State. I know this will be his first home game there. I'm sure it'll be an unbelievable atmosphere. I've actually never coached there, but I know they do a really good job. And it's really a new team. A lot of new faces in that program. I think they have over 90 new players in that program, so it's going to look a lot different than the last time we faced this team.”
Lanning on Whether Oregon Looked at OSU QB Drew Mestemaker in Portal
"I was never talking to Drew. That doesn't mean that people didn't communicate or weren't aware that he was in the portal. I'm sure any good player, we were aware of in the portal. But I think it was pretty quick that he made the decision he was going to be going and following his coach there.
"I will say this: Drew's an unbelievable player. You see his arm strength show up. He's a guy that can stand flat-footed and throw a 60-yard bomb. So he's got a really strong arm.
"They have a really strong passing attack. There's a reason they were the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation last year at North Texas. That shows up, and he's obviously the guy that makes that tick for them."
Lanning on OSU Coach Eric Morris and How He Runs His Program
“The first time we bumped into him was one of my early games here when he was at Washington State. He was the offensive coordinator there, and we were down in a crazy environment there, kind of similar in a lot of ways to the games we just played — Boise State even more so.
"I think we were down 12 points in that game, and Cam Ward was playing for him at that point. But he does a lot of stuff that's disruptive on offense. That's tough. He can create explosive plays. They thrive off them. They throw the ball extremely well.
"He's even improved in the performance when it comes to the run game and what they're able to create in the run game now. But I've always thought he's done a really good job from that perspective."
Lanning on How He Sees OSU’s Week 1 Loss to Tulsa
“I don't necessarily put a ton of stock in the fact that they didn't win the game. You look at the scheme, and it's been effective everywhere that he's been. Whether it's Incarnate Word, whether it's Washington State, whether it's North Texas and now at Oklahoma State, they've created a lot of points wherever they've been.
“It's a first-year team with 91 new players. I imagine that's tough to get figured out in a short amount of time, especially when you don't see what it looks like until you really get on the game field.
“They also had some really tough situations throughout the game. They had the ball down at the goal line, they're about to punch it in to have a score and they don't get it. They had some costly turnovers that happened throughout the game, so the score could be completely different given a couple of different situations.”
Lanning on the Oklahoma State Defense
“[Defensive coordinator] Skyler Cassity does a really good job there. Again, they present a lot of different looks. They're primarily a four-down team, but they do a lot of stuff, and they can do it in a lot of different ways.
“They utilize nickel personnel. They can play bracket quarters. They can bring a lot of simulated pressures that you have to be prepared for. Just the fact that they're adaptable and adjustable, I think you can see that.
“They travel the nickel to the boundary sometimes. They don't sometimes. It's a combination of both. So there are a lot of different pictures that they can present.
“They get to go against tempo every single day. I think that's one of the biggest things they obviously present on offense, so their ability to line up. We had some successful plays on Saturday because we were able to line up fast and get the ball out before the defense was lined up. I don't know that you can anticipate that happening in this game because they get to face that quite a bit.”
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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