Oregon Coach Dan Lanning Takes Share Of Blame For Indiana's Historic Win Over Ducks

The No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers upset the No. 3 Oregon Ducks in Autzen Stadium on Saturday, and the upset marks Indiana's first ever win over a top-five opponent in the AP Top 25 Poll. Oregon's loss also snaps the longest-active home winning streak in the country (18 wins). Oregon's offense was unable to find a rhythm and the Ducks defense was unable to come up with timely stops against Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers.

After the game Oregon coach Dan Lanning took his share of the blame after the defeat.

"I don't think anybody in the organization did the best that they're capable of today, myself included. Starts with me," Lanning said.

Lanning also addressed what went wrong with the second half offense in the loss to Indiana.

"Ultimately, it means they made better adjustments in the second half than we did. We come out and get a stop defensively early on. But again, I think the penalties really hurt us in the second half, some negative plays that we weren't able to create. I thought they had a really good plan, that we have to have more in-game adjustments to be able to handle. They played well and we didn't play well enough, so no excuses from us. They deserve credit in this win," said Lanning.

What Dan Lanning Said After Oregon's Upset Loss

Oct 11, 2025; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning shakes hands with Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti after Indiana defeated Oregon by the score of 30-20 at Autzen Stadium. | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Opening Statement:

"Certainly a disappointing result, but we didn’t play well enough to go win that game, and Indiana certainly did. They’re a really well-coached team. They did a great job in this game. They had a great plan. They were able to create pressure throughout, and we struggled on third down, struggled to protect the quarterback."

"Ultimately, they were more prepared for us in this moment. I don't think there was any let down from our players, our crowd was outstanding, created some penalties and some opportunities for us, but ultimately, we shout ourselves in the foot and had several penalties ourselves, which has been a little bit uncharacteristic of us."

"So, can't play behind the chains on offense. We had a hard time generating success any time we did. We kind of hurt ourselves, but again, unbelievably prepared, great team. Coach Cignetti, the quarterback played well. Their defense played real really well. And they did something that will be good for us to attack and look at for the future," said Lanning.

On if he's reminding his team of Ohio State's run in 2024:

"Our players know that, they recognize what's in front of them, and it's about improvement. It's about going to attack. It's hard to go unscathed in college football, especially against a good team. They played a better game than us, they were better coached than us today. And our guys recognize that every one of our goals is still in front of us and an opportunity to attack."

On third down struggles:

"You try to have tight matches. I thought their quarterback did a good job of getting from one to three and finding the open guy. You know, one of them, we slipped and fell down. I have to back and see the offsides. That surprised me. It's not a reviewable play, but I thought we were off the field in time. Something that we said we had to be clean on substitutions. We weren't, and then they were able to run the ball and control the clock. We didn't do a good job of having responsibility for the quarterback on a couple of those plays where we thought we did, but it's something we'll go back and evaluate."

Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Elijah Sarratt (13) and quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) celebrate after beating Oregon Duck — Oct 11, 2025; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Elijah Sarratt (13) and quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) celebrate after defeating the Oregon Ducks by the score of 30-20 at Autzen Stadium. | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

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On Oregon's run game:

"They had hats in a loaded box. You look even at the interception there at the end, you're trying to throw an advantage RPO, you get a batted ball when they have a loaded box, and they do a great job of creating that and turn that to an interception. So ultimately, we have to go look at the film, see what they did, make sure we have proper answers in the future," Lanning said.

On Brandon Finney's pick-six:

"Man to man coverage, he did a great job. I mean, that's one of the harder routes to defend in man to man is a crossing route from the opposite side. He did a great job breaking on the ball. We had good pressure up front. Great job finishing the end zone and turn that into a touchdown for us."

Oregon quarterback Dante Moore looks toward the scoreboard as the Oregon Ducks host the Indiana Hoosiers Oct. 11, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On his message to Dante Moore:

"Adversity is real, right? You're going to face it at some point in your career. It's about how you respond to it. We didn't have a fastball today. They did a great job in this game. Everybody wants to look at players and say, 'Oh this, this is the reason.' That was a team effort, right? And that was a team loss, right? And their team played better than us. It wasn't Dante. It was the whole group, the coaching staff, the players. So ultimately, Dante's gonna look at this as an opportunity to learn from it as well . We'll grow from it."

On Dante Moore's confidence:

"I think Dante has confidence. Again, I thought they had a better plan. And there's something that we put on film that they did a good job taking advantage of. They had a good rush all day where our protection wasn't clean. We can get better in that area, but Dante is a confident player. He's a guy that we have a lot of confidence in."

On Dante's injury scare:

"I think Dante's ok. He's a tough kid, right? He took some hits today, and we got to do a better job of protecting our quarterback to avoid that."

On the offense's struggles

"Yeah, it felt like they had the pen last. They had extra hats at the point of attack. And then in situations where we're having to throw forward, they did a great job defending the sticks. They were aggressive. I think they're really well coached. They won the 50-50 balls. So those are really close as far as connection and how tight they are in coverage. But they did a good job of being tight in coverage. We tried to take the top off a couple of times. Had a good job being on tp when we had those moments."

On the team's mindset:

"I don't think anybody in the organization did the best that they're capable of today, myself included. Starts with me and again, I thought their plan was better and ours wasn't. There's some moments going back early in the game that I'm already saying, 'Okay we handled this wrong and didn't put our guys in position to have success.' But that'll be something we can go improve."

"Like I said, I thought our players played hard, but there's a moment there when you're not having success on offense that you probably have some self doubt that's going to set in and some that we'll have to attack and make sure that we have a great plan for in the future."