Dan Lanning on Transfer Portal: "We're not going to make our living there"

College athletics will never be the same thanks to the transfer portal. Hundreds of college football players around the country entered the portal soon after the conclusion of the regular season.

The germination of the transfer portal leaves coaches scrambling to replace players they thought would be in their rotation, while simultaneously salivating at the idea of recruiting players that would arrive with ample experience as Division 1 contributors.

Oregon finds itself in a similar situation now, facing a reconstruction of the coaching staff, namely with Dan Lanning the new head coach in town, and multiple players entering the transfer portal. The Ducks must also fill roster spots opened up by players declaring for the NFL Draft and verbal pledges on the recruiting trail decommitting and in some cases signing with new schools in the time since.

After Mario Cristobal's departure and several assistants off to new journeys, the Ducks lost eight commits and three players to the transfer portal in a short amount of time. Lanning has quite the workload in front of him as he prepares to help Georgia earn its first national championship in 41 years, while also joining an Oregon program as a first-time head coach where he's tasked with building a new staff, recruiting, and establishing trust with the current roster.

So how will the Ducks' new head coach fill the voids on the roster? The Ducks signed seven players in the early signing period, but clearly more work must be done. Lanning was asked about his approach on Thursday.

"The portal is something you can definitely use to strengthen your team," Lanning said. "We're going to be really conscientious moving forward. I think it's a tool. I think there have been great teams across the nation this year that have proved that it can be valuable for your team. When it fits, we want to be able to use it."

Will the Ducks be one of those teams that capitalizes on the wealth of talent in the transfer portal, replacing significant players with players that enjoyed success at other programs? Lanning says they will, but don't expect him to use the transfer portal to build an entire starting lineup like Dana Altman has done across the Willamette at Matthew Knight Arena.

"We're not going to make our living there," Lanning said of his plan to utilize the transfer portal. "It's not going to be the only place we recruit. The two things I'm looking for when I'm hiring these coaches moving forward is relationships and development. When you talk about development, you're not signing finished products. You have to take players and take them to where you think they can be when it's all said and done.

"Will we end up looking in the portal for some answers? Absolutely. I think I owe it to the university and our program to do that, but it won't be the only place that we shop."

If we're continuing with Lanning's analogy of recruiting as shopping, then there are a number of former Ducks on the market as wide receiver Mycah Pittman, starting corner DJ James, defensive lineman Jayson Jones, and kicker Henry Katleman all entered the transfer portal either near the end of the regular season or after the season concluded.

Freshman running back Seven McGee also announced he had entered the transfer portal before tweeting he had changed his mind roughly 90 minutes later, crediting a conversion with Lanning and Director of Player Personnel Don Johnson.

"I got the magic touch, right?" Lanning joked on SportsCenter when asked about recruiting McGee to stay at Oregon. "I think Seven just needed to be able to have somebody to sit down with him and talk to him about the vision of the program and give us an opportunity not to trust us but an opportunity to earn his trust. I'm very appreciative that he's willing to do that."

Lanning is one of the best recruiters in the sport, and if he can convince a player of McGee's caliber to stay at Oregon over what would surely be a long list of potential suitors, there's no telling what kind of talent he and his staff can bring to Eugene, whether it be on the recruiting trail or via the transfer portal.

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