Oregon's Dan Lanning Reveals How Dante Moore And Team Are Bouncing Back From Loss

The No. 8 Oregon Ducks hit the road to play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in week 8, coming off a loss for the first time this season.

In week 7, the Ducks fell to the No. 3 Indiana Hoosiers 30-20 at Autzen Stadium. Oregon coach Dan Lanning used his Monday press conference to talk about how the team is responding to the loss. Lanning also spoke about the recent coaching changes in college football and provided injury updates for a pair of players heading into the matchup.

What Lanning Said

oregon ducks dan lanning big ten college football dante moore jordon davison rutger scarlet knights brandon finney — Oct 11, 2025; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning instructs his team from the sideline against the Indiana Hoosiers during the third quarter at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Opening Statement:

“Got a great opportunity in front of us to go play a team in Rutgers that does a lot of things that really challenge you. Coach Schiano is a guy that I've got tremendous respect for. His name speaks for itself. What he's been able to do over the years. His teams, when you watch them play, they play with a brand of toughness that's they challenge you in a lot of ways,” Lanning started.

“Obviously, has history and special teams being very aggressive when it comes to punt block. But you see it on in all phases. You see it on defense. They're in your grill. They play tight coverage,” he continued.

“You see it offensively, they got real weapons outside at wide receiver, one of the better running backs, if not one of the best running backs we've seen this year, in the way they're playing right now, so it'll be a really fun challenge for us. Our guys came to work today, and excited to see them get back out there on the field.”

The Team’s Response In The Last 48 Hours:

“Yeah, just that. You know, guys ready to go attack it. Nobody was satisfied with the result on Saturday, and there's a lot of pieces that could have been better, but these guys came to work today.”

What Success Looks Like Against Rutgers:

“I don't think you look at that game and say everything was broken either, right? We lost to a really good team. We're tied in the fourth quarter. We don't finish the game. Did we play our best game? No, we didn't play our best game in the first half,” Lanning said.

“But what does success look like? It looks like improvement. It looks like us getting better, not making the same mistakes we made in that last game, doing a better job identifying what's working for us and what's not as coaches, right? And doing a good job of leaning in on what's working for us and then having good answers for what the opponent's doing.”

How Dante Moore Is Using Defeat As A Leadership Opportunity:

“He's handled it the right way. Everybody looks internally and then goes back and says, okay, what can I have improved on? What could I have done better? And I think he saw a lot of moments in that game that he could have played to a higher degree and what he's capable of,” Lanning said.

“He's proven he's a good quarterback, and he didn't play to his best on Saturday. He knows that. We didn't put him in the most advantageous situations on Saturday as well. But he came in today and attacked it really well.”

What Moore Could’ve Done Better Against Indiana:

“Probably a combination of both, right? But we got off of some of our initial reads a little too quick at times, didn't key through the things that we're supposed to key through at times. You know, the routes weren't always ran at the right place,” Lanning said.

“So, the guy that he's supposed to be throwing the ball to, and he's expecting to be in a certain spot, wasn't where they needed to be. So, it's always easy to say, 'Oh, that's the quarterback or the call, right?' The wideouts need to be in location where they're supposed to be at the moment when he's looking to deliver the ball. And so, all those things add up, and those are things we’ll sharpen up.”

His Perspective On Recent Coaching Changes:

“That's the business that we're in. You know, it's a heavy pressure position. There's high expectations. Fan bases want to win. They expect that. You know, there's some really good coaches that you know. It's really about, what have you done lately? And that's, that's college football, that's the world we live in. So, it is what it is, right? There's not a lot that you can say about it, other than go do your job and try your best to go win games.”

Kyler Kasper Injury Update:

“Had an injury to his foot and ended up having surgery on that, so he won't be available for us, unfortunately.”

Defensive Back Dorian Brew’s Recovery:

“Working every day. He's working every day, and he's able to practice for us now. He's doing more for us. So excited to continue to see him develop.”

Future Opportunities For Jordon Davison At Running Back:

“I think he's earned those opportunities. He did a good job. At times, there were some runs that were really successful for us on Saturday. There were some runs that weren't, and that's, you know, scheme-related, but it's also the way some of our backs do a certain, you know, do a really good job at certain runs. And some of the runs that Jordon does a really good job at showed up for us on Saturday.”

Defensive Lineman Bear Alexander’s Success:

“He's doing a really good job. He's improved throughout the season. He's a guy, we talk about taking our medicine every single week and saying, what can we improve? What can we get better at? He's a guy that's done a good job of attacking those things, each week, and proven to be a guy that can play snaps for us.”

The Importance Of Controlling The Tempo:

“I think tempo’s something you always want to vary. There was moments we weren't really fast and it wasn't good on Saturday, and there's moments we went fast and was really good, right? And you got to be able to do a little bit of both. That's part of it, more than anything. We just got to go out there and execute and do what we're coached to do, and then make sure that we're coaching the proper things in those moments.”

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Where They Are At Cornerback:

“We’re going to keep continuing to make sure that we have guys that go out there and compete at a high level. I think we have guys that can play winning football. (Brandon Finney Jr.’s) playing at a really, really high level right now. He's earned the opportunity to be on the field as much as we can have him there, as long as he's fresh,” Lanning said.

“But they do a great job. This is, as far as teams that we've played that throw the intermediate passing game, they have one of the deepest steps to target in our league. These guys really push the push the ball down the field. Their quarterback delivers a really good ball, and they've got great size outside, then they have a slot receiver that can flat out run,” he continued.

“So, this is a team that has really good talent, like I said outside that you have to match up well, from a body standpoint, you have to be able to defend contested catches. They'll throw the 50-50 ball and expect their guy to come down with it consistently.”

The Cornerback Room’s Motivation After The Game Against The Hoosiers:

“I think you always want to perform your best.”

If Running The Ball Less In The Second Half Was A Result Of Halftime Adjustments:

“Well, we had limited opportunities to in the second half because we didn't do a great job getting drives running. But we should absolutely looked for more opportunities to run the ball and do some of the things that were effective.”

Pass Protection Issues Being Poor Execution vs. Calls:

“I don't know. Like, I couldn’t give you a percentage. Their guy beat our guy. Like, there was always somebody probably accounted for, or we're throwing hot off of them. We did a good job throwing hot at times, you know, to Gary on an empty protection where we were hot, and is one of our bigger gains of the day. And then there were times we didn't do a great job of that or redirecting protection. So, it's a combination of both.”

When The Kicking Game Influences Offensive Strategy:

“I think kicking and the kicking game always influences strategy.”

What Makes Rutgers’ Run Game Unique:

“They do a great job, you know, with their stretch. They run some wide zone variations, and they run some inside zones. So, they have great compliments to their run game. They don't have a lot of indicators in the run game, which allows them to take the ball in multiple directions,” Lanning said.

“And they do a great job getting north and south. When they make a decision, they hit the hole, and they hit it with violence. So really good run game and it’s built off of similar to some of the stuff we saw last week with RPOs down the field, if you load the box, they got the ability to throw it to the guys outside and take advantage of it.”

The Havoc Rate From The Front Seven:

“Yeah, it could certainly improve. And then again, it's a little bit sometimes dictated by who you're playing and how quickly they get the ball out, and what they do.”