Everything Dan Lanning Said Before Facing Indiana In The Peach Bowl

Dan Lanning prepares to coach the No. 5 Oregon Ducks to their first College Football Playoff semifinal in over a decade. With a spot in the National Championship on the line, Lanning’s roster deals with injuries and transfer portal woes while the team gets ready for the Peach Bowl.

The Oregon coach did a joint press conference with Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti ahead of the matchup. Lanning spoke about what it’s been like to balance the postseason preparation with the transfer portal opening and the team’s strength in numbers mindset. He also revealed that running back Jay Harris is available against Indiana despite entering the portal.

Everything Dan Lanning Said

oregon ducks college football playoff dan lanning transfer portal recruiting indiana hoosiers teitum tuioti jay harris — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning walks the field during warmups as the Oregon Ducks take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

His Experience Balancing the Playoff with the Portal:

“Yeah, certainly a juggle. We played the first, similar to coach, but we played earlier in the day. But traveling back from Miami is a long trip. So, we got back later that night. Had some guys in. You're juggling both, but I think it's really important that your focus -- as much as we can, we put our focus on this game.”

“And you try to make sure you communicate to the people you're recruiting, 'Hey, I wish I could pay more attention to you right now, but the reality is we are really focused on this game, and if you want to be a part of games like this, this is what you have to look forward to and you'll want my focus to be on this game as well.' On the same note, recruiting is something that happens every single day. It happens in season.”

“It's a little more highlighted right now in this moment. During football season, you don't not recruit. You do it all the time. It's something you always do. It might be a late phone call. It might be a late Zoom. It might be an early phone call. It might be stepping out of a meeting to get on a phone with a player. So, we try to make those adaptions and still focus on our team and give them our best foot forward.”

On Linebacker Teitum Tuioti’s Comments About the Transfer Portal:

“He's playing in the game, right? Are you telling me he's entering? You started that question kind of weird. I'm like, if he's transferring to Indiana, then I'm going to be. . . ."

“Yeah, we've talked about it all year, strength in numbers, and the strength in football is the team. It's not one up individual. And I truly believe that our coaches and our staff and our players prepared really hard all year to be ready for their opportunities, and sometimes peoples' roles change throughout the year. That's where you have to be selfless.”

“But we have some guys that can play winning football, and that's the key is do you have 11 guys that can go play winning football. And if there's a deficiency, can you cover that deficiency up. That's part of the strategy behind football as well. Ultimately, we're really excited about the guys that take the field. I've got complete trust in our players.”

“And regardless of what happens in this game, you go play and you play to win the game. But when you are playing a great team like Indiana, regardless what happens, to be one of four teams left in college football is an unbelievable honor that we'll never recognize and we'd certainly never be satisfied with, regardless -- there's only one result that makes us happy at the end of the day, but I promise we'll have 11 guys on the field that are going to want to play winning football and play to the standard necessary for our team”

Opening Statement:

“First off, it's an incredible honor to be here. I want to thank Gary and his representatives here at the Peach Bowl. One thing that makes this game fun is recognizing how many things the Peach Bowl actually does outside of just this football game. It's something my wife, Sauphia and I have been able to be a part of and really grateful for the service that the Peach Bowl provides. Truly honored to play a team like Indiana.”

“They've obviously done an incredible job. You look at the body of work of coach Cignetti and his crew and the way his team plays. They're playing as good as anybody else in the nation. I can speak to it already. We already started off this morning of competing. He beat me here a little bit. I walked back there, and they're having us sign balls, and he got a jump start. So, I quickly went into two-minute mode and was trying to catch up.”

“His signatures looked a lot better than mine, but I put some pressure on him at the end, but he still finished signing, I don't know how many balls there were, coach. There were a bunch of them. It was a fun challenge. This game is going to be what college football is about. I think you see two tough teams, two teams that are really complete.”

“They play great on offense, defense and special teams. They don't have a weakness. And ultimately, I think both these teams, as you watch them, it's about team football. It's not one player. It's not one individual. It's a group that have collectively made an effort to put themselves in this position. And obviously it's an honor for Oregon to be one of the teams participating in that.”

The Transition from the SEC to Big Ten Taking Over College Football:

“It's a good league. It's a good league, and there's great players that want to come here. Certainly, part of the result of the portal has created -- it's tough to keep great players in one place. I think you've seen some transition where great players that aren't getting an opportunity look for an opportunity to go play.”

“That has certainly taken place in our program and ultimately the portal. And NIL has probably created a little bit more parity in the sport. That being said, there's some really good coaches in this league, and I think people realize you can do it in more than one place.”

“So when you have great teams like you do, academic tradition and things that exist in the Big Ten, a league that people can be a part of and still realize their dreams of NFL success and win games and compete for championships, I think that's just opened the spectrum to there's a lot of places you can have success and certainly the Big Ten is one of them.”

How Important It Is to Iron Out the Issues in College Football:

“Yeah, I mean it would be great. I'll be honest, my entire focus right now is on this game. Yeah, contracts you'd love to say that they should be enforceable. At some point we'll see what that ends up looking like. But I think that's the secret behind a contract, right, is it's supposed to mean something.”

If Running Back Jay Harris is Available to Play:

“Yes.”

If It’s Frustrating to Answer Questions About the Transfer Portal the Day Before the Game:

“No.”

How the Defense has Grown and What Role That’ll Play in the Semifinal:

“It's really important we play well tomorrow, especially when you're playing one of the best offenses in college football, one of the best quarterbacks. I think one of the things that really sticks out with Mendoza is he takes the ball where it's supposed to go. Everybody says that, and you realize in one I where he's taking the throw, okay, in two I where he's taking the throw, in zone, where does he take the throw.”

“And doesn't get enough credit for his feet, is an unbelievable scrambler, was able to do that against us last time. Does a great job of taking off when it's there, when his first read is not there and he has great weapons to throw to. So, what do we have to do? Each guy has gotta farm his land. They have to do their 1/11th, gotta have 11 guys playing the same goal, gotta handle the variety that they provide because there's a lot of variety in this offense.”

“I think it starts with what coach Cignetti and I both talked about earlier in the week, you have two teams that want to be able to run the ball and control the line of scrimmage. The team that can win line of scrimmage, that's a big, big piece of this game.”

“And once the line of scrimmage is determined, it's going to be about who can win one-on-ones outside with technique. So, we need guys to go in this game and play with great technique. If you're on the field, there's a standard to play to. And obviously when you're playing a team that's as capable as Indiana is, you have to play your best.”

How His Motivational Tactics Change:

“Motivation is overrated. These players gotta go play the game. I've said that consistently. On the same note, I think it's my job to make sure these guys are ready to go and give them everything I've got in that moment. But if you can't get up for an opportunity to play Indiana especially when they had the better half of us last time, then shame on us.”

What He’s Learned About Himself Through the Season:

“And I'm aging quick. Just more than anything, how grateful I am to get to be a part of what I get to be a part of, you know. My three boys got to come on this trip. My wife got to come on this trip. And you try not to be very selfish in this profession, but it was pretty fun stepping in that hotel room last night.”

“And I just kind of joked with our boys, I said if your dad was a dentist, you wouldn't be doing this right now. It could have gone a lot of different other ways, too. I was really lucky to be a part of a lot of winning teams. So probably more than anything, just gratitude that I get to be a part of something like this.”

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What the Evolution of the Matchup Looks Like As a Rematch:

“Yeah, half the game in football sometimes as coaches, you chase ghosts and you try to overanalyze things that happened before, but ultimately you try to stick to the same process you've used throughout the season. Just so happens you're playing the same team twice.”

“Part of the reason they're good is they're able to do the same thing over and over and over again really, really successfully. And that's one thing that's really clear about Indiana. They have an identity. They do their job extremely well. I would hope you would say thing about us. As you watch Oregon, we do a lot of the same things over and over again really, really well. So, it'll be a combination of those things and certainly some tweaks within that.”

What He Learned from Kirby Smart to Prepare Him for a Head Coaching Position:

“Yeah, I couldn't put into words the lessons I learned from coach Smart. He's an unbelievable coach, unbelievable mentor, a guy I still talk to this day. We bounce ideas off of each other. I noticed whenever he sends a text message asking me a question, I answer a lot quicker than whenever I send him a text message.”

“That's just Kirby a little bit, but I'm picking up on that. So, I'm a little more persistent. But I learned so many lessons from coach Smart on how to run a program. Being genuinely who you are. I think he coaches with the same passion and energy consistently every day. He runs the entire organization really to a T. He's incredibly intelligent.”

“So, I try to take a lot of lessons from coach Smart. And obviously he's done a lot of things right. You don't have the success he's had without doing that. And I think he's also been a guy that's always been willing to adapt. Grateful for my time with him. Certainly, prepared me for moments like this. Glad I got to be a part of that here at Georgia.”

How Different This Experience is From When He was in the Postseason Four Years Ago:

“They're all unique and special. In our profession, we probably never take the time to sit back and smell the roses and enjoy it. At some point in life, I'll probably get the chance to do that, but certainly grateful for this one.”

How He’s Seen Coordinators Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi Juggle Multiple Jobs with the Transfer Portal and the Postseason:

“They've been going both, been going hundred miles an hour both since they hit that cycle where they have to do both. And I give them a lot of credit for the work they've done, the way they've been able to maintain focus in a piece that's extremely difficult. I also give a lot of credit to the sport staff around them and the coaches around them here that we have had and the ones that will be here moving forward that have handled some of that load as they go through it.”

“Again I've said it before, they realize they don't have those jobs if it isn't for the players and our team, and they feel like they owe the best effort to give them everything they have to continue to make the season special, and they've done a great job of doing that as well as doing a good job of establishing their new program.”

How Much Concern There Is About Other Playoff Teams Contacting Portal Players for Intel:

“I haven't put a lot of thought into it”

Two Keys to Victory:

“I think it always starts with the ball. The team that's able to take care of the ball. Last time we played, we didn't. You have to take care of the ball. We were able to create a takeaway as well, but we ended up having two. I think that's a big piece of this. And special teams in big games always makes a big impact. I think we have to play well on special teams.”