Oregon's Dan Lanning Breaks Down His Viral Emotions After Beating Penn State

Oregon coach Dan Lanning was amped up when he gave his postgame interviews after leading the No. 2 Ducks to a 30-24 double-overtime win against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Lanning displayed a lot of emotions after the roller coaster victory: letting out a scream, celebrating with his players and getting teary-eyed.

The Ducks’ coach spoke about during the team’s bye week about his reaction to the latest win, as well as provided injury updates.

What Lanning Said

oregon ducks dan lanning big ten transfer portal recruiting dante moore quarterback dillon thieneman penn state nittany lions — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning celebrates the Ducks’ win as the Oregon Ducks face the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sept. 27, 2025, at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Opening Statement:

“We just finished a good walk-through with our team. This has been a work week for us, an opportunity to get healthy and attack some of our strengths, attack some of our weaknesses and find ways to improve, but teams working good and in a really good mindset.”

His Emotions Postgame:

“I didn't play a single snap and I'm the guy cramping on the plane ride home. Like you feel like you played a game. It's just, it's mentally exhausting, it's physically exhausting. And it's, again, a game that could have gone either way. It's really refreshing to be on the other end of that when it does. But our, you know, everybody in our program put everything they have into that game.”

His Scream Postgame:

“Yeah, just jacked man. I was excited.”

Daylen Austin Injury Update:

“He's gonna be in good shape. You know, it's been something that's bothering him in a couple games this year, but I think he's gonna be good.”

Running Back Makhi Hughes’ Status:

“He's asked to red-shirt and we honor that opportunity for him.”

How Impressed He Is By Quarterback Dante Moore’s Calmness:

“His calm and the poise is, is really impressive. And I think if he carried a narrative early when he left UCLA, if you pressure this guy, it's not going to be the same one. Obviously, he's a different quarterback, right? He handles pressure extremely well. He protects the ball,” Lanning said.

“I mean, even the big third down conversion to Kenyon (Sadiq), you know, across that's a throw that a lot of times you tell your quarterback, don't make that throw, don't make that throw. Good. I'm glad you made that throw, right. And he has those moments. His ability to make decisions and pressure moments this year has been really impressive.”

What He Told Moore Postgame:

“I love you. You know, it's just, it is not because of how well he played. It's about the buy in. It's about the work that he's put in. It's about the extra time. It's about the way he treats his teammates. It's the composure that he shows, the way he makes people around him,” Lanning said.

“He talked earlier about, you know, Noah Whittington getting on him in practice because of a lack of focus and him not, you know, operating the way that he wanted to, and how much he appreciated knowing that moment and now on the on the reverse end him being able to say, I'm gonna go pick Noah up after, you know that play is almost, you know, fumble and like that,” he continued.

“We have leaders on our team that can go back and forth and challenge each other to be the best version of themselves. I think that's really special. And that's what, that's part of what Dante's done.”

Clarification On The Targeting Call:

“Basically, it was explained to me is there's a difference in that in college rule and NFL rule, you know, as far as head contact, and I think it's something that will be addressed, hopefully in the future. Probably a rule that needs to be reestablished. But again, it's about, was there contact with the crown of the helmet from the defender? And that wasn't necessarily, it didn't happen.”

How Beneficial The Timing Of The Bye Week Is:

“In a lot of ways, it fell in the in the right spot for us. I felt like we just played one of our most physical games. So, the recovery piece, I think, is really huge for us. You know, this bye week, I've set it up differently than I have in the past, based on recovery and time for our guys, it's also beginning school for our guys. It's a great time to be able to start school right in a unique time where it doesn't necessarily affect us in the middle of a game week,” he said.

“So, our guys can really attack the classroom the way they need to be attacked the classroom. And it's a great time for us to go back. We have enough of a picture right of what our team is so far, where we can really assess what do we do well, what do we not and what are some of our strong tendencies on both sides of the ball that we need to make sure that we can address and great teams have tendencies,” Lanning continued.

“So, some of those we’ll keep, right? We're gonna maintain those tendencies, but some of those we can, we can certainly sprinkle in some wrinkles that make us different.”

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Wide Receiver Gary Bryant Jr.’s Reliability:

“I think Gary is a pillar right of our program, and the way he operates, what he does, he's one of the most trusted players on our team, you know, from an assignment standpoint, that he's going to do his job consistently. He's never been a me guy. He's always been a we guy. And I think that really shows, you know, in that game, I don't know how much action he got, and then you get no overtime, he makes a huge play, right?”

“And is able to go execute a really high level, but that's exactly who he is in practice every day. He's going to run at every route, full speed, regardless of if the ball comes his way or not. He's gonna block his tail off. He's gonna know his assignment. He's gonna be there for his teammates. And obviously a great example of that on Saturday.”

The Combination Of Talent And Experience On His Team:

“I think we have a good team. I don't think anybody can tell you what your team is. You know, early in the season. The key is that this team's growing every week, and that's the key is that we have to continue to grow, right?”

“You can't be satisfied with the growth we had, because other teams will grow, and the teams that continue to grow and get better every single week, that's going to give you the best version of you at the end of the year. So ultimately, love the position that we're in, but only love it if we keep watering the plant and keep growing, keep getting better,” Lanning concluded.

What Makes Safety Dillon Thieneman Special:

“Just his level of intelligence to handle a lot. We pitch a lot to a guy that's really been in our program one year, and he puts in the work to be able to execute at a really high level, man. He's a good tackler, he's physical. He does a good job in coverage. He checks a lot of boxes,” Lanning said.

“So, part of a job as a coach is put guys in positions that they're going to be productive in the system. And that's what we feel like, you know, with Dillon, he's been very productive in that role, you know, for us and we're and we're putting him in a position for him to have success and our team to have success.”

How Important Iapani “Poncho” Laloulu Is:

“Poncho did an unbelievable job. And I go, I give a lot of credit to coach (A’lique) Terry, coach Cutter (Leftwich), coach (Ryan) Walk all those guys throughout the week, of creating chaos throughout the week, demanding communication from those guys, and then those guys having the same demands for themselves,” he said.

“But Poncho did an elite job. You know, Dave Iuli, half the game, he's looking backwards, right? And he has to turn around and play guard. That's hard, right? He did an unbelievable job of that. You know, Emmanuel Pregnon had one of his best games. You know, there's that whole unit we operate as that. You know, how well they do is how well we do. And they did a really good job.”

What Role Running Back Dierre Hill Jr. Can Have In The Offense:

“A huge one. And I think that's I think every week we've come in here and said, watch his role is going to continue to grow and continue to grow and continue to grow. And when you take advantage of opportunities, it’ll continue to grow.”

On His Exchange With College GameDay’s Pat McAfee:

“I also texted him, hey, don't say this on air. And then he said it on air, but it was, I wasn't even gonna text him, but I'm sitting in the hotel room with my son, Titan, and I'm making some of my notes for the game. And Titan looks over, he goes, ‘That's so disrespectful.’ I was like, what?”

“He goes, ‘All the guys on GameDay are wearing white.’ I thought Pat would get a kick out of that. You know, Titan was pretty fired up, you know, so I sent that text. But yeah, after the game, he sent me a text. I don't remember exactly what it said.”

On The Indiana Hoosiers’ Program:

“Well, they're obviously really well coached. They've got a team that plays really hard. They're getting great quarterback play. I think you have a good team, you gotta have a good quarterback play,” Lanning said.

“There's, they have that, and, you know, they're a tough team to go operate against. They're doing some good things, and we're not too far ahead right now in Indiana. We're really more on us, but just from afar, in glancing at them some you can see a lot of that.”

His Impression Of Indiana Quarterback Fernando Mendoza:

“He’s a talented quarterback. We had some success that day, but he also had some success as well. And I think you've seen that, that this is a guy that can play football at a high level.”

On Former Quarterback Dillon Gabriel Starting For The Cleveland Browns:

“I'm excited for Dillon, right? He's a guy that works extremely hard, and I know he won't take it for granted. He still has done an unbelievable job of staying connected with our players here, which is pretty awesome for a guy that's moved on to the next phase of his life that still touches base with our team, but I'm excited for him, excited for his opportunity. I know he'll make the absolute best of it.”

The Decision To Go For Two:

“I just think sometimes you know you there's moments that you want to leave it to the players, and the coaching staff and what we pieced together, and there's moments that you wanted to play out on the field. And in my mind, being that that was the end of the first overtime, we know we make the kick we get to go to second with that, I feel like that's giving your players a chance to go have success,” Lanning started.

“We hadn't had a two-point play against them yet. So, a lot of times that comes down to, okay, two-point play like, what do you think they're going to be in? Do you like your call? And with us, the unknowns, to me, spoke a lot more than the knowns, right? We had a lot of fourth downs. You'd love to say, go convert third down. You don't have that many fourth downs, but at that point in the game, when we get to the seventh fourth down, we got a pretty good idea what they're going to be in. And will this work?”

“When you go to that first overtime, you go to the first two-point play of the game, do you know what that's going to look like? They had a good defense when we did have to go for two after that second overtime. So, in my mind, it's let it play out in the field. Give your players an opportunity to win the game,” Lanning said.

“You're given the best chance to go win the game when you go for two there and you don't know what the opponent's going to do, right? It's really a limited amount of time for coach (Jim) Knowles there at Penn State at that moment, defending us. What would that look like? We had ran a two-point play in the Ohio State game the year before and felt like, okay, this could be something that they were in, but the unknowns is probably what made me say, let's let our players play it out on the field more than the known.”

Moore’s Pass To Bryant:

“I think you see those in practice for us. So, for you guys, it's new and for us, and we've seen him do consistently. You know, even the scramble play on the third down that he throws the Dakorien (Moore), like, that's not on script, that's not the way it's supposed to play out. But what's that take? It takes more than just Dante, right? It takes a wide out being in the right location,” he said.

“It takes him getting that work in practice. And I think Dante would tell you, I got that work in practice. I've seen that. I've experienced that I was ready for that moment, you know, coach (Will) Stein has set that drill up for me where I've experienced it already, and then for it to show up in a game and execute.”

The Battle Of The Trenches Against Penn State:

“We just thought that battle was really important. We didn't. We didn't play to our standard in the Big Ten Championship, especially in the second half when it came to, you know, controlling the line of scrimmage defensively. And I thought we had much better answers as coaching staff for our players too, to help them to be able to do that. But our D-line stepped up big. Our offensive line stepped up big,” Lanning said.

“We thought the rushing battle would be really important in this game. When you talk about two good teams, two good defenses, whoever could, you know, keep staying on schedule in this game. You know, time of possession isn't something we talk about very often, but I think we were high in that category in this game because we're able to maintain drives, and we're able to sustain or stop drives for them. So all those things really factored in, and the trenches was a big part of that.”

Returning Home:

“We just experienced an unbelievable environment, and I'm excited to experience ours, right? We've prepared all week for a real challenge of what's going to look like playing a place where you don't have that on your side. Now, at Autzen, this would be something can be an advantage for us, and something we will have on our side,” Lanning said.

“And I expect our fans to be what they always are, right, unbelievably enthused right there, from beginning to end. And anything about going into this conference and going around to games, you realize there's a lot of really hard environments to play in this conference. I hope the odds always the hardest, right? That's what we want to create when we're here.”