Oregon Ducks' Dan Lanning Is Passionate About Transfer Portal Change

EUGENE – The No. 4 Oregon Ducks prepare to travel across the country and play in an opposing stadium for the first time in the 2025 season. The Ducks jumped into the top-5 of the AP Poll Top 25 Rankings after their largest margin of victory over a Power 4 team - a 69-3 win over Oklahoma State.

With a perfect Big Ten record on the line, the Ducks hope to continue their dominant start to the season against the Northwestern Wildcats. As Oregon gets ready to hit the road, Dan Lanning addressed the media about transfer portal changes and gave his coaching staff their flowers.

What Lanning Said

His Thoughts On The One Window Transfer Portal:

dan lanning oregon ducks northwestern dante moore dakorien moore rankings injury transfer recruiting big ten schedule — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning walks the field as the Oregon Ducks host the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Sept. 6, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“I support one window, more than anything. Again, I've always been a big advocate of the season should end January 1st. Right, so the season ends January 1st, and then you're able to figure out who your team is in January. I think that's ideal. I don't think it's ever ideal to have a portal while the season's still being played, but ultimately, I think it's better to have one window and not have a spring window.”

If The Offense Hit The Standard He Wanted Them To In The First Two Games:

“No, I think there’s still higher level for us. We have six offensive penalties on Saturday, so that's, that's something we certainly can't do. We've protected the ball well, you know, I like that piece of our decision making, and we've been able to run the ball, which is really important,” Lanning said.

“You know, we've, like I said, we've blocked and played with great effort, but we have to clean up some of the details when it comes to penalties and execution there.”

How Offensive Linemen Coach A’lique Terry Adds To The Staff:

“Starts with connection. Coach Terry’s got an unbelievable relationship with players on our team beyond just the o-line. And those guys have a true brotherhood in that room. They’re really connected. They want to see each other do great,” Lanning said.

“He’s a great teacher. He is able to make concepts simple for the players and put them in position to execute and then he has high expectations. When you tie all those things together, I think you get a great result.”

How Ra’Shaad Samples Handled The Running Back Room:

“I think he's done a good job. You know, when that happens, when you have a room like that that's that deep, there's going to be some reps on the field, and maybe you haven't got as many reps in practice,” Lanning said.

“You gotta get a mental rep. You've had to be prepped. We ask our running backs to do a lot of the same things our wideouts are doing, so they have to know multiple positions. It takes a lot of good coaching and a lot of good planning.”

What His Routine Is On Long Trips:

“Yeah, have a book. Read a little bit of a book. Do a little bit of film review. Look at some scripts for walk-through some game day prep, like, as far as coaches meeting, what that looks like, you know, decisions that are usually getting made on Thursday night anyway, just not necessarily on a plane.”

What He Likes About The Deep Shot To Wide Receiver Malik Benson:

“The speed’s pretty good, right? You know, we also track our GPS for kickoff, you know, throughout the game, and the first week we had one guy over 20 miles per hour on kickoff, which is not our standard, but I think this past week, we had six or seven, right, so we ran faster. This week, this past week on the field, and that's what we have to be able to do, but there's a lot of things that Malik can do beyond just shots.”

What’s Impressed Him About Will Stein’s Approach To New Quarterbacks:

“Consistency in preparation. I think the preparation’s been really consistent, and then understanding, like, what do these guys feel really comfortable doing and operating. Every quarterback’s gonna have different passes, different runs that they feel, like, okay, this is something I understand really well, but we have to make sure our players have great understanding before they go out there on the field,” Lanning said.

“And I feel like the last two game plans we’ve been really in sync, really on the same page of, all right, what are we trying to accomplish? What do we want to check here? What do we like versus this look? What do we like versus this look? What should we anticipate from the defense in these situations, and that preparation has been huge with Will, with the entire offensive staff. And what they’ve done with our QBs.”

On Bringing The ‘Juice’ To Northwestern:

“More than anything, our crowd’s been a huge impact on our first two games, right? I don’t know how many penalties Oklahoma State had that our crowd induced but there were several of them,” Lanning said.

“This will be different in that environment that we’re not gonna get that necessarily. I think we’ll have a turnout of this crowd, but it won’t be quite the same. So, for me, it’s about how do we travel when we go on the road business trip and what does that look like.”

PREVIEW

dan lanning oregon ducks northwestern wildcats emmanuel pregnon big ten ify obigegwu defensive back offensive lineman — Oct 26, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning greets fans before a game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Opening Big Ten Action

The Ducks come off a dominant 2-0 start to the season. They’ll kick off Big Ten play on the road against the Northwestern Wildcats.

Oregon went undefeated in its first season in the conference a year, but this will be its first time facing Northwestern as members of the Big Ten. The Ducks and Wildcats previously met one time back in 1974. Oregon won that game 14-10 in Illinois.

Northwestern began the season 1-1 after going 4-8 overall in 2024. Despite outscoring their first two opponents 128-16, the Ducks will look to not underestimate the Wildcats.

“We're focused on us. Don't pay attention to the outside noise,” Lanning said on Monday when asked how he makes sure they don’t overlook Northwestern. “It wasn't around in the summer. If it shows up now, it doesn't mean anything now.”

A victory would mean a 10-0 start against Big Ten as members of the conference. The Ducks would also return home 3-0 with a rivalry game against the Oregon State Beavers next on the schedule.

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Early Kickoff

Oregon and Northwestern are set to kick off their matchup at 11 a.m. local time, which is 9 a.m. in Eugene.

“They've been telling us it's going to be 9 a.m. our time,” defensive back Ify Obidegwu said. “We got to get the rest. Go to sleep early now, waking up early. Today we woke up, the whole DB corps woke up at 5 a.m. We got here at 5 a.m. so we all woke up around 4 a.m. That's the time we going to be waking up anyway when that day comes so we're mentally preparing ourselves throughout the week."

The Ducks typically move through a morning practice schedule anyway, so Lanning didn’t seem to be too concerned with the start time.

“Our bodies are used to it, right? It's something that we can do this little bit different, and we're looking forward to that opportunity,” Lanning said on Monday.

The early start time is another challenge the program will have to overcome in week 3. Not only is it Oregon’s first road game and first trip to Evanston, Illinois, in quite some time, but a temporary location for the Wildcats means the Ducks will play in a much smaller stadium than they’re used to.

Oregon has its sights set on starting quick. Putting the game out of reach early hasn’t been a problem for the Ducks. Against Oklahoma State, Oregon scored two touchdowns on three plays.

"As far as the mentality you're coming with you want to think start fast so you can build now,” offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon said. “That's how I'm thinking about preparing for such an early game like that. So, when I come out on Saturday at 9 a.m. I'm punching somebody in the mouth right from the jump.”