Oregon Ducks' Dan Lanning Addresses Why Jurrion Dickey Is Suspended

EUGENE - The third week of fall camp has marked a chaotic news week for Oregon Ducks football. Between rumors of wide receiver Jurrion Dickey getting suspended and an injury to defensive back Trey McNutt, Oregon coach Dan Lanning had plenty to address during his recent media session

What Lanning Said During Week 3 Of Fall Camp:

Oregon Ducks Dan Lanning Jurrion Dickey Trey McNutt Iapani Laloulu Bryce Boettcher Dillon Thieneman Fall Camp Injury — Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning meets with media for the first time since the announcement that the University of Oregon is moving to the Big 10 in 2024. | Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Opening Statement:

“Good, competitive practice. We had some game on the line periods, working some situations, worked some red zone. Really proud to see the offense really bounce back so far this week. After the scrimmage, like I told you, defense really won that scrimmage, but offense has had a really good week so far this week. A lot of competitive spirit, a lot of player leadership. That's something we've been wanting to see show up and showing up today and the last few days. So we continue to push that trend.”

On Jurrion Dickey’s Status:

“I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it, but Jurrion's indefinitely suspended with us right now. Got two team rules, and that's be respectful, be on time. There's some pieces of that, that where I felt like he needed a break from us, and we needed a break from that, so we can focus on what's in front of us right now. Wishing him nothing but the best as far as success, and want to see him get back to where he can be a contributor somewhere, wherever that might be here, that might be somewhere else, but won't spend any more time on that.”

What Determines If That Situation Will Be Salvageable:

“Like I said, I won't spend any more time on that.”

How Trey McNutt Injury Impacted Team Moral:

“You never want to see a player get injured. Trey broke his leg, had surgery. He's going to be able to recover from that. It's something we think he'll be able to come back from this season sooner than later, but I don't want to put a time on that right. But Trey's handling that unbelievably, kind of a freak deal. That being said, he's working his ass off to get back. He's staying engaged in the playbook. He's preparing himself. He was having a really good fall camp. You always hate to see that happen, but it is part of football, and I think Trey's handled it really well.”

How Dillon Thieneman’s Role Has Grow With McNutt’s Injury:

“Nothing changes. When you lose a player, it's always about next man up, right? But you don't say, hey, now we got to work harder. Like, no, you should be working hard regardless of the situation. And we have a group of guys that are doing that. Luckily, we have talent on this team. And like I said, you hate that for Trey because he's worked so hard. But it’s part of football. It happens at times.”

Where Dante Moore Has Improved:

"Just confidence in the offense. Dante said that to the team today, too, about we're the guys on the field that have to execute the plays. He made a check here at the end of practice today to end up throwing a touchdown. That was an elite check. He had a little back and forth playing chess with the defense today on some different checks. So those are things that always excite me," Lanning said.

"He made a great decision to throw the ball away today in the red area and not take a sack and not put the ball in jeopardy. When it comes to ball-in-jeopardy plays, when it comes to making checks like those are things that I'm seeing from all of our quarterbacks, and certainly Dante.”

How Iapani Laloulu Has Improved:

“More than anything, you see so many things at center. You're in charge of IDing so much from a defensive perspective, what front ran, where the pressure can come from. His communication is really key to our success up front, and he's done an unbelievable job of having poise in the chaos, because there's a lot of chaos. We pitch a lot of different things at him. He's handled that really well. But there's not a look that we could put up there that (Laoulu) wouldn't have an understanding on how to handle.”

Where The Most Growth Has Occurred Since he Start Of Camp:

“There's been a lot of back and forth, really, on both sides. I'd say generally in a scrimmage or especially early in the season, you're normally going to see defense have a little bit more success. But I thought we tackled well, thought that was a big point of improvement. We've coached that really hard that's shown up. I thought some guys on our offensive line did a really good job getting movement at the point of attack. Some really good back and forth.”

Which Names Stand Out Leadership Wise:

“Just even today, we had some guys get up and talk to the team right afterwards, Kenyon (Sadiq), Bryce (Boettcher), Dante (Moore), Dillon (Thieneman). And there's several, there's several guys are doing really good job there. (Iapani Laloulu) has been a really outstanding leader for us so far.”

How Offensive Line Execution Changed:

“We had a really strong group a year ago, and I have a really, really strong group now. And I think it's always about meeting the players where they're at and those expectations. I think our offensive staff has done a good job of indicating them, the importance of cadence, the importance of spot points on runs, and even challenging ourselves as win the offseason, how we can improve it. And I think there's been some improvement there.”

How The Offense And Defense Continue To Respond Through Camp:

“I would say it was an offensive day today and the back and forth's good. What's great about our players, they want that competition. We did a live period at the very beginning of practice, and as Bryce was talking to the team, he talked about, hey, that's the part that's going to make us different, the fact that we line up fourth and one right after we get done stretching, and say, it's live, let's go," Lanning said.

"They might win the rep, they might lose the rep, but they know that that's going to make the team better. And ultimately, you saw that show up at points today.”

How Far Along Dakoda Fields Is After His Injury:

“It's always tough when you're coming back from so much time off, and it's building confidence and your ability and understanding what you're doing. Dakoda's attacked that. He's had a long road, but he's put in a lot of hard work to get there. So, there's still a road ahead of him. There's still more improvement to happen, but he's working really hard to get there.”

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Any Specifics They’re Focusing In On Before Game 1:

“I'm worried about Wednesday next, right? And we're worried about watching this practice now and Wednesday next, and there's still some pieces, for the most part, offensively and defensively, most of our stuff is installed, but we still have some stuff that we're going to put in, especially situationally, that'll show up here as we keep going.”

What’s Changed Where Coaches Now Give Quarterbacks More Wiggle Room:

“We like having the pin last right. And every defense has a strength, every offense has a strength, every defense has a weakness, every offense has a weakness. So you're not always gonna be able to see that. And as a coach, you want to be able to teach those moments to your players so they can take advantage of it, and rather than being in bad calls, let's figure out a way to get an advantageous call," Lanning said.

"The person that can do that is our quarterbacks, it's our linebackers, it's our safeties. They have to be the guys that can recognize that. So I'd rather teach them. It's like teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish. Same thought process for us when it comes to what call do we want? Call it at the end. I don't want to run into loaded boxes, that it's a bad look for our guys. I don't want to throw into cover two with a high safety. So those are things that those guys are learning and training themselves more."

"And it ultimately for us, our goal is, I'm going to play zero snaps. I've said that before, like these players are the ones that are going to play. We have to put them in position that they're going to have advantageous plays. Coach (Will) Stein talks about it a lot, but if there's 70 plays in the game, there might be 10 plays that are advantage offense, 50 plays that are 50-50, right? And then 10 plays that are advantage defense. Our goal for our quarterbacks is to take those 10 bad plays right and turn them into positives for advantage offense, and that's part of it for us, is giving that quarterback the ability to do that.”