REPORT: Dan Lanning Targeting Florida State's Kenny Dillingham as Oregon Offensive Coordinator

Lanning worked with Dillingham at Memphis for two seasons.

Author:
Nick Battey
Updated:
Dec 12, 2021 2:46 PM EST
Original:
Dec 12, 2021

After Oregon officially found their head man in Dan Lanning yesterday, there are already reports about who might be on his staff. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Oregon is targeting Florida State OC Kenny Dillingham as the Ducks' new offensive coordinator.

There is history there between Lanning and Dillingham, as they were both on the Memphis staffs together from 2016 to 2017.

Dillingham has been an understudy of Florida State Head Coach Mike Norvell for a while, as he was on his staff at Memphis from 2016-18, including the team's offensive coordinator in 2018. He then left to become the offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2019, where he helped develop then true Freshman Bo Nix and beat Oregon in week one of that season in a last-second thriller. After one season at Auburn he reunited with Norvell at Florida State, where he's served as the offensive coordinator for the last two seasons.

Dillingham has West Coast ties. He was born in Phoenix, Ariz. and went to school at Arizona State. He never played college football because of an ACL tear in high school, which oddly enough helped him get into coaching at a young age. Dillingham is only 31 years old, even younger that Lanning, who is 35.

In his last two seasons at Florida State as offensive coordinator, the Seminoles have been middle of the pack in the ACC in most offensive categories even though they’ve been preforming with multiple quarterbacks and have had a severe lack of talent in Tallahassee for a few seasons. On the recruiting trail, Dillingham is ranked No. 56 nationally on the 247 sports coach recruiting rankings, good for 10th-best in the ACC.

This offensive coordinator hire is clearly important to nail, as Oregon’s roster is ready to win now and a miss in scheme or development could be something that haunts this program for years to come. With three freshman quarterbacks needing development and hopefully ready to start next year, the OC needs to be able to develop young quarterbacks and have a scheme ready to let them succeed.

This seems to me like a hire that Lanning wanted due to his familiarity with Dillingham and knowing what he’s going to get from him, likely due to his limited coaching tree at such a young age. Dillingham’s stats as a coordinator are a little underwhelming for my taste. While lack of talent is definitely a contributing factor to his numbers, a more experienced hire with more of a track record would be preferred for me. But Lanning knows Dillingham more than most and he clearly sees something in the 31 year old to target him and bring him to Eugene.

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