WATCH: Dan Lanning Recaps First Practice of Oregon Spring Football
The Oregon Ducks returned to the practice fields at the Hatfield-Dowlin football facility Thursday morning in Eugene--marking the start of spring football and the second year in Dan Lanning's tenure as head coach.
There's plenty of excitement around the program after wrapping up the annual Pro Day on Tuesday, as players and coaches alike look to continue pushing the envelope and build on a 10-win season in 2022.
Head Coach Dan Lanning met with the media following Thursday's practice and provided a number of important updates.
We've transcribed a few of the notable quotes below and attached a link to the latest press conference.
Opening statement: "Really good day one. I haven't been around a lot of spring practices that weren't good day one. Everybody has juice and energy. Lot of enthusiasm. Thought the practice was well organized, guys were running to the right locations and with a lot of new bodies you hope that's the expectation. Guys playing hard but we don't really have pads on either. So it's not real football yet in my mind. But guys are definitely trending in the right direction, see some new guys stepping up to be leaders which is a positive. Really excited about the direction we're headed."
Question: Given the number of new faces is that even more important to get as many reps as possible?
Lanning: "Yeah it's extremely critical. Every rep is a game rep. It doesn't matter if it's a walkthrough rep, it's a game rep. It's an opportunity to learn, make mistakes, learn from somebody else's mistakes. We're going to get as many reps as we can for newcomers and everyone else."
Question: You had some churn on the analyst roster, you add Mike Cavanaugh, Brian Michalowksi and Antonio Parks--what do those three add to the staff?
Lanning: "You talk about a guy like Mike Cavanaugh and his experience in this league, really his experience overall as a coach--that's invaluable to us. Our chemistry right now as a staff is really important. Brian's obviously a guy that I've worked with in a lot of different stops. This is our fourth stop together. I'm very familiar with him and the way he operates, understands it. Antonio I think is an up-and-coming riser that Will obviously had a lot of familiarity with. He's gonna be able to come here and add a lot of pieces really to our organization with his energy and enthusiasm and his relationship to just finishing up as a player."
Question: When you're breaking down practice film from today, 26 newcomers, what are the things that you're looking at first in assessing their progress?
Lanning: "Are we playing fast? Do they understand what we're trying to accomplish? Cause I think you want to see what guys can play football. We're not out here trying to out-scheme each other right now. It's about seeing who can play football. What we're trying to assess right now is who's a good football player, do we have them in the right position?"
Question: How important is it to get recruits out here to see you guys outside of a game situation?
Lanning: "Our best pitch in recruiting is when people come and watch that practice and they see the way we work. They see how we develop talent and they see how much our guys enjoy practice. It's really important for us to take advantage of this beautiful place. Get people here where they can experience it firsthand and see it for themselves."
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