Torres' Take: Oregon Hires Dan Lanning as Next Head Football Coach
Oregon Football has its new head coach. Georgia's Dan Lanning will take over the Ducks program after coaching the Bulldogs in this year's College Football Playoff.
Now the big question: what do we make of this hire? I'm not going to tell you how to feel, but rather share my thoughts on it.
Let's start off by being very honest with ourselves. This coaching search could not have come at a worse time for Oregon. Fresh off of two absolutely embarrassing losses at the hands of Utah, the coach who had built up the program and taken it to new heights, I'm talking beating Ohio State IN the Shoe without some of the team's best players, bolted to take the head coaching job at Miami.
That happened on Monday, and the whole week some fans were left feeling like this was Willie Taggart 2.0 as far as his departure from Eugene. Not only was the timing poor because there's still a bowl game to play, but the early signing period was looming in just over a week and the 2022 recruiting was imploding by the minute.
Oh and on top of that, all the big-name coaches had already taken new jobs or signed contract extensions at their respective schools. For the most part.
Names like former head coach Chip Kelly, former Duck Justin Wilcox and BYU's Kalani Sitake emerged as candidates, but didn't really move the needle for many Duck fans. Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and even Jaguars' Head Coach Urban Meyer seemed to pick up steam late in the search as well.
But the Ducks sat back, looked at their options, and went with a proven winner. They went with someone who's coached the best defense in the country the likes of which will go down in the history books. They went with a coach that helped produce this year's Outland Trophy Award and Chuck Bednarik Award winner, Jordan Davis, as well as the Dick Butkus Award winner, Nakobe Dean.
Does that mean Oregon's defense is going to be in 2022 what Georgia's is this year?
That's a stretch, but they got a guy who's "made of the right stuff" as the saying goes. Not only is Lanning an elite X's and O's guy, but man can he recruit.
Mario Cristobal had clear faults as an on-field coach during his time in Eugene. That we can all agree on. But he significantly raised the floor of the program by bringing in top-tier talent the program only sniffed during the Taggart era before many ultimately landing elsewhere. Lanning is a great blend of on-field smarts and has a reputation as a ferocious recruiter. Nearly all of the best teams have top-notch recruiting. If you want to win you need to recruit, and you can't have afford to have an off year.
You don't rebuild, you reload. And Lanning has been a central pillar of Georgia's reloading year after year to stay in contention for the SEC crown and a spot in the playoffs.
Further strengthening the case for Lanning as a strong hire is that he spent time on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama prior to coaching in Athens.
Does coaching at Alabama automatically make you a great coach? No, there are different situations at different stops that can be both easier and more difficult to succeed in. However, it's clear the program being run in Tuscaloosa is the gold standard of college football and Lanning was a part of a program that consistently breeds success whether you're talking about players or coaches.
Lanning's previous stops give Oregon recruiting ties into the Southeast that looked like they faded into dust after Cristobal's departure, the importance of which can't be overstated. He also gives the Ducks some ties into his home state of Missouri, which is underrated as a producer of college football talent.
Now is there reason to be skeptical of Oregon's newest hire? Sure.
Lanning is a young guy at just 35, and this is his first head coaching job. There aren't a ton of young head coaches in this sport, so there's that.
Furthermore, who he hires as an offensive coordinator will have a huge stake in the success of his team. There's a ton of talent on this offense that was underutilized this season and bringing in a new person to manage it will be pivotal into sharpening the on-field product.
As for some of the other names that were involved in the search, Wilcox and Kelly haven't won at the game's highest level. If you go with Kelly, who knows if he can capture lightning in a bottle twice?
Given this year's roster, the Ducks are positioned to compete for the college football playoff now and getting Lanning is someone who's been a part of championship programs. His recruiting background also gives me more confidence he'll keep the roster stacked with elite talent during his time in Eugene.
Also, USC's hire of Lincoln Riley will make them an extremely formidable recruiting rival as well as a team poised to be competitive in the Pac-12 for years to come. Oregon needed to counter that with a big name of their own.
Call Lanning unproven if you want, but the Ducks had to take a chance if they wanted to stay hot and I'm glad they had the guts to do it.
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