What Dan Lanning Said About Recruiting In His Introductory Presser
New Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning was introduced to the Oregon faithful Monday, and his contract was approved by the Oregon Board of Trustees Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean Lanning hasn’t already started thinking about, and even, according to James Crepea of The Oregonian, contacting recruits.
Lanning talked about both his short-term and long-term plans for recruiting. Starting with keeping the current recruiting class together now, and then his game plan for once everything is settled down and he has a staff to help him recruit for the February signing period and beyond.
“I’m looking forward to connecting with every single person associated with our recruiting class,” Lanning said. “I know there’s some really strong players in here that I’m extremely excited about and that communication has definitely already started, but looking forward to building and strengthening those relationships.
“But we can go get any player in the nation with this place, with our resources,” Lanning said. “So I’m excited for that. That’ll be our approach. If the best player is five minutes away, then we’re going to go get the best player that’s five minutes away. If the best player is 13 hours away, then we’re going to go 13 hours away to get the best player.”
Lanning may have just landed in Eugene on Sunday, but he has heard about Oregon’s brand from afar for a long time and admired it. He talked about the importance of not just recruiting the top high school prospects, but also recruiting the current players and keeping them in Eugene as well. Lanning’s vision was already shown in practice when Seven McGee announced after speaking with Lanning and Don Johnson that he wouldn’t be entering the transfer portal and would stay at Oregon. Lanning said this at his introductory presser on the recruiting vision.
“The brand of Oregon has never been stronger,” Lanning said. “We can go in any home and we can go attack and sign the best players here at the University of Oregon. That approach is not going to be a fast approach. That approach doesn’t just happen on Wednesday. It’s going to start with the players on this team currently; it starts with the guys that are here.”
The season of the transfer portal is here, with so many high-profile players in the portal up for grabs. Oregon is already above the scholarship limit for 2022, but that won’t seem to be an issue with the latest decommits and other transfers that are likely before to come next fall. Lanning will assuredly take a peek and even grab a few players from the portal to fortify a roster that is ready to win right now, competing for Pac-12 and national championships.
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