Three takeaways from Dan Lanning’s Week 10 Monday press conference

Dan Lanning met with reporters for his weekly press conference ahead of Oregon’s Nov. 4 showdown with Cal at Autzen Stadium.

The No. 6 Ducks (7-1, 4-1) are coming off a dominant Week 9 win over Utah and are generating a ton of buzz nationally as they approach the final month of the regular season.

With the thrilling victory over the Utes in the books, here are three takeaways from Lanning’s Monday presser.

Upon further review, Oregon’s defensive showing against Utah was outstanding

For as long as Lanning has been in Eugene, I’m not sure if he’s spoken as glowingly about any Oregon performance as he did about what the Ducks’ defense accomplished against the Utes.

“We’ve played our best football to date this last week,” he said.

Lanning praised the consistency with which the Ducks tackled against Utah and the physicality that they displayed on the defensive side of the ball. He also praised his team’s resiliency and the ability of Oregon’s players to bounce back from adverse moments.

To nobody’s surprise, though, he was also quick to point out that there is still plenty that needs improving.

“We want to play our best football at the end of the season. … and we have to play better going forward,” Lanning said. So, if we continue to grow, I think that just shows what we’re capable of. We watched the film and said, ‘Wow, we could have played a lot better.’ So that’s certainly a positive moving forward.”

No injury updates — and that’s a good thing

Throughout Lanning’s 16-minute press conference, he was not asked a single question about the injury or health status of an individual player.

That’s because, quite frankly, there is nothing to ask about.

Running back Noah Whittington and kicker Andrew Boyle are out with long-term injuries. Safety Bryan Addison is away from the team for personal reasons. Linebacker Devon Jackson and defensive back Khamari Terrell were not spotted with the team in Salt Lake City, but that could simply be because the coaching staff had to make some tough choices when it came time to decide the travel roster.

Long story short: Oregon is as healthy as any college football team can reasonably hope to be at this point in the season.

Lanning was asked about the role the program’s medical and strength staff has played in keeping the Ducks healthy this season. He gave a really insightful answer.

“They do a phenomenal job. (Associate director of athletic medicine Kevin Steil) and his staff, we have a meeting every single day to give an update of where we’re at. I think what we do in sports science here is really special. I think we’re able to prevent a lot of injuries because before we get to an injury. We realize that a player’s player load is high or his hamstring strength isn’t where it needs to be and we’re able to pull off of them. Modify practice to make sure that they’re able to see the field, where I think a lot of places in the country don’t necessarily have that technology or the ability to use that. I think our strength coach is unbelievable. Coach (Wilson Love) and his staff do a phenomenal job of connecting with our players and making sure they get the needs that they need to be able to go out there and execute.

“A couple of things that we’ve changed on game day — we do a primer lift with our players. We didn’t do that in the past. That’s been something that’s really good for us to activate their body, get them ready for battle, and they’ve done a good job of that.”

More Bo Nix praise

Lanning was effusive in his praise of Bo Nix in the moments following Oregon’s big win in Salt Lake.

“I’m going to say it again: Bo Nix is the best quarterback in the nation. Just to be really clear,” Lanning said on Saturday. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.”

On Monday, when asked specifically about Nix’s dazzling red zone touchdown pass to Troy Franklin and the checks he made pre-snap to set up the score.

 “I’ve never been around a quarterback like Bo that understands what we’re trying to accomplish so well,” Lanning said. “And there are times that we’re there as a coaching staff on the sidelines saying, ‘Okay, wait, wait, what did he check into? Oh, all right. Good, that works.’ He gets it right a lot more often than not. And that was a look that we had worked a lot because it’s a tough pressure to deal with. And we felt like we had a really good answer if we saw it. I thought our coaching staff and the players on the field had a really clear indication of exactly what we wanted to accomplish if we saw that look.

“Bo did a great job of getting us in that play and our players did a really good job of executing. That happens every single week. Not every time it ends in a touchdown, right? But that happens every single week for us where he gets us into a play or our offensive staff identifies something that can get us into a play that we think is going to be successful and that’s just one example of it.”

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