Everything head coach Dan Lanning said after the Oregon Ducks Spring Game

USA Today

26-04-2025

Everything head coach Dan Lanning said after the Oregon Ducks Spring Game
The Oregon Ducks took the field at Autzen Stadium on Saturday afternoon for their annual spring game, giving the new-look roster in Eugene a chance to showcase what they can do in front of a packed Autzen Stadium.
For the most part, it was an entertaining afternoon of football, with the defense looking like the far dominant unit throughout the day, forcing a couple of turnovers and getting after the quarterbacks. Both teams combined for a total of 11 sacks on the day, with a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a game-ending interception.
After the game, head coach Dan Lanning met with media members to discuss the day's work and give some insight into how some of his players performed. He talked about the quarterbacks, the play of the offensive and defensive line, and what he saw from a number of the young players on the roster. Here is everything that he had to say on Saturday after the spring game:
Opening Statement
Dan Lanning: Awesome day to be a Duck man. Just a lot of fun to experience the atmosphere that this place creates big win by softball every day. About to have an awesome baseball game here in a second. And our crowd was absolutely unbelievable, right? They always show up and show out. Really proud of that. A lot to clean up, right? Film wise, right? I know you guys will over-critique it, right? You won't critique it harder than us. That's okay, right? A lot of positives, but certainly some stuff for us to improve. That's why they call it a spring game.
Quarterbacks
Question: What was your assessment of the quarterbacks?
DL: Yeah, some, some good, some bad. It's kind of the same answer you'll get from me a lot. There was some, some really positive plays. Thought we kind of funk it a little bit in the middle. Started off a little bit hot, operated well in some situations, and then some, you know, we could have certainly could have been better.
Defense vs offensive line
Q: The defense was dominate vs the offensive line today. Has it been that way all through practices or was that a today type of thing?
DL: You know, I wouldn't say that. No, there's been some really good back and forth throughout the spring. Nice shot, though.
Dillon Gresham
Q: How does Dillon Gresham factor into the receiver rotation?
DL: Yeah, I would say that Dillon is probably one of our most improved players from this past season to what he's done now, he's continued to make big plays on the field and, you know, done a really good job for us. He showed up today. I think we all saw what he's capable of today
Kenyon Sadiq
Q: What's it like to have Kenyon live up to the hype?
DL: Well, I've seen it every, every day that he's been here, right? It's a guy that's constantly improved. It's worked really, really hard, you know, embraced whatever role he's wearing for the team, and been able to help us since the day he got here. So, you know, I think you saw Kenyan, what we get to see every single day in practice.
More Gresham
Q: Where has Dillon improved and was hat indicative of the spring game?
DL: Yeah, probably, probably biggest piece, knowing, knowing his job, and then, you know, being able to count him when the ball is coming in his direction, to come down with it. I thought he made some contested catches today. Made some great plays on the ball. He's become much better as a returner, and that's just with reps and consistency. But I think you'd be the first one to tell you, Hey, I got even more room to grow. I got more to even improve.
NFL draft
Q: With the success of Ducks in the draft, how do you build upon this success with the recruits?
DL: Yeah, proofs in the pudding, right? I mean, you just look at it, you're setting program record for guys being able to draft it to get get drafted in the NFL this year. You know, every year our draft picks have gone up since we've been here, and that's really credit to those players that have worked extremely hard get an opportunity to live out their dream. Really excited for them and really grateful for everything they did for Oregon.
Luke Moga
Q: What kind of progress did Luke make this spring?
DL: Yeah, and I think, you know, every quarterback has a different skill set, you know, and Luke's always been really athletic player, but I think what's where he's really come on this year is throwing on time, taking what's there, becoming a complete quarterback from that standpoint. But you know, he had some really good moments this spring, and certainly some good moments today.
Blake Purchase
Q: What makes Blake Purchase so dynamic?
DL: Yeah, like another one that I would say, you know, great improvements this, this off season, he's worked really hard. He's changed his body. He's become really comfortable in the system, as far as what his job is and his responsibilities. You know, he's a complete outside linebacker right now for us, and if he continues to take that same growth this summer, he's gonna be a big impact player for us.
Young secondary
Q: What was it like to see your young secondary perform inside Autzen?
DL: Yeah, I think it's a great environment for them, right? Anybody not like I said, not everybody in the nation gets to play in an environment like that for a spring game. So for them to get some opportunities, there's gonna be some stuff that we can learn from to go against, you know, some really good wide outs each day we talk about iron sharpens iron, you know, I think we have to see some of that.
Things to address with young defense
Q: What kind of things did you want to address with your young defense in the off season and in the spring?
DL: Yeah, I mean, one, it's a completely different group, right? So I think there's a lot of new experience that's there. So I think you got to start with saying, okay, what can we operate and what can we execute? It's not going to be the same as last season, and even the season before that. Our our number one call on defense, was different than it was this past year, so we'll adapt that to fit our personnel. Biggest thing I want to see is guys out there communicating. I think we could have tackled much better than we did today. But when you don't go live tackling every day in spring, you're going to see some of that. As we get closer to fall camp, I think you'll see that improve, and they're going to get some really good play makers on the other side of the ball. But ultimately, we have to be a team that can stop the run, take the ball away. You saw a solid takeaway today, show up and make a big play, you know, actually a couple takeaways, you know, in today's game. But ultimately, assessing this group as an individual group has nothing really to do with last season, right? And there's areas of growth, and there's a lot of stuff that we put in and done differently that we didn't show you today, right? It's not, we're not trying to win when the scrimmage right, we're out there trying to see our guys play football.
Jerry Mixon
Q: Jerry Mixon played more snaps today than he ever has. What's your assessment of him and in the linebackers as a whole?
DL: I feel really good about our linebacker group, like the guys we have. Jerry's a guy that's worked extremely hard, done an unbelievable job, and continues to improve, and when he keeps that his focus, he's really going to be a guy that can help us. But there's a lot of guys in that room that I think can play winning football, and it's just it comes with experience.
More linebackers
Q: How do you see the linebackers shaking out when it's all said and done?
DL: When you talk about really our pillars on defense, we start with relentless efforts. You gotta have guys that run sideline to sideline. You know, linebackers, important job is getting everybody else lined up, and that's where lined up, and that's a really big piece of it. You saw Jeff go to the Chiefs today. That's a big piece of that. He was a great communicator, right? So these guys can grow from a communication standpoint, but when they have relentless effort, when they attack the ball, when they play for the guy next phone, those are gonna be separating factors.
Progressing as a team
Q: How do you see all the young guys as a team progressing from last year?
DL: Yeah, excited about the entire group. I mean, this program is about growth, right? And you never know exactly what your opportunity will look like and when that will necessarily come, but you want to be ready for that opportunity. And I think we've seen a lot of guys take big steps, you know, this off season, but I'm watching the same thing you guys watch. There's a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the ball. So you see a big play, you get really excited about the offense, but then you worry about the defense, right? You see the sack, you get really excited about the defense and then worried about the offense. That's the way these things are supposed to go, right? But ultimately, overall, I feel like we have a group that attack every day really strove them to improve. What can't happen now is a stop and wait till fall camp to keep improving.
What's next?
Q: How do you attack the next couple months?
DL: Yeah, a lot of pieces, right? Our coaches will be going on the road in May for recruiting. We'll do some exit meetings with our players so we can identify new growth areas for us post spring. What are the things that we need to attack to improve on, you know, continue to develop and get those guys strong in the weight room, and take advantage of that and really attack the classroom as well. So a lot of things going on. We're coming into the summer window, where we'll have, you know, camps where we can go evaluate guys as well. But a lot of things.
Special teams
Q: How would you rate the special teams?
DL: That was pretty awesome to see you, right? You know, Gage hit some big kicks overall special teams, there were some positives. There were some real negatives there too. So, you know, you asked about linebacker, maybe punter, if there's a punter out there available, right? We've been more consistent. They didn't show up today. That was some of the poor kicks that I've seen here. On the same note, seeing us hit some big field was like that. I don't know what the distances were exactly. It was like, 47, 52, 54 Okay, so big, big kicks, you know, from, from those guys, and that was great to see. I was gonna actually ask you about Gage. I'm curious if that's we've seen that consistency from that distance. And kind of obviously Atticus is kind of the standard here. But is there a competition, kind of ongoing? There's a competition in every position, right? And Atticus has been a really good force and done a good job, but Gage is a guy that we are really excited for in the future. He's done a really good job. We've always felt like he was going to be a really good player, and certainly, you know, stepping up in those moments today, we're big pieces of that fourth year on the right, and we have one more.
No portal quarterback
Q: Why didn't you pursue a quarterback in the portal?
DL: Because I like who we have on our roster. Yeah, I like the guys who we got right and, you know, that's always been something you want to create competition in every position we've we've utilized the portal at times when we felt like that helped us and enhanced and enhanced us. Had an opportunity to go have success. There's also sometimes the portal, it's not all under your control. If there's if you're lower in a certain roster spot, you need to go add guys to make sure that you can go out there and practice. Roster limits have changed some of those things. There's been some other adjustments, and we'll see how those rules continue to change and shape. But ultimately, I feel good about the guys we have at that position.
Receivers room
Q: How has the young receivers room taken shape?
DL: Yeah, I mean, I think every one of those guys is growing and really excited about what what June had done here in the past, and really excited about what Ross has added to that. You know, we have a talented group. There's a lot of opportunities sitting there for guys to go out make plays. And I think I saw some of those guys making plays that haven't necessarily had those opportunities yet today. You know, Dillon was one that you guys mentioned earlier. Saw some big catches from Kyler, some some catches from J Max so there's a lot of guys that were out there, you know, making an impact you know we have young guys and more veteran guys really across the board, but I feel really good about that room.