Chip Towers responds to those that shot down his Dan Lanning to Oregon report

Many in the college football world had their speculations on who would be the next head coach for the Oregon Ducks.

However, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chip Towers broke the story Friday. The article was scoffed at by some but did turn out to be 100% true.

On the Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, Towers took a brief victory lap and explained how he was ahead of everybody else on the Ducks hire.

“You know the problem was they didn’t have the information that I had,” Towers said. “And there was, I’ll just say there was a lot of spinning going on. There was timing issues you know. Oregon and or Georgia didn’t want that information out there on the Friday. I think they would have been fine with it coming out a little bit later.

“There were still some machinations going on but at the end of the day I can’t control what everybody else is doing.”

Lanning will be in Eugene for just a few more days before he returns to Georgia to help the Bulldogs prepare for the College Football Playoff. But even while he is back in Athens, Lanning will be working to hire a staff of assistants in order to hit the ground running once he returns to Eugene.

Towers was the first to call it

Oregon formally introduced Lanning at a press conference Monday. The move had been rumored in recent days, as Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Friday that Lanning would be heading to Eugene. On Saturday, several sources, including On3’s Matt Zenitz, confirmed the news.

“I hope people recognize, I mean in the business of journalism if you’re using sources, you have to trust your sources,” Towers said. “And in my case, I mean this is this is not to dispel anybody else or to say anything else about anybody, but I mean the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I can’t be wrong. I mean it’s not it’s not like I’m in a chat room saying ‘this is what we’re hearing you know.’ The fundamental cornerstone of journalism is truth. So once you know something to be true then you’re OK with it; that’s kind of what I had to do.

“Now listen, we’ve all seen crazy things in college coaching searches or pro coaching searches. Sometimes it’s not even worth of an actual contract. You remember what happened at Tennessee with Greg Schiano, so you never can tell. Some times things can blow back in your face, but you know at the end of the day, the truth has to be your barometer and that’s what I was doing.”

Lanning has been Georgia’s defensive coordinator since 2019 after a year as the outside linebackers coach. The Missouri native also brings national championship experience with him to Oregon, as he served as a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2015. That year, the Crimson Tide defeated Clemson 45-40 in the national title game. From Tuscaloosa, Lanning went to Memphis for two years before landing at Georgia.

Lanning will remain coaching the Bulldogs for the College Football Playoff before permanently heading to Oregon.