Dan Lanning addresses health of Oregon's roster

Dan Lanning assessed Oregon‘s health heading into their gigantic Pac-12 battle with the Utah Utes on Saturday.

While the Ducks leader recognizes that nobody is truly 100% healthy at this point in the season, as football is a violent sport, he believes Oregon is feeling good at the moment, as the team prepares for their stretch run.

“I think at this point in the year, there’s probably not a guy, if you walk into the locker room and ask how he’s feeling, that’s body isn’t a little banged up. That’s the way football works,” Lanning delineated, via the Oregon Football Coaches Show. “But we do a lot, for our players, from a standpoint of trying to get them back, to where they feel good, as they roll into a Saturday. Modified practices a lot, throughout a season.

“Whether it’s yoga or acupuncture or a massage, whatever we can do to help those guys get back and ready to play. But I feel like our guys are relatively healthy, considering.”

That’s good news for Oregon faithful, as they’re hoping the Ducks can go on a winning streak to end 2023, and rejuvenate their College Football Playoff hopes. Even with a loss on their resume, there’s a ton of hope for the Ducks.

Meanwhile, Lanning believes it’ll be a wonderful environment in Utah when the Utes and Ducks square off, as he shared that because of the job both teams have done this season, he’s preparing for a loud environment in Salt Lake City.

“I think it’ll be a great environment,” Lanning added. “You know, I know that they get loud there. I know that they love their team. So, it should be a lot of fun for us. I think that speaks you know, obviously, to the job that Utah has done this year and the job that we’ve done this year to put ourselves in that position to have GameDay there.”

This will actually be Lanning’s first time coaching on the road against Utah since getting to Oregon. However, the Ducks did play the Utes last season in Eugene, winning a close game 20-17. It’s expected to be a great game, with ESPN’s College GameDay in town for the key Pac-12 game.

Up until this point, Utah has had a phenomenal season, despite dealing with several major injuries. That ability to handle injuries is something that Dan Lanning is incredibly impressed with.

“The amount of injuries that they’ve dealt with, and for him to be able to utilize defensive personnel on offense and shuffle positions and utilize offensive linemen at tight end and I think it’s just really impressive,” Lanning stated. “You know, everyone’s always known that he’s a great coach, but the way that he’s been able and his staff has been able to utilize the people they have, you know, I know the beginning the year he spoke about the depth of his team, it’s starting to really show up. 

“He has good depth, but they’re utilizing people in different ways than they anticipated when the year started and he’s done a great job coaching that group.”

It’s going to be a battle between Oregon and Utah on Saturday, and we can’t wait to see who comes out on top.

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.